Beware of All Enterprises That Require New Clothes

We are going on a trip next week. It will be hot. It seemed both logical and necessary to head out to the mall to find some summer clothes, as our own weather is more jeans and long sleeves most of the time. I wasn't searching for much--a comfortable pair of light pants, a loose top. Our mall, as you might be able to tell from the photo, is not exactly the happening place it used to be. I haven't been out there in months, maybe years. The place is nearly deserted. One anchor store is gone, many of the smaller shops are empty. Two spaces are taken over by the SPCA, one by the police, another houses a puppetry workshop ("First time? Welcome. Don't touch anything."). The clothing stores are a disaster, merchandise is haphazard, a good deal of it is on the floor or misfiled. What's on the racks looks like its for teenagers. I never even got to the trying on part. 

Thoreau went on to say, "Perhaps we should never procure a new suit...", so I can always trot him out if needed. But I would, Henry, love a pair of capri pants. It's going to be in the nineties and I won't have a pond to dip my feet in.