ECONOMICAL VS. INFERIOR

I'm cheap.

No, not that way. Geez - what were you thinking?

I am discovering that some things are simply better when they are cheap.

My mom always insisted on high quality items - clothing always had to be from the high-end stores (Robinsons, Macy's). They may have been from the sales racks, that may be true, but never from a place like K-Mart.

I don't know where she bought furniture, but I still have a couple of end tables looking good after 50+ years (and my three children).

I always figured it was because she grew up dirt poor, and even when we had extremely limited income when I was in elementary school (in particular the years my dad was writing for television), the quality-deal never altered.

Ever.

But I have a daughter who carries that same gene - if something is hers, it's pretty well-made.

So maybe, like good looks and class, it just skipped a generation.

Therefore, I have believed, for quite some time, that high-price, high-count and high-end stuff are always better.

Not.

I love cheap bath towels.

I mean, the $3, thin towels that are supposed to be the ones you pick up before the Egyptian cotton 999-million count thread $45 towels.

Because those 999-million count thread simply don't dry me as quickly as the cheap, 23-thread count ones.

And that's really all the matters to me.

Okay, how many of you now are going to disown me as a friend?

A SENIOR MOMENT

Everyone forgets things.

And if you don't forget things, you probably did forget something... and then you just forgot about it, right?

When little kids forget things, it's usually kinda cute. My granddaughter, whenever we play hide-and-go seek, immediately, each and every time, runs to the pantry door, races inside, slams the door, and hides inside with the light on.

But then again, maybe she just knows that I don't have that good of a memory and doesn't want to make it tough for me.

My oldest daughter insists that she forgets things as often as I do. Of course, neither of us can remember how often we forget things, so...

Dr. David Hogan, a professor of geriatric medicine at the University of Calgary, was quoted as saying, "To remember things, you have to focus. You have to make a conscious intent to remember... plus, because you're older you have more filing cabinets to draw from. Which might explain why sometimes information is difficult to pull out."

OMG.

I have file cabinets. In fact, I wrote about my paper disasters a couple of blogs ago, didn't I? I mean, I don't remember, but I think so. And if my memory is like the filing cabinets in my life....

Forget it.

But I did begin this subject for a reason. But what was it?

Oh, yes. Yesterday evening I had one of those 'senior moments'. In the morning, I had put all my lovely green bath towels in the washing machine. And then the dryer.

And then forgot them.

I have learned from cold hard experience to always check the toilet paper dispenser before I sit on the toilet. I always double-check that the front door is locked before I drive away from home. I carry my cell phone in my jeans pocket all day long - so I won't forget it, and even worse, if I do set it down someplace else, I can't locate it when it does ring because of my hearing loss!

So it just seems logical that one would notice, before one became completely naked and immersed oneself in a bathtub rapidly filling up with hot water, IF THERE WERE TOWELS AROUND TO DRY OFF WITH.

I, however, did not.

Do you know how it feels to be dripping wet, frantically clawing through the cabinet to finally have to dry yourself with two pieces of paper towel?

It was not a happy moment.

But hopefully it will be one which I learn from.

If I remember