I used to complain to my late wife about her being a clothes horse. Now, I find myself as much of a clothes horse as she was. Unlike my late wife, I have the assets to refresh my wardrobe much more often than she did, and can afford to do so.
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Yesterday, Vicki and I drove upstate to Flax's annual barn sale. This means that I would need to be awake 4 hours earlier than normal for a weekend day and ready by 9:00 am, so that we'd be at the barn sale by 1:00 pm. Both Vicki and I were on time for this long drive.
Given that I do not have a typical female body, I knew that I had to
wear a garment to the sale which would allow me to try on clothing, but
not strip down far enough to advertise this face. So, I chose to wear a
unitard under an airy duster. But this made it awkward for me to take
bio breaks. To deal with this, I decided to carry a change of clothes I
could wear after leaving the sale.
Neither of us had breakfast before the drive, so we stopped at a deli on the outskirts of Cold Spring for a bite to eat. This is not something unusual for me when out for a long drive. And we needed this stop, as we were feeling hungry again several hours later when we were nearing Flax's sale. At least, there was an open rest area along the way where we could both take a bio break and pick up some nuts to sate our hunger until we were done with Flax.
Arriving at Flax, we saw a small factory with a large parking area. On part of the parking lot was a tent 300' x 100' where pallets of clothing were available to be picked through in boxes 3' x 3' x 3' organized only by size. If one wanted anything, one would have to sort through the contents of each box in one's size and hope that there was something interesting in the box. At the entrance, we were greeted by several friendly people, and as usual, Vicki chatted them up a little before going into the tent where Flax's garments were for sale. Once inside the tent, it was calm, but organized chaos - women were dressed in clothing which allowed them to try on other clothes without having to strip. I was not out of place.
Flax's staff was both friendly and helpful. One of the ladies I met mentioned that her mother worked there, and that she didn't know how good a value these sales were. Another lady offered to help me find some dresses in these boxes, and found 4 which I ended up buying. Vicki also got help and found several garments she could wear in her new size. (She has lost 1/3 of her weight on her diet, and I am still not used to seeing her this thin.) By the time we paid for our merchandise and left the tent, it was close to 2:00 pm, and both of us were ready for something to eat.
Now, this is where a tickle of frustration came to me....
Vicki knows that I have traveled upstate often enough in my life to have a mental roadmap of how to get home from the NYS Thruway. Yet, she punches in her home as a destination before driving home. This is not a bad thing when we are driving from the middle of nowhere. But it is a bad thing when she is driving me home. I said that I know a nice Japanese restaurant in the Albany area that we could try. Arriving at the restaurant around 5:00 pm, we settle down and have our first real meal for the day. Both of us chose "bento box" dinners - and they were yummy! I'd certainly go back to this place if I were in the Albany area again.
Leaving the restaurant, Vicki again chose to use the GPS for directions home instead of listening to me. I drove the same route home often when I hung out with a Polyanorous group in the Albany area. So I should know the best way home. Instead, she chose to follow the machine's directions and take the long way home - but not on the thruway. (Remember, she punched the code for directions to her home, not mine.) An example of the GPS giving bad directions was in the Albany area, where it told her to take one exit, then make a U-Turn to get back on the same road. It didn't know how to tell her how to deal with several successive forks in the road. Yet, we still made decent time, switching away from heading downstate on the Taconic Parkway to using US 9 to reach my house. Even though we hit some traffic in the Poughkeepsie area, we made good time. Yet, I could tell that she was getting tired because of her decision to trust the GPS (and spend more time in her drive) than directions I could have give.
It was a 4 hour drive up to the sale, and a 5+ hour return from the sale (exclusive of dinner). Would I do it again? Maybe. But I know to insist that Vicki ignore the GPS when I have a better idea of how to get to a destination than it has....
