Random 5 for May 28, 2023 – Time, retail, weather, rules, soldiers

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Where is the time going? – I woke up this morning with wonder. How could it be the end of May? “They say” as you get older, time goes faster. So true. I also woke up nostalgic for days gone by. I’ve had a great life with a lot of good parts, great memories and good people sprinkled in there.

Another retail rant – There is a pair of joggers I especially like. They are comfortable and fit well. They transition me from my winter jeans to my summer capris. My pair is about three years old. They are expensive so I waited for a sale to get another pair. (I’m lucky they weren’t discontinued!) This weekend is the sale. I went to the website and they completely changed the sizing from numbers to the generic small, medium, large. With this brand I’m between an extra-small and a small. Reading the reviews did not help. Everyone complained about the change in sizing, some saying it runs big and of course, some say it runs small. Our local store is out of stock so I can’t try them on. Why do manufacturers fix something that isn’t broken? There are hundreds of reviews from people who like this item just the way it was. Argh!

Water, water, no where in sight! – As I write this I am listening to the swish swish of the sprinkler watering our yard. We are having a very dry spring. Lawns are crunching as if it were August.  Some flowers are droopy. Mother Nature yet again letting us know who is really in charge.

Rules and regs – We have a local HOA (Homeowners Association). Most people don’t like them, but our experience has been great. We don’t pay much as there isn’t a community clubhouse, gym or pool in our development and it doesn’t include snow removal or mowing services. There are walking paths, a playground with a pavilion, landscaped circles and street trees, which are all wonderful. They also maintain our wooded area, cutting down trees when necessary. We went to our first meeting last week and I was pleasantly surprised by the experience and leadership. It’s run by homeowners like us. Our townhouses cater to an elder crowd but our development also includes large family homes too. Those in the townhouses are downsizers coming from larger houses with big yards that they no longer have the energy to maintain. There are rules. We had to get our new deck approved prior to installation last spring. That was easy peasy as we kept with the style of the homes. What we don’t have are ginormous RV vehicles parked in driveways or an array of colorful kids’ plastic toys (trampolines, jungle gyms, etc.) or cars parked on the lawn. You won’t find a blow-up Santa either. This is perfect for our stage of life.

Memorial Day – To those of you who have lost friends and relatives fighting for freedom, hugs.

So how was your week?

44 thoughts on “Random 5 for May 28, 2023 – Time, retail, weather, rules, soldiers”

  2. We wait all Winter for warm days, then they turn into hot and sticky, ozone action days. We morphed rather quickly from coolish days to downright hot. We’ve not had rain in ten days and no rain now for another ten days. I expect crispy, Brillo-pad lawns earlier than usual this year. I hate when manufacturers have to “tweak things” whether it is clothing or soap (my biggest complaint).

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          • Did you consider getting one of those green bags for your new tree? When the Wildlife Refuge opened a few years ago, they planted lots of big trees around the Visitor Center. They opened in October and put those bags to load with water on each tree. I thought of getting one for my Japanese Weeping Lace-Leaf Maple but it is squat and wide and not tall enough to put a bag around it.

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            • I had one many years ago and it was more trouble than it was worth. The trees are within easy watering distance from the outdoor faucet. The bag was a nuisance to fill with water. They are great if they are not easy to water.

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              • I didn’t realize that as I’ve never used them before. They probably do that at the Wildlife Refuge as they are spread out all around the place. The first two or three years I had my miniature Maple Tree, I had to treat it with TLC and wrap it up with burlap, even on top for Winter and deep water it almost daily so the roots wouldn’t dry out over Winter.

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  3. I think Mother Nature is terribly confused, Kate. You’re having an unusually dry spring, and we are still wet! It’s crazy. My garden doesn’t know what to make of it, and frankly, although I swore I’d never complain about rain, I need some sun! 🙂 Your report on the changes in sizing of your favorite pants is just more in line with what I feel so often these days. You cannot count on anything remaining the same, and although we know that to be true, it’s a hard one! I feel flexible most of the time, but more and more time goes into making decisions and adjusting my expectations. That, I’m not so happy about! 🤷‍♀️

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    • Changes in basic things like sizing which makes it harder to order on-line is not a good thing. I expect they switched so they don’t have to carry as much inventory in stores. Small, medium and large is a lot less sizes than the numerical ones. I hope Darwin is enjoying the wet spring!

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  4. Not only do retailers change their sizing, but, to complicate things further, my body has been changing. My waist has grown in bigger (ugh!) and, even worst, I’m losing some height.

    I also like my HOA. No complaints and various benefits. I was on the board for a couple of years. Now I’m taking a rest and leaving it in other capable hands.

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    • When properly run, they do a lot of good. One drive in our area and you can see what people do left to their own choices. Here your inside can be as gawdy as you like but the outside fits the rest.

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  5. Retail establishments are just begging to go bankrupt when they discontinue or resize products. I just don’t get it either. Like you said, why ‘fix’ something that wasn’t broken. Probably some marketing exec trying to justify his salary by ‘working.’ Sigh.

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  6. I’m always philosophical about HOAs. I served on one many years ago and found the work to be rewarding but still difficult because of all the complaints. There are always naysayers who think they can do better. The one where we live I don’t always agree with, but I’m nevertheless grateful for their efforts. I think generic sizes for shoes are dumb! – Marty

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    • Here they are fussy about building attachments. Many people have sunrooms. For some reason I would need a variance to put a sunroom on my second story deck. It’s really the same thing and I’d have to meet township building code. I do understand about the colors though. I’ve seen enough homes that were painted gawdawful colors.

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  7. Sorry about the pants. They should offer free returns being that they changed the sizing. Time is definitely going by faster lately I can still remember sitting in a boring class in school and how long that seemed and now a week goes by as fast as a day.

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  9. It has been raining most if the day here and is the forecast for the rest of the week. And it is kinda cool, which is nice since summers are always hot and humid so a cool Spring is welcome.
    I need to do some clothes shopping and not looking forward to it. Everything is expensive. And as you said sizing varies and it’s hard shop on line which is my preferred method.
    The HOA here is good but the building is 51 years old and there is always something needed to be done to keep it safe and looking good. Sorta like my old body.😕

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    • Our home is about 20 years old. Time to replace a lot of stuff (which we already did) but the neighborhood is really nice. No rain here. It’s all to the south of us. Warm to hot and dry as a bone!

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  11. Mother Nature definitely is in charge of weather, and she feels the need to remind us every so often. Sizes? It makes no sense when they do that, but you could focus on the positive that you ‘might’ need an extra small because most of us don’t so there should be plenty for you. 🙂 HOAs depend upon those running it and how much the dues are. It seems the more money you pay per month, the more stressful the meetings are for people to decide how to spend or not spend it at least that’s my experience. Enjoy your deck during the warm weather.

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  12. So, the joggers . . .

    If you get them too big, you’ll be inclined to eat more and jog less.
    If you get them too small, you’ll be inclined to eat less and job more.

    OR . . . you could get one pair of each size. Wear the larger ones on “special days” (like Thanksgiving) so that you have plenty of room for 2nds.

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    • They do serve a purpose. Some people should not buy into one because what they want to do is outside of the parameters. At our last house (we did not have one but did have some regs), one guy started a construction business out of his parents ranch house. He routinely parked large equipment and stone piles in the yard. Eventually it came to a halt. I expect the folks who lived around him complained to the township as that wasn’t allowed in our neighborhood. What was he thinking?

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  14. Count us in for being thankful for our HOA. It was a priority when we moved into our community. We moved from a home in rural Missouri and it was the wild west there with no help from law enforcement. Is small, medium and large going to work for shoes?

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    • We have had the HOA resolve an issue for us (without anyone getting shot! you worry about that these days) and it was nice. When we bought we knew we couldn’t have sheds, above ground pools, or weird structures (at least not without approval). People who want to do that, should buy away from other people.

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  16. You are the first person I’ve encountered who has something positive to say about an HOA. I guess those that like them generally see no need to remark on them, but those that have issues with their HOA can’t seem to shut up about them. This has made me very leery about HOAs so I am glad to read that there are good ones out there!

    I hope you find the sizing of the “new” joggers to suit. Maybe it will fail like New Coke, and the company will revert back to the Classic sizing. Or is that too much to hope for?

    Deb

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    • We have a friend whose son’s house is in an HOA community. He is routinely sited for not taking the garbage can in fast enough and some other really silly stuff. Our HOA is not like that. They are more concerned that the housing stays homogenous (is that the right word). We are free to put any dang color on our front door but all the siding in a block has to be painted the same color. You can’t go rogue. There is still a lot of room for creativity.

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  17. It’s nice when an HOA is useful, rather than intrusive. We have one here, but it’s not mandatory and it’s $25.00 a year to join–more of a grassroots, civic organization that rallies people to fight against the city when the city starts slacking on everything from following their own planning commission’s advice to looking the other way on leaded fuel and an excessive number of flight schools at the local airport. Back in the day, I have no doubt the HOA fought for racist covenants on local homes; now it’s fighting get a civilian oversight committee for our nationally famous, racist police department. Progress!

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    • Wow! That is a socially active HOA! The biggest deal in the past year was to get a new neighbor to stop parking multiple cars on her front lawn. She is a mom of 3 sons with everyone having their own car. Oh, yes and the blinking lights in back of me. They took care of that too.

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  18. Your development looks so nice the times we’ve been there. Makes me want to move there, and then I could volunteer at Foxy’s Place!

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