“All cities are mad: but the madness is gallant. All cities are beautiful: but the beauty is grim.”
Today is bit of a tease. The morning looks warm through the windows. The sun is bright in the clear air. Its light looks almost white. The blue of the sky is azure. The day is lovely, but if I go out, I’ll bundle. It is in the mid 30’s and will stay that way all day.
The other day I heard the time on the radio given as 55 minutes after the hour. I hadn’t ever heard it described that way before then. I would have said 5 minutes before the hour. I am analog in a digital world.
When I was a kid, planning for the future meant deciding what I was going to do on Saturday as Sunday was pre-planned: church and Sunday dinner and sometimes visiting grandparents, my mother’s family. I loved the city where they lived. I loved Italian bakery square pizza and the Italian ice sometimes sold out the front windows of houses on my grandparents’ block. I played step ball. I also played stickball in the street with a broomstick bat and a half tennis ball. I remember the truck with a small carousel on the back flatbed. It stopped on the street so the little kids could have a ride. I can’t remember how much we paid for a ride. I do remember it was small with four horses and played carousel music as it spun. I would go to the corner store up the street with my dime in hand. My grandfather kept a stack of dimes. He knew we’d leave to run to the store and peace, for him, would reign.
Henry is a happy dog. His tail is always high in the air and wagging. He is many firsts for me. He is my first rescue, my first male dog and my first not a boxer dog. Nala is my traditional dog, a female boxer. They have come to an understanding. They even like each other. Henry does growl at her but usually as a warning. She had her head resting on his back the other day, and he growled. She moved. The next day just about his whole body was sleeping on her, but Nana didn’t mind. She slept right through. They play with mouths open eating each other’s face’s. They make a lot of noise.
Today is a day of lasts. I toasted my last two pieces of bread and slathered one piece with the last of my black mission fig jam. The dog’s dry food is finished. They got the dregs yesterday. I am going to cook rice for them today. I’ll shop tomorrow after my concert.
Today is water the plants day and put trash in the trunk day, including hauling down the box of litter from upstairs. It is heavy so I move it step by step. The dump is scheduled for Sunday. I can barely wait says I with tongue in cheek.
Explore posts in the same categories: Musings
keepthecoffeecoming.blog 
February 22, 2024 at 2:08 pm
Hi Kat,
Today the warm weather continues with sunny skies and a predicted high of 79°. Yesterday and Wednesday we hit 81°. The record high for both days was 89°.
I usually describe the time like you said, “It’s five till the hour”. Of course, “Fifty five minutes after the hour is also correct”. I think that young pilots can figure out when Air Traffic control calls out other air traffic using the analog clock for directions. An aircraft immediately in front is said to be, “Traffic 12 O’clock 3 miles”. Or “Traffic, 2 O’clock 5 miles descending out of 3,000”, etc.
The last time I was flying as captain in one of our flight simulators, I was paired with a young man who was going to be a copilot on this type of corporate jet airplane. The simulator is equipped with a digital clock and digital stop watch combination, produced by a company called, “Davtron”. When we passed a fix which required that we time one minute going outbound, I asked him to start the clock. He replied that he didn’t know how to use this clock that was mounted on the copilot’s instrument panel. I said, “Look at your watch”, to which he replied, “I don’t wear a watch”. I never met a pilot who didn’t have a wrist watch until then. He said, “I can get my phone out of my pocket”. To which I replied, “Don’t bother”. I flew outbound from the fix for five nautical miles, by using our distance measuring equipment, and I turned the airplane around to reverse the course to the in bound direction towards the airport. He was amazed that I could figure this out in my head without using a flight management computer. We were flying at two and a half miles per minute, which by flying one minute outbound would have kept us inside the protected airspace. Millennials, what can one say about them?
One of my colleagues says that sadly they can vote and they can multiply. 🙂
February 23, 2024 at 11:40 am
Hi Bob,
Are you rubbing it in? I’m celebrating 48° today. That is warm!
I know fifty-five minutes after the hour is also correct, but I haven’t ever heard time described that way. I’m the five to the hour sort. Analog time is disappearing. It is going the way of cursive. Kids mostly know digital.
I never thought about air traffic language, but describing where by analog, makes perfect sense.
I don’t wear a watch. At school a bell was rung to start and end classes and to start and end school. If I have to be someplace, I always arrive early. I hate being late. I threw my alarm clock radio away when I retired. It was old and in tough shape. I have an Alexa in my bedroom, and it is my alarm clock.
That is a scary story about the copilot. It is a good thing you were in a simulator. Our generation has dying skills.