Grandma likes to point out that she is still wearing many of the clothes that she's had for 20 years — or is that 40 — but one day last week she said "Look at this old thing, I've had it for years, I never go anywhere to get anything new." She was wearing a white sweatshirt old enough to deserve being grey and that I recall her buying back before Everett was born, 14 years ago.

So I suggested we go shopping, and on Sunday afternoon went to town and took Grandma to the cheapo department store that sells poorer-quality items of all sorts, much of it coming from god-knows-what sweatshops in what countries. But it was open, so that's where we went.

There wasn't much in her size to choose from -- in her size, clothes are little-girly — but we did manage to find two sweaters she liked and she came home happy. She was wearing one of them when I stopped in the next day.