Hey, dear reader(s?), not sure of the demographics of my audience, if any, but i am sure that you are younger than I. So I may have to guide you into the past to make my point today. I can't ask do you remember girdles because I am sure you don't. The name Playtex may mean something because you can still buy Playtex brassieres, I think. But I am sure you never personally experienced the Playtex girdle. Made of rubber, very tight-fitting rubber, the original version didn't even have a lining. You had to use talcum power to get it on, and you had to make sure you settled it in the right places because then you couldn't budge it, and it was very hot and got hotter as the day wore on. My worst memory of it was at a wedding I attended in Montreal one blistering June day, and no AC. Scarlett O'Hara, laced up to her ribcage, had nothing on me. I started wearing this medieval garment - no, not medieval, clothes were looser then. I'm thinking of instruments of torture - began wearing it after my third baby was born - a big one, and so was I. I looked very trim in that girdle. Looking back on it, I realize I was trim, weighing less than I do now. But we were all brain-washed then into believing we were FAT. Did Betty Friedan do away with girdles or just with the guilt that forced us into them? I hope none of my readers, whatever size they are, wear girdles. They constrict the brain. Tomorrow I will discuss garter belts. You can look them up.

A mere six hours later and I'm back at it. My mother used to say I was like a dog with a bone. It was not a compliment; she found it/me annoying. Anyway, here I am, looking for another bone/blog to chew. I had a wonderful weekend with friends who like to talk as much as I do. We covered a lot of territory (not ground; that suggests untilled soil and we were working in a seeded area). (Block that metaphor!) I learned a few things and came away with a list of information I have to search out. You know the saying that we all stand on the shoulders of giants and should be grateful for what they have done for us. But we also stand on the shoulders of friends, and they on us. (It sounds like a human pyramid, or maybe a pretzel.) What have you learned today? I had to make that kind of report to my father every night. (Oh, dear, two parents in one blog; this is like psychoanalysis.) It's not onerous to make that kind of assessment. So what have I learned overnight? I think I have learned, am learning, continue to learn, what is important and what is not. It's part of the aging process, I think, and I have just accelerated it for a short time as I drop out and away from some of the daily demands in order to meet my self-assigned deadline. Gradually, or rapidly, you find out what's important and you make choices, even overnight. Have to go now, my battery is running low. Anon, anon.