Skip to main content

Won't you be my neighbor?

Required viewing in my childhood was Mr. Rogers. The guy was as friendly as a trained dog and it's hard for a kid to say no to his demeanor. But I always wondered why Fred Rogers changed into a different sweater when he walked into his "home" (aka, the set doubling as his home). Seemed like he always changed out of one light sweater into another light sweater and put house slippers on. Why didn't he keep the sweater he had on?

I understand this a whole lot more these days. As much as I enjoy the house I live in, it gets pretty drafty. The heater works fine, but there are times when it feels like it hasn't run for hours. Hence the desire to wear longsleeves and socks all the time.

No matter what, I don't enjoy feeling cold. I'm supposed to enjoy the warmth of being indoors, right? But I don't have to wear a heavy coat indoors. Then I'd be burning up.

I don't have light sweaters like the ones Fred had. And I have no desire to wear a tie in my house. Instead, I have a handful of longsleeve shirts I could wear under a T-shirt, but I tend to go more for my black $16 hoodie from Burlington Coat Factory. Add in my slippers (dubbed "Grandpa Grubbs slippers" by friends of mine) and the transformation is complete.

Being at home so much, I look like I'm about to go work out at any time. I could do that, but I prefer to have balance. And if looking like an indie rock version of Fred Rogers is part of that, then so be it.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Catherine Wheel

Originally posted: Tuesday, August 29th, 2006 Despite managing to release five proper albums, Catherine Wheel was one of those bands that always seemed to slip past the mainstream rock crowd. Yes, they got some nice airplay in their day, but people seem to have forgotten about them. You may hear “Black Metallic” or “Waydown” on a “classic alternative” show on Sirius or XM or maybe even on terrestrial radio, but that’s about it. For me, they were one of most consistent rock bands of the ’90s, meandering through shoegazer, hard rock, space rock and pop rock, all while eluding mainstream pigeonholing. Led by the smooth, warm pipes of vocalist/guitarist Rob Dickinson (cousin of Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson), Catherine Wheel featured Brian Futter on lead guitar, Dave Hawes on bass and Neil Sims on drums. They weren’t a pretty-boy guitar band, but they weren’t a scuzzy bunch of ragamuffins either. Though the band hailed from England, Catherine Wheel found itself more welcome on American air...

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Ben Folds and Ben Folds Five

Originally posted on Tuesday, April 11th, 2006 : For some, Ben Folds Five was merely a one hit wonder. For others, the trio was a life-changer. Myself, I’m one of the latter. Being formally introduced with the “Battle of Who Could Care Less” video on 120 Minutes , I was very intrigued to know more about this piano-bass-drums combo. Once I heard Whatever and Ever Amen , I was hooked. As a matter of fact, out of all of my favorite bands, Ben Folds Five is one of the few that I liked right away and I have held the same kind of admiration ever since. Their three proper albums (and one b-sides collection) are staples in my record collection and they may very well be (or soon be) staples in your collection too. For a band that was once described as “punk rock for sissies,” you may realize how effortlessly these guys walked between fun, semi-goofy pop songs and some really deep and powerful stuff too. It helps that they had it right from the beginning and kept maturing. Ben Folds Five (1995) ...

Politics Shmolitics

Yesterday, the more pleas I saw for people to go out and vote, the more uncomfortable I felt. Plenty of the blogs I hit up everyday said something along the lines of "Vote and if you don't, don't complain." Folks, this is why I find discussing politics so alienating. There are plenty of reasons why I don't discuss politics on here or in my everyday conversations. The biggest reason is because I don't have a lot of interest in politics in the first place. By what I've seen, heard and read for the last eight years, political debates are usually pissing contests. Judging by the views I've processed, it would be easy to think that we're all slowly going downhill either on the left, right or down the middle. Yet I don't think we're going totally downhill or totally uphill. Debating the direction we're going seems futile, especially when adults start screaming at each other like they're in grade school. To my ears, political debates are s...