It must have been a longer, harder winter than I recall. That's what I'm left to think as I survey the faded rags and shrunken garments that only last year comprised my entire summer wardrobe.

What happened here?

Last week's warm weather prompted me to pry open the bottom drawer of my dresser. That's the storage spot where only eight months ago I said "see you later" to a few favorite T-shirts, tennis shorts and a pair or two of swim trunks.

I didn't think long or hard about my wardrobe choices when hot weather beaconed. After all, these wardrobe items were my old regular, time tested, hot weather favorites that recycle from year-to-year. I grabbed a familiar pair of green cargo shorts, a favorite gray poly-silk pull over and a pair of white socks to head off on a walk. But as my walking partners gathered downstairs, upstairs I was hopping around on one foot trying to get the fly to zip and the waist to button on what appeared to be last year's Bermudas.

Do shorts shrink if left on their own? And the pull-over, oh, it pulled over just fine, it just didn't make it down far enough to meet the waist band of the shorts that would not button. Like an accordion blind where the strings have gone bad, the shirt stayed stuck about 3/4 of the way of where it needed to land to hide the view, so to speak.

And the socks, like puddles pooling around my ankles, they yielded to gravity without putting up any fight whatsoever. There was no "lasting" left in last year's elastic.

I went ahead with the scheduled walk, sporting blue jeans and a cotton, long-sleeved blue shirt. "In case of bugs," I told my walking partners.

But back at the dresser drawers, I did an honest inventory of what I formerly thought of as my summer attire.

While some shirts had shrunk to mini lengths, others had grown sideways to form large tents where shirts once had been. And the swim trunks, well there was only one reasonable contender. That pair even seemed roomy when I tried them on only to find the elastic lacking and the drawstring missing. Clearly no diving allowed in these poor excuse for trunks.

As I say, it must have been a longer, harder winter than I recall, what with the havoc that went on with my summer clothes. And just to add insult to injury, the bathroom scale seems to have gone haywire.

What next?

* * *

Shop local

How nice it is to return home from Lafayette and see the new Arby's in Delphi bustling with activity. What a welcome addition to the city. With gas prices what they are, I'm particularly appreciative of our local businesses that call Carroll County home.

I used to think that the "shop

local" reminders in the paper

were kind of corny. Of course I've come to understand that nothing could be further from the truth. It's the local businesses that pay the taxes, provide the jobs, render the services and donate to the causes that make and complete our communities.

* * *

Spotted in pairs

On the same train ride the other day I saw two pairs coupled together that made me smile and got me thinking.

The first pair - two dogs - junk yard dogs, fenced in but with a huge expanse of acreage on which to run and play and explore. The dogs, however, laid in the sun on a cement expanse. They were like bookends, touching noseto nose, needing to be together, not apart.

The second pair - two sisters, it was obvious. They were gentle ladies, dressed to go, pressing 80 years I would say. They stood together on a bus corner, the sun out, but the summer rain falling nonetheless. One sister hid from the rain, she crouched and held her newspaper in the shape of a makeshift umbrella. The other sister, her smile as big as a crescent moon, she held her hands outstretched, welcoming the rain, as she tasted the drops as they fell from the sky.