“The only difference between men and boys is the size of their shoes and the price of their toys.” – Anonymous.
The world has been a bit crazy of late. Wars, famine, destruction, earthquakes and oil gushing in the Gulf. In North Korea, we have a deranged midget rattlin’ sabers and in Iran, another midget that is just a doofus. Right here at home, Tea Baggers are runnin’ ’round acting like they are the only true patriots, and we have a bunch of political critters that have obviously missed their “grown up” pills for quite some time.
“I still believe in Hope – mostly because there’s no such place as Fingers Crossed, Arkansas.” – Molly Ivins.
The above doesn’t add anything to the story, I just like Molly Ivins.
So, rather than discuss the weighty issues of the world today, let’s just have some fun and talk about a subject near and dear to me – toys.
The opening quote of this column is a commentary on men, but the same applies to women, as well. Don’t try to kid yourself.
Feel free to talk about shoes if that is the subject near and dear to you!
Well, for me, I wear a size nine and I have expensive tastes in toys. As I bang this column out, I am surrounded by mega-bucks worth of photographic gear in my office. I pretend that I am going to make a good living with it one of these days, but that doesn’t explain why I periodically just pick up my camera and hold it, stroking my hands over it like it was a magic lamp and a genie is going to pop out and grant me three wishes.
In the past, my toys were quite expensive and slightly dangerous – Harley Davidson motorcycles. You can’t just “buy” a Harley. Once you own one, you have to spend beau coup bucks for chrome doodads, performance parts, custom paint and all that.
So, my demented blogging friends, what are your toys and why?
One more for the road………………………………..
“In Texas, we do not hold high expectations for the [governor’s] office; it’s mostly been occupied by crooks, dorks and the comatose.” – Molly Ivins.
PrairiePopulistsAndProgressives.net 
Mine are a size 13, and my current “toys” are computers with appropriate peripherals. I’ve been “rescuing” older computers which otherwise would be headed for the landfill (don’t think that’s not where many end up, regardless of restrictions to the contrary) and putting them to use with the Linux (properly, GNU/Linux) OS. Sometimes, a RAM upgrade is needed, but all in all, I have (between work and home) three desktop units which are functioning well for my purposes. None of these are the latest and greatest, but I’m able to do my work with any of them. Recently added a 500GB external HDD to one, with the intent to make it my file server. Just need time to configure, etc.
Other “toys” of my past include grills of various types, and my fair share of cameras. Oh well…
I like grills also. My husband and I would like to attempt to build one of those brick patio grills.
Our new house has a great backyard with a covered patio and a deck. There is a great spot for one of those old fashioned brick patio grills.
When I mentioned it to my husband, he started laughing because he was remembering the old I Love Lucy show when she, Ethel, Fred and Ricky were building that brick patio grill and she thought she had dropped her wedding ring into the cement? Does anyone else remember that?
Anyway, I can just imagine my husband and I doing something similiar to that – but when we actually do get around to building it – I will be sure to be ring free – LOL
Yes, I remember the episode. 🙂
Shoe size is 7 and my toys have changed throughout the years.
When I was a teenager, it was clothes and makeup. In my 20’s, it was the 1969 Chevy Impala. When my kids came along, I rarely bought new clothes and/or a new car. Now that I’m a grandmother, I tend to buy actual toys for my 4-yr-old granddaughter.
Some of them I choose because deep-down, Grandma wants to play with it too!
We recently bought our house and we have outfitted the huge backyard with playground stuff – a tire swing, a slide, another swing, sandbox, pool and we have plans to build an actual playhouse.
Last week we learned the sex of our grandbaby due this October and it is a boy! So, looks like this Grandma will be into buying boys toys next time around!
We may not have as much money in the bank as some people but we are rich in family and friends. And my family comes first in my life.
Since my son moved out and my son-in-law got stung by the grill bug, I don’t do much in the way of smoking/grilling these days, but very recently, I had a very serious grill fetish.
I had five grills. My backyard looked like the set of “Sanford and Son.”
Sigh………….. now I have just one.
“I believe in practicing prudence at least once every two or three years.” – Molly Ivins
Toys? this pretty much explains guitars to me:
“I pretend that I am going to make a good living with it one of these days, but that doesn’t explain why I periodically just pick up my camera and hold it, stroking my hands over it like it was a magic lamp and a genie is going to pop out and grant me three wishes“.
My Ovation Ballotter sets just a few feet from me and it turned out was a great buy since the model is no longer made. Though often I think they are a waste of good money for me and I have/had other things that would have been better to spend the money on…… BUT and I guess it would explain the 93 VT 1100 Honda Shadow that is setting in front of the garage not having been put back in yesterday the last time I rode it.
When you do get older, your toys move from being a simply way to pass time to being more for the soul.
They tend to touch a part of you deeper then the moment, are in some sense a extension of the you who you are.
They become almost a breath of air to your lungs and you are somehow living not just surviving.
A grasp on what life is suppose to be about not just the required things to do.
I could survive without either but then I would not have the chance to actually feel like I am alive!
good post!
I’d like to add one more thing – if I had known in my childhood when I had a genuine Barbie doll what she would be worth today – I would have kept that girl in her box!
And she would have had alot of company – I had some great toys . They were the kind of toys they just don’t make anymore.
Damn I think too much huh?
I have an appointment to spend money on something I do not need, so I’m going to count that as my current toy. Next week, a couple of days before I leave for the wedding weekend I will have my very first mani/pedi. Never have had a professional manicure or pedicure, and I’m looking forward to this extravagance!
I stopped getting mani/pedis when I stopped wearing nail polish……………………..
It’s like, duh. Just when you thought there wasn’t a dime’s worth of difference between the two parties, the Republicans go and prove you’re wrong.” – Molly Ivins
Back in the ’90’s, I had a serious mountain bike jones – the whole nine yards.
I had a very expensive mountain bike, one of the first with a suspension, clip pedals and shoes, $200 helmet, a variety of riding shorts, tops and gloves.
I know that it is difficult to imagine now (!) but I was a Hella rider! Thirty mile daily rides were a piece of cake (try that on a mt/bike) and there wasn’t a hill in the KC region that I couldn’t climb.
Today, not so much………………………………
Being slightly paranoid is like being slightly pregnant – it tends to get worse.” – Molly Ivins
Yeah every time I go to a antiques shop I think the same thing, I see something that I had or at least was being used in the house. Like the ashtrays in the rubber wheels! Grandma even though she did not smoke had them all around the house.
Now the silly things are worth good money. I had G.I. Joes and not the cheap little ones.
But the point is when you have them you are a kid and it is not funny thinking like a adult.
“He is so distrusted that if he said he was a out and out liar no one would believe him!”
Molly on Bill Clinton
My toys are mostly cookbooks, and cooking gadgets. More of each, especially the cookbooks, than I can ever use. Mostly, as a nonrecovering foodie, I look at the pictures, and drool. Then, read the recipes, and almost cannot stand the pleasureable thoughts rolling thru my brain, impacting every sense as I imagine each ingredient, each a distinct color in the palate of my imagination, and how it combines into something more glorious than the sum of it’s parts. Each, to use a different metaphor, a single instrument, played in a symphony orchestra, to the direction of a wise conductor.
damn, Now I am hungry
Last night I got a new toy or at least a chance to read another book on the subject.
By accident I had discovered another bigfoot nut in Wichita and since he lives next door to my daughter I spent some time discussing Giganto piteous ( wow spell checker actually knew what I meant!)
He mentioned he had a book written by Mary Green who is known as the Ala bigfoot lady.
He asked if I would like to read it? Hell ya!
This is a rare thing as most of the copies are owned and shared only by and between the real believers.
Now this is more in line with the real idea of toys a interesting way to pass the time without it being a have to thing.
Toys–for a good part of a decade, I bought CDs, probably on the average, two or three a week. Then the buying slowly came to and end, and then for the most part, the listening. When I recently moved to my house, the CDs were part of the “stuff” that landed in the garage. A few weeks ago, I sold quite a number (maybe 10%) at a garage sale for a buck a piece. I sure enjoyed my music, but if I had just cut down on the buying by half, I could have had the down payment on my house a good long time ago.
I’m a late-bloomer when it comes to home-owning, and now, of course, it’s my toy.