A Late Christmas Gift

Some of you may remember this post in which I shared a discount offered by the company and dreamed about a pair for myself, in a wistful sort of way.

Well, today I got a call from the Post Office... it being a small town there was much excitement about my receiving a package with, as I discovered when I stopped by to pick up the package, foreign language labeling. Chinese is a beautiful language, written or spoken, but I admit that I was fairly stumped.

When I opened the package, I saw this:


Pretty packaging, and I'll be keeping the box.

Once opened, it showed me these:


I adore them!

I'll let the kind and observant soul who sent me these remain anonymous, since they tried so hard to keep themselves that way. But for all you folks who want to anonymously surprise someone with a gift here's a protip: Make sure your phone number isn't on the shipping label. (I found it later going back over the label, trying to figure out a way to discover who I needed to thank.)

Regardless, I adore them and plan to wear them as much as possible! Comfy and toasty warm.




*Whooga boots did provide, months ago, an offer for a discount to my readers. I am unaware whether this discount was used by the person who sent these to me, or even if it is still in effect, however, Whooga boots did not directly provide me with any inducement, monetary or otherwise, to make this post or endorse said boots. So if the FCC is snooping they can go spit into the wind.

Musings Upon Politicians

In re-reading a bit of one of my favorites, I stumbled across a passage that I believe is all too apt today:

"I don't mean that a business politician won't steal; stealing is his business. But all politicians are nonproductive. The only commodity any politician has to offer is jawbone. His personal integrity - meaning, if he gives his word, can you rely on it? A successful business politician knows this and guards his reputation for sticking by his commitments - because he wants to stay in business - go on stealing, that is - not only this week but next year and years after that. So if he's smart enough to be successful at this very exacting trade, he can have the morals of a snapping turtle, but he performs in such a way as not to jeopardize the only thing he has to sell, his reputation for keeping promises.
But a reform politician has no such lodestone. His devotion is to the welfare of all the people-an abstraction of very high order and therefore capable of endless definitions. If indeed it can be defined in meaningful terms. In consequence your utterly sincere and incorruptible reform politician is capable of breaking his word three times before breakfast- not from personal dishonesty, as he sincerely regrets the necessity and will tell you so-but from unswerving devotion to his ideal.
All it takes to get him to break his word is for someone to get his ear and convince him that it is necessary for the greater good of all the peepul. He'll geek."
-- Lazarus Long, Time Enough For Love by Robert A. Heinlein

The application of these descriptions to today's situation is left as an exercise for the reader.... but it's something to think upon, no?