What's Up With That? - Gray Hair

Miss Wisabus was talking about gray hair on her blog the other day, and it reminded me that this is a subject I wanted to write about.  Do men have a different way of thinking that causes them to point out gray hair on women?  It puzzles me.

Never has a woman been standing there talking to me and suddenly said, You're getting a little gray there.  Are you planning on letting that haircolor grow out or what? 

Nope.  Never. 

Men, on the other hand, seem to hold nothing back.  They come outright with it....  Wow!  You're really gray for your age.  Do you plan on covering that up? 

And it's at that moment I want to run to the nearest Walgreens and pick up a box of Clairol Nice 'n Easy because clearly I've neglected my roots for WAY too long.

Seriously.  I have had at least four men make mention of my gray, and one of them I only saw for about 60 seconds in a store one day after not having seen him for years.  I couldn't understand why THAT was the thing he wanted to say to me.  I don't know about you, but I want a man to point out my gray hair about as much as I'd like for him to ask me how much I weigh.  Can you say, Awk-ward?

What's up with that?

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What's Up With That? - Advertising

The other night we were watching TV, and a commercial grabbed my attention.  This is a normal occurrence in our home.  I see a commercial, and then I proceed to chatter about how I don't get it or it's lame or what was that company thinkin'?

In this particular commercial there was a polar bear, and he looked cute and cuddly.  Now in actuality you know polar bears aren't cute and cuddly. They're BEARS, for Pete's sake.  I think he was meant to look cute and cuddly, though, to tug at your heart strings.

He (the bear) proceeded to swim an ocean, walk through the woods, wander down a highway... (and at this point I started to wonder, What's this all about?  Some sort of global warming message?)

Oh, am I onto these "green" people or what?

The bear eventually ends up in suburbia, and proceeds to walk up to a man standing in his driveway next to his new 2010 Nissan Leaf and gives him a big hug for saving his habitat from global warming with the purchase of his electric vehicle.  (And aforementioned vehicle only has an MSRP of $32,780, which every American could surely afford.)

Puh-leeeeease.  Stop with the propaganda, people.  Your heartfelt commercial with the sweet, huggy polar bear doesn't convince me.  I'm not buying an electric car.

What's up with that?!?

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What's Up With That? - Irony

I'm starting to wonder if the Lord is trying to teach me something, or else I just can't explain something so fluke-like happening twice in a week.  Do you remember last week when I showed you the damage that the post office had done to my book?  It happened again.  I am not kidding. 

I ordered a study book for someone from the Amazon marketplace a couple weeks ago.  I was anticipating receiving it any day, and it was with the mail this morning.  I didn't know exactly what to expect because it is a used book, although the seller stated it was in very good condition with minimal underlining and shelf wear.

That's not quite what it looked like when I removed it from the package.  The cover had been folded in several places.  It was peeling in spots.  There were pages totally folded up inside.  I was so disappointed, and all I could think was, "How am I going to give this to my friend?  It looks beat up."

The interesting part of all this is that I didn't realize the damage had been done by the post office.  I just thought I had gotten a bum deal from the marketplace seller.  But then I noticed a small slip of paper in the bottom of the package and pulled it out.  After that, I realized that the label on the mailer had the United States Postal Service as the return address, and it had been stamped DAMAGED IN HANDLING IN THE POSTAL SERVICE.  That's when it all became clear.

It began... We regret the damage to your mail that occurred during handling....  What?!?  No, this just can't be.  I laughed out loud at the irony of my love for pristine books and the adversity the post office has cruelly set upon me with its careless ways.

Oh, but my favorite part of the note -- and mind you, this is a generic printed note for such incidents -- says this,

We are constantly... striving to improve our processing methods to the extent that even a rare occurrence such as this one can be eliminated.

C'mon.  You know you're laughing with me now.  Rare occurrence?  Twice in a week for me is not considered rare.

So I'm asking the question again... What's up with that?

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What's Up With That? - 2nd Ed.

I told you last week I have plenty of topics to create a series called What's Up With That?, in which I share things that leave me puzzled, questioning, and sometimes downright annoyed.  And thus I offer you another installment today.

I was sitting home on Labor Day evening, typing up a blog.  It was about 9:00 and next thing ya know, I hear fireworks.  Big, booming fireworks down the street.

Um, hello?  This is September 6th, not July 4th.  Have you looked at a calendar, dude? 

I know.  I'm a total downer.  I'm not even really into fireworks on the 4th, but c'mon.  Fireworks in September?  Please.

What's up with that?!?

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