Tag: Tuesday

Sunday Stealing:Tuesday 4

summer vacation

Whatever Tuesday 4 is – Ruby Tuesday?-  Sunday Stealing is stealing.
1. Are you currently reading a book you’d like to tell us about? Maybe a TV program you can recommend to us?
I’ve circled back to The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet by John  Green (no relation). I bought it when it first came out, signed by the author, but then I got distracted. Fortunately, it’s a compilation, so each essay, even as it reflects how John’s mind works and how he pays attention to his surroundings, stands independently.
I suppose the only newish TV show I could recommend is Abbott Elementary, in its second season. It’s a comedy about an elementary school in a poor section of Philadelphia, PA.
2. Are you a Jane Austen fan? So many seem to be. If you are, what is your favorite book, and who is your favorite character?  If you aren’t a fan, is there an author you especially like to read? Favorite character, etc.
I tend to read mostly non-fiction, but I don’t have a favorite author, though it was Russell Baker.
However, I have seen quite a few movies based on Jane Austen books, such as Clueless (1995), Sense and Sensibility (1995), Bridget Jones’ Diary (2001), Pride and Prejudice (2005), and Emma (2020).
3.  How do you spend your time during the day?  Do you set apart time to read, watch TV, and study?
Wordle, Dordle, Quordle, Octordle, blogging, working on things for my church and the Friends and Foundation of the Albany Public Library.  I don’t have a designated time to read.
My wife and I tend to watch the recorded NBC Nightly News after dinner. I view JEOPARDY and try to tackle the recorded but not watched episodes of several shows, mostly the CBS news programs Saturday Morning, Sunday Morning, and 60 Minutes, plus Finding Your Roots on PBS.
I never change?
4. Have your beliefs changed in your lifetime?
Of COURSE! Everything from the nature of God to my understanding of science. How could they not?
5. What are your interests and hobbies? Reading? Writing? Collecting?
Genealogy. I have some coins I’ve collected but have not been diligent about it.  I listen to music, and I have a lot of it.
6 How much time a week/day/month do you devote to your interests?
I have no idea. For one thing, I tend to tackle things in chunks of periods based on the running time of my CDs. So I’ll work on my word games and start my blog. Then I need to change it up, so I wash the dishes or clean the kitchen counter. Next album, I’ll check my email and return to the blog post.  When I have set events- Bible study, book review events, doctors’ appointments, trips, that’ll affect things.
I’m retired. I don’t punch a clock.
7. Do you share your interests with anyone?
Genealogy with my sisters.  Book review with those folks. Choir with the choir. In the words of Yul Brynner, “et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.”
8. Tell us why you enjoy your hobbies, pastimes, or interests.
They bring me joy, especially choir and blogging.
9. What emotions and feelings does summer conjure up for you?
I’m not primarily a summer guy. As a kid, it was baseball or softball at Ansco Park, trips to Eldridge Park in Elmira, Corning Glass Works, and visiting my mother’s aunt Charlotte.
10. What’s summer weather like in your neck of the woods?
Variable. While it doesn’t usually get above 90F, it can be hot. Or unexpectedly not.
11. Got some special summer meals you and your family enjoy?
Other than corn on the cob, not really.
Vacation
12. What do you enjoy doing in summer? Sports, trips… Do you go on vacation?
My mother-in-law’s kin has had a family reunion each summer near Binghamton, NY, for the last three-quarters of a century except for COVID and a year during WWII. Our nuclear family had extended vacations on the way to and from the Olin international reunions in 2011 (Ontario) and 2016 (Ohio). I wrote about my favorite vacations last year.
13. Did your parents have things better than you today?
Absolutely not. Because my mother was much fairer than my father, they were perceived as an interracial couple, which they were not. As a result, they could not find a place to rent in their hometown, and they lived in a rental property owned by my maternal grandmother for over two decades after they married.
14. What time period would you rather live in… or are you okay with today?
On the one hand, advances in technology. On the other, climate change. It’s difficult to peg a specifically better period. I don’t romanticize the past. IDK.
15. What changes would you make for our time to make it nicer/better to live in?
The improvement in freedom, even in ostensibly free nations.

Tuesday, December 13, 2022

waiting

December 13This happened Tuesday, December 13, 2022, a day-in-the-life story. It was more like four hours.
I was taking the bus to the Washington Avenue branch of the Albany Public Library to attend a book review. It was about five minutes late; no biggie.
The bus stopped to pick up a guy in a motorized vehicle, a very fancy wheelchair. As usual, the driver put up some seats to accommodate the rider, then let down the ramp. But the fellow couldn’t get to the ramp because of the snow.
The driver let up the ramp, closed the door, and started ranting. “You’ve got to be kidding me! The STAR [specialty] buses should pick up these folks!” Then they pulled the bus up about two meters, let down the ramp, and the passenger boarded.
I believe the driver was stressed because they fell further behind schedule, not out of animosity towards those with disabilities.
Getting to the talk as it was starting, one of the hosts made the joke, “Now we can begin because Roger Green is here.” He’s made the joke once earlier.
I bought not just the author’s new book about the 1936 Presidental election but also a book written by an audience member about a much more recent Presidency.
Bus back
I took the bus back. The guy with the snazzy wheels was already on the bus and got off at the same stop without difficulty.
I stopped at the CVS to pick up prescriptions for my daughter. CVS and other pharmacies are closed between 1:30 and 2 pm. So I was fifth in line, with more folks behind me, when the counter opened. But the clerk, who was also a pharmacist, was quite efficient, answering a couple of my questions, and it did not take long. I also picked up a UPS package at the front.
The sidewalk of the Madison Theater was a sheet of ice five days after the snowfall. The sidewalks on the rest of the block were totally clear. They need to be better neighbors.
Then I  went to the Price Chopper/Market 32.   Ostensibly, I went there for blueberries, grapes, and butter. But, as is often the case, I bought more items so that my bag from home was inadequate.
I was second in line at the register. In front of me was a couple, approximately my age, buying only a few items. I was not paying attention to them until the man berated the woman. ‘Where are the cards? I just gave them to you since we were in line!”
I half-heard a series of exchanges between the man and the cashier.  They involved needing to void purchases. One was that he couldn’t buy razor blades with food stamps.
There is a calculation about when to pick up the items you’ve already put on the conveyor belt, put them back in the shopping cart, and look for another checkout aisle. I decided to stay. Surely this will be concluded soon. Still, I told two other people to go to another aisle behind other people, and both finished long before I started.
Fisticuffs?
FINALLY, the young cashier, who didn’t appear old enough to shave, said to me, “I’m sorry. I’ll be right with you.” My reply: “You’re fine. I’m not blaming you.”
The man in front of me in the aisle scowled, “Are you blaming me? You can’t blame ME! I should go and kick your ass!”  Fortunately, there was a shopping cart between us. For some reason, I calmly replied,  “As you wish, sir.” He huffed out of the store.
The young cashier said, of the previous customer’s transactions, “That was very stressful!” I told him that he handled the situation very well. Then I finally carried my groceries home.
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