Monday, December 8, 2008

Feels like a good day for a Tigger

No special reason. Just seems like a good time for a Tigger. He was my son's favorite stuffed animal. My favorite memory of them together is of a time when my husband, Nick, Tigger and I were in Florida. We pulled up in front of our hotel, and several bell boys hopped over to help, which we needed, for once. They piled our luggage onto a cart. Then Nick stepped out, holding Tigger. All of the teenage bell boys smiled. One of them bent down and gently offered to let Tigger ride on top of the cart. When Nick looked nervous at that suggestion, the boy promised that he would be very careful and that he wouldn't let anything happen to Tigger. Trusting but still looking a little uneasy, Nick handed over his friend. The bellboy put Tigger on top, pushed the cart with one hand, and kept Tigger steady with the other. Nick relaxed and ran along beside them, looking happy and feeling cool for receiving special attention from a teenager. Behind them, Mom's heart felt all warm and fuzzy, like a certain happy stuffed tiger who rode high, like royalty.

24 comments:

AndiF said...

When it comes to tigers, I'm more a Hobbes person but that was a lovely memory.

And apparently my memory isn't so lovely -- I was so wrapped up in kids books yesterday I forgot the Monday Picture Post which is now the Tuesday Turning Over an Old Leaf Picture Post.

Oak [LINK]

Beech [LINK]

Pawpaw [LINK]

Morning all.

Anonymous said...

Tiggerrrrrr. Never fails to make me smile.
My daughter's Pooh is on the bed in the other room, so at 27 there's still kid feelings at heart. Her all time favorite Gund Bear is in Austin with her.This does indeed warm a mom's heart.

Andi--Thanks for reminding me of Hobbes. I miss he and Calvin. The Dallas Morning axed several of my favorite comic strips this year.
Bah humbug. I miss Red and Rover most of all which has a Calvin and Hobbes type feel.
All time favorite comics--Gary Larsen's Farside.

Andi---Awe washed over me when I looked at Oak. All three are ART.
Beech is a close second with that light shining through. Pawpaw--love that name. What we called my grandfather.

Terrific Tuesday to all.

Jen said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

I was hauling a van load of Boy Scouts to a camping trip once. Somehow I got the pack of older, more sneering and cynical boys. They demanded music in the van, and I dreaded what they might be so I offered to play some cassette tapes we had. "What do you have?" they snarled. I looked at the selection and offered "The Lion King." There was a moment's silence and then a bunch of enthusiastic approval for this child's music that they obviously remembered from a more innocent time in their lives.

Maria Lima said...

The wonderful thing about Tiggers, is Tiggers are wonderful things...

Yay! I adore Tigger, simply my favorite character in the 100-acre wood.

Morning, all! Tuesday: check. Awake: check. In need of serious caffeine: check twice.

I did a D.U.M. dumb thing yesterday. Had a fun IHOP breakfast-at-lunch with my project manager and drank coffee with my French toast and bscon. Totally ignored my very well-known reaction to caffeine post noon: insomnia. EEP. Oh well, I put it to good use by finishing Elizabeth Bear's Hell and Earth and doing some plotting of my own. That said, BOY AM I TIRED TODAY. ::g::

Terrific Tuesday to all!

Anonymous said...

Pooh and my other 2 bears (one I've had since I was 22, and the other 27) are traveling cross country with me. The rest of my animals are safely in CDA.

Sometimes I let Pooh drive...

Love the beech the best, andi -

I was awake half the night, Maria - we could have kept each other company!

Sick today, but have to drive 5 hours. Don't think I'm contagious, tho. And it's supposed to be 78 when I get there, which hopefully will help. Waving weakly to all.

Anonymous said...

Hobbes fan here, too.

Speaking of sons. My son lost something very valuable to him at school, quite possibly it was stolen. His Zen (Mp3). He's had it for over a year and a half (pretty damn good for any teenager or adult)

He uses it to ride the bus and to navigate the hallways between classes. He realized it was gone when he was getting ready to ride the bus home (which broke down)

The school even realizes this is like a 1:1 aide assistance or... medicine for him.

He cried for hours at home was frantic. Called me at work to tell me he had an emergency. His heart is broken and I'm worried how he'll make do today.

It'd be like losing your wallet, your keys, your car and possibly your best friend all at the end of the day.

We're not going to run out and buy him a new one. He has to go through the steps of trying to find/report it. BUT... this thing is like a body part for him. He never leaves home without it.

It's his Hobbes.

Comics:
Far Side
Get Fuzzy
Bloom County :)

Anonymous said...

Oh... and our small, local grocery store is once again being hassled by the evil Whole Foods. It's the second time this year they've cost us legal fees.

They want our financial, business records because they feel threatened by a few local guys who sell organics in the nation. The ones who don't have money, guns and lawyers, of course.

So... this means $500,000 in fees which means... our profit share checks are gone.

Thanks Whole Foods. May you rot in hell. Their CEO has said he will "crush them no matter how the price" and that they want to be the Microsoft of Organics.

So all and all not a very happy time at work. Everyone is stressed out and our CEO is willing to go to jail before he hands over our records.

The FTC is calling Whole Foods a monoply. Whole Foods says it can't compete like it wants to against small, local businesses like New Seasons.

But we have tons of new customers this week who say they are disgusted by WF and the news is just scouring Mackey and WF.

Whole Foods is essentially the Wal Mart of natural foods.

It's sick. We're are surving these hard economic times and a stinking giant is gunning us down with legal fees from hell.

maryb said...

Big Hobbes fan here too. I love the whole Pooh family though, but I like the classic Pooh not the Disney version. I was always rather partial to Rabbit myself.

Beth: Sometimes I let Pooh drive... < snort >

Larry Kollar said...

I thought I was going to be up a long time last night, got up to not disturb Mrs. Fetched, then shortly found I was more sleepy than I thought. I guess I'm lucky that I can't link coffee consumption to insomnia.

Listening to Enigma's MCMXC a.D. this morning (yes, the "a" is lower-case). We've had the CD for a long time, ever since they were using it to demo a sound system at Sears; we ran to the adjacent record store and got it. "We've had several people buy that today," the clerk said. But I'd never gotten around to ripping it.

Beth, sometimes I let Pooh drive triggered this mental image: Pooh at the wheel, Tigger hanging out the sunroof, Piglet straining to push the pedals, Owl in the shotgun seat holding the map upside down and trying to look like he knows what he's doing, and Eeyore and Rabbit clutching each other wide-eyed in the back seat!

Larry Kollar said...

Janet, that sucks big-time. Makes me proud to say I've never set foot in a Whole Paycheck. Also for the kid's Zen… sounds like it's his Zen in more ways than one. I know I'd be probably doing the same thing if I lost my iPhone.

Anonymous said...

Farf, thanks!

http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2008/12/special_on_chutzpah_aisle_thre.html

To read about this mess. Whole Foods has done this 18 months ago. They wanted our records - it cost us $168,000.

New Seasons pay local charities then profit share checks. We're not going to tell Meals On Wheels, sorry we told you $5,000 but we got sued. No. So again it will be out of our pockets. This really sucks. And is so stressful.

I tried venting at whole foods for two days now but they just do the voicemail runaround crap.

I've never set foot in one either. Mackey is a nut case. He blogs under false names and just has fun ruining the competition. They are even going after an all volunteer co-op for christs sake.

they say they have 93 competitors, but they aren't subpeoning Trader Joes or even Wal Mart who does sell "organics".

And as to Wes, bingo. It is his true zen. Music soothes. He is very rainmannish' when it comes to this one tool.

Nancy P said...

Popping in to say, I'm really enjoying the comments (and photos, yes!). And here's a bit of mystery world news for any interested parties, including an opportunity to get short articles published:

http://hosted.verticalresponse.com/357288/46e9ac7d52/1451000059/346517c529/

Nancy P said...

Oops, I forgot I now know how to linkee:

MRI

Kelly McCullough said...

Many years ago a couple of Minnesota Renaissance Festival friends of mine were sitting at the Blue Lion Tavern after hours drinking and deciding which other festival folk corresponded to which Pooh characters. In the middle of their conversation I hopped in through the door and was asked what exactly I was doing. For reasons that are unclear to me in retrospect I was seeing how far I could get across the site by bouncing. I was immediately assigned the role of Tigger. It was not the first time, nor the last.

Their tops are made out of rubber, their bottoms are made out of springs.

dina said...

Hi, all. I love Tigger and actually named one of my cats Tigger. Unfortunately he long ago made the trip over the Rainbow bridge.

As for Whole Foods, I never knew and will never go back. How awful. Janet, why not ask for their records on these matters. It would help you compete and if you need to show yours, it would seem to me they need to show theirs.

Of course, it is terrible law but being annoying yourself is sometimes the best way to get some one to shut up.

Anonymous said...

Dina, Thanks. This has been in the news every day since Friday. Whole Foods is losing business by the hour. They want ALL our records even emails for two years. They are very predatory. It's just their way. If they can't beat you, they will "crush" you with legal fees and tying your hands in court.

18months ago they did it to us with the same fight.

This summer they tried to break a union of Oregon Beef Ranchers. We stood by the ranchers and unions.

Now this.

Now they are suing the FTC this morning because their fight with the FTC has made them look like bullies... well... they are. They have done this to numerous small businesses.

They are putting a nail in their coffin. I just hope they don't kill us along with themselves. Even our charities are worried. But our customers, ranchers, farmers, fisherman and local schools are very loyal. And very loud.

Texas messed with the wrong town.

Anonymous said...

Still no word on the Zen. Calvin is missing his Hobbes.

Off to the Mimes.

Anonymous said...

Janet,

TEXAS is NOT Whole Foods.

Condemn all for the sins of some?

Hope you and your son find ZEN.

Anonymous said...

Great pix, Andif. Re: the pawpaw, if you have the tree, do you eat the fruit? I had a sister-in-law who grew up in KY. She brought some to our house when I was growing up. It was not bad.

Love me some Tigger and Hobbes.

Thanks for the info re: WF, Janet. I didn't know that about them. I did know they bought another organic food place around here called, Mustard Seed, I think. So, I guess they are a monopoly around here.

Nancy, are you going to the Hawaii unconvention convention?

Evening all.

Nancy P said...

Hi, bono. I'm not going to that one, alas. Although, honestly, if I were ever going back to Hawaii, I wouldn't want to spend any time listening to panel discussions, lol.

Is it being billed as "the unconvention"?

Anonymous said...

oops, I guess it's the site where it's being held -
The Unconventional Convention Waikoloa Marriott Beach Resort

Anonymous said...

Lisa, I was putting a different spin on the whole "Don't mess with Texas" which I believe is a saying or something down there.

Anonymous said...

Don't mess with Texas.

I believe that was my response, Janet.

You organic, green people are a feisty lot. Makes us gun totin' Texans seem mighty tame.