“People don’t actually read newspapers. They step into them every morning like a hot bath.”
The morning is dark and rainy. It will stay that way all day. When I woke up, the rain and the wind were heavier. Now the wind is quiet, but I can still hear the rain, a gentler rain. Henry has been barking all morning. The men came to put in the new water heater, and every time they make a noise, Henry barks. Nala keeps ringing the poochie bells to go out, but the gate is open. They are both driving crazy.
I always used to keep a dictionary by my bed in case I ran into a word I didn’t know. It was a paperback. Downstairs, I had a huge, hardcover American Heritage Dictionary with a red cover. Though I still have both of them, I rely on disembodied voices to tell me definitions. I remember learning how to use a dictionary, how to hunt down a word. I learned what the abbreviations meant. I learned to look at the top of the page to find quickly what I was looking for. We even had to take tests. I always thought it was one of the best skills the nuns taught me. Now it is obsolete.
All my Halloween candy is ready. I taped on the pencils last night. I also filled a few small brown bags with a Halloween pencil, eraser and small pencil sharpener. The bags are my back up in case I run out of candy or, more likely, I decide to save a few bars for myself. All the Snickers are gone, all five of them, but there are still Milky Ways.
When I was a kid, I don’t think my parents ever watched the news. My father read the newspaper, the Boston American. My mother did the crossword puzzle. I do both, but I read the Boston Globe. I also read the Cape Cod Times. Some people are amazed I still read an actual paper. My day always starts with two papers and two cups of coffee. It is a ritual.
Explore posts in the same categories: Musings
October 30, 2023 at 5:05 pm
Hi Kat,
I think the rain is over for a few days and the sun is shining brightly. Over the last week we received about five inches of rain. This morning the low was 37° and I had to convince my wife to switch over to heat. It’s a good thing we did because we discovered that our downstairs heater is not working. They are forecasting a freeze for Wednesday morning. We usually don’t get our first freeze until November twenty second.
Today our handy couple came to repair our ceiling in our breakfast area. Over a year ago we discovered a leak through the upstairs bathtub/shower tile which leaked through to the breakfast room. Because no one is using that shower/bathtub, we are sealing up the hole that the handy man created to try to find the leak. He sprayed sealer in that bathroom’s tile and it hasn’t leaked since. Because my son has moved out, no one is using that shower. It’s been so wet this past week that they will have to return to repair the outside stuff.
Tonight’s game three of the World Series in Phoenix. If the Rangers win tonight, they will set an all time Major League record of nine consecutive post season wins on the road. Hopefully, that record will be a good influence on the Rangers to take all three of the games in Phoenix from the Diamondbacks and win the series.
We’ve decided to forego Halloween this year. We will just leave all the lights off and not answer the door. Last year we had no kids show up.
I decided to give up the physical newspaper subscription about ten or more years ago. I wasn’t reading it and it was too expensive to just line the garbage pail. We receive all of our news from TV and the internet on my iPad. Soon I’m contemplating cutting the cable. All of our TV sets have Roku devices and there are several online providers of local TV channels. Just having internet should work just fine. The printed newspaper, cable TV, and the landline telephone are all now relics of the past. My kids have no idea how to dial a telephone with a rotary dial.
October 30, 2023 at 9:00 pm
Hi Bob,
Your temperature is lower than any we have had so far. Usually our first frost is in November. We have had a lot of rain too in the last few weeks. Last night it was heavy, not so today.
I now have a new water heater. The guys did a great job. They were here a long time. I had a leak a while back in the downstairs bathroom from the upstairs bathroom. He had to cut into the ceiling to find it. I then hired a guy to repair the ceiling.
I hope this lead holds for the Rangers! It would be great to see them take the series.
I read both papers every morning. It is my quiet time to start the day. On Sundays I spend a lot of time on both papers. I have cable and a lot of movie channels so it is expensive, but I don’t go out often so I figure this is my enjoyment. I once watched a program where they had kids try to figure out the dial phone. None of them did. I just saw where a few school districts have courses so kids can learn cursive. If I had kids, I’d make sure they knew how to write and read cursive and tell time on a watch with hands.
October 31, 2023 at 8:30 pm
Happy Halloween!
Only 5 kids today and lots of leftover chocolate for me.
October 31, 2023 at 9:44 pm
Happy Halloween!!
I had more kids than I’ve ever had. I had made small bags with a Halloween pencil, sharpener, eraser and stickers. Even they went. I did save two candy bars for me: a Milk Way and a Snickers I missed. The kids looked great. They all had on costumes. My favorite was a boy in a Star Trek costume with his dog also wearing one!
November 1, 2023 at 10:13 am
Hi Kat
Mets fan here, rooting for the D’backs.
I too still read newspapers, maybe three times a week. I was a paperboy in my youth. Sat on the stack of papers delivered by the route manager and read the paper cover to cover before I started to deliver them…
I have a big old 8″ thick dictionary spread open on my 40″ book stand in the office; the two shelves below are filled with old “reference books”. I tell my kids and grandkids “this is what Google was before there was googling-info in credible books…”
November 1, 2023 at 5:03 pm
Hi J,
I’m rooting for the Rangers. Last night was more of a bit of a blow out than I expected.
Every day I get two papers. I read the Globe first then the Cape Times. When I was a kid, I actually delivered papers every Thursday, the town paper, The Independent. I had a huge number of houses on my route.
My big dictionary is close at hand. I don’t have many other reference books except an old atlas.