Cooking the NYTimes and Other Assorted Retirement Activities

A question a la Sex and the City... If perception is reality, and your perception doesn't match the rest of the world's perception, then whose perception is reality? Here's how I perceive myself: Kim Basinger, 1998 Academy Awards I thought she looked stunning in that gown and have asked my children to use this photo next to my obituary. Given what transpired this afternoon, this image is probably much closer to reality: Found after Googling old decrepit woman Because at the liquor store, someone who looked like this: Found after Googling tattooed woman Kindly (giving her the benefit of the doubt) said she would call for a carryout, after packing the wine I purchased into a carton.  I replied, "No, thanks, I'll carry it myself" and then she shot me: THE LOOK. Found after Googling expression of disbelief I mean, it was blatant.  You are too old to be carrying twelve bottles of wine, old woman!  screeched THE LOOK. Na...

Today is the Feast of the Epiphany, which for the Christian calendar closes the Christmas season. Not everyone closes their season on this date.  Many shut 'er down right after the 25th.  Christmas trees have been sitting at the end of driveways, awaiting garbage collection, for over a week.  Slowly you notice the dimming of the holiday lights, always a source of sadness for me in this gloomy darkness of what has been a grey, slushy, muddy, brown winter.  The stores turned everything over on the 26th and now the pinks, reds and whites of Valentine's Day brighten the aisles. Being the fan of the Christmas season that I am, I start early--mid-November this year--and will begin the dismantling today.  Tomorrow I will pull the plugs on the outdoor lights.  We will bring the fake deer gracing the front lawn into the storage shed.  The planters will remain until the medium holding the decor in place melts, probably late March.  The Christmas dishes ...