Oooo Soz, sorry about that.
Lesson learned, huh?
That ice skates are vanishingly rare?
Who knew?
I wasn't, like, going for a specific brand or anything. Just, ice skates, in approximately her size (up to two sizes bigger is fine).
eight hour drive through blizzard yesterday, with the car breaking down amidst of nowhere.....
and a six hour drive back today, with a minor collision - cost me and the other guy driver side mirror.... ugh!
Oof. Sorry, dag.
(May have located some skates -- we'll see. And I was so pleased her one Christmas desire was so nice and un-commercial -- not a Tickle-Me-Elmo-equivalent.)
Have the skates. Canceled Amazon order. Exhale.
Thats weird, eh? Dont kids go ice-skating anymore?
(Not that I liked it much...)
nimh wrote:
(Not that I liked it much...)
<I've noticed on all the announcements for the Elfstedentocht, Molentocht, Negendorpentocht and various others that it's save this year since nimh doesn't take part.>
Nooooooo... not me.
I was traumatized.
To be fair, so was my mom. She could still tell the story years after, long after I had forgotten.
You see, my mom liked ice-skating. On natural ice, none of that skating ring thing. There was good enough natural ice to go skating, for long-distance tracks even, often enough still (now increasingly rare, it seems). She also loved bycicling, walking - the polders! The meadows and farmland. Little bridges over long, straight canals.
I liked walking a lot, especially in the forest, and the cycling too - in summer. (Much of what I remember as narrow lanes through polders is now newly built suburbia, alas).
But I didnt like the cold. No, I didnt like the cold. Ever. Much at all. Didnt particularly like our skiing holidays either, apart from the Germknoedel in a mountaintop inn. After one time I ended up with my leg in a cast, I refused to ever go again.
Ice-skating, on natural ice: the cold, the uneven ice, the wind, the occasional windswept stall where you could get bread and soup ... hours out, always somewhere far away from public transport. One trip on the Rotte I remember specifically.
So one infamous Saturday morning, I must have been 13 or something, my mom said: lets go ice-skating, the sky is clear, the weather's good! And I said, no. She was a bit taken aback by that, so pressed the point. I again said no, at which she knew she was in trouble, cause once I said no, there was no way on earth to get me anywhere - thats how I ended up the near-sole Dutchmen who cant swim.
In a last, desperate offense, she urged, but its beautiful! The wide, open expanses!
At which I burst out with unexpected fury (apparently), "I DONT LIKE wide open expanses! I HATE the wide, open expanses! I dont want to GO to the wide, open expanses!"
And so the story entered family lore..
Heh...!
I admit to loving wide open expanses myself. Favorite thing when I lived on the lake in Madison was to strap on my skates at night and take off across the lake, preferably when there hadn't been any snow, just deep cold, and the ice was thick but clear, and ice and sky merged at night and it felt like flying.
Man, that was great.
Super cold tho!
:-D
Yeah, I still don't get the ice skate shortage either. Target seemed to plain not carry them, other places plain didn't carry them, then a few usually carried them but didn't have them in anywhere near the right size.
Anyway, found some, new but pretty good price, should do the job just fine. Whew!
Soz--
Congratulations. Who can fathom the minds of the Retailers of America?
I was weak at the gym tonight.
And I got a nice $250 speeding ticket yesterday, 90 in a 65.
nimh, you were 14, fury can rise from anywhere at that age!
Glad to hear that you found the skates, Soz.
Thanks!
I'm a bit sheepish about being so fixated, but when your kid wants one thing and only one thing for Christmas and it's such a reasonable thing (these were $30, new), it's so frustrating when it looks like you can't get it!
That was the very last thing I needed to buy, so I've been MUCH calmer today. :-)
Slappy, how does that add up to 250?
Good question. Doesn't break it down on the ticket.
That's a lot of money...... maybe driving recklessly was added on?
No other charges. It's still 25mph over the limit. I know you get a big bulk of the fine for the first 5 or 10mph over the limit, then X amount per mph. Something like that.
My bloody neighbours! They've just lit a barbeque! This may not seem like such a bad thing to you, but consider this: yesterday was just about the hottest day on record in Melbourne (36 C or something like 108 F) ... bloody awful!
So today, like everyone else, I have every door & window open to let in the cool, fresh air after a shocker of a night. So what do my neighbours do? Smoke out the neighbourhood! Thanks, guys!
Oy...36 C is only 97 F, or thereabouts!!!!
Now here, on Friday, it was 42 C, which is REALLY 108 F!!!
But, I feel your pain....my air conditioner is on the blink, on a SUNDAY, folowed by a PUBLIC HOLIDAY!!!
Waaaah!
