For years now, before going to bed at night, I’ve put water in the electric kettle and gotten out a teabag and a mug so that everything’s ready when I make tea for Jennifer in the morning. This past fall I added a second item to my nighttime ritual. I had come down one morning and discovered that it was freezing on the ground floor. We’d opened a window the day before and forgotten to close it before going to bed, and the outdoor temperature had dropped precipitously overnight. So in addition to preparing the morning tea, I starting making sure the house was closed up each evening. . . .
Category: Personal
The First Snowfall
As anyone in the northeastern United States knows full well, the first serious snowstorm of the season rolled through yesterday afternoon and overnight. In fact, it was the first real winter storm in two years. I’m patting myself on the back today for my foresight. For one thing, I got the snow blower out and tested it two weeks ago. But also, I heaved myself out of my recliner at 7:30 last night, went out in the cold and dark and removed all the snow that had come down so far. . . .
Still Working on Being a Better Husband After 36 Years
My wife has noted that whenever she has the thought that our marriage has stood the test of time, she hears about a couple who has gotten divorced after having been together even longer than we have. There seems to be no length of time that a couple can be married that allows them to assume that they are “out of the woods.” After 36 years, I still make mistakes in my relationship and have to clean them up. . . .
Tomorrow
Shortly after I started a new job in the mid-1990s, I read a book that changed my life. It was Do It Now!: Break the Procrastination Habit, by William Knaus. I don’t know whether the book would have made as much of a difference to me if I’d read it years earlier — it may simply have come at the right time because that was also when I was given my first big project to manage. Work suddenly became much more demanding. I was busy all the time and found that if I didn’t do things when they first presented themselves, it might be days or weeks before I could squeeze them into my schedule. Whatever the reason, that’s when I more or less banished procrastination . . . at least until 20 years later when I retired. . . .
The Neighborhood Christmas Tree
For years, my neighborhood has gathered to celebrate the holidays on a Sunday in December. The outdoor event features the lighting of a Christmas tree and a menorah, and a visit from Santa. We’re doing it again this year, though with some notable differences. Rather than sitting on Santa’s lap, the kids will chat with him from their own chair six feet away.
The party is held at a house that sits on a corner lot with a big front yard. There’s a pine tree in that yard that used to serve as our Christmas tree, but it eventually grew so too tall that we would have needed a bucket lift to decorate it. For a few years we pointed one of those holiday light projectors at the tree to illuminate it, but that couldn’t compare with a tree strung with real lights. Last year we went looking for an artificial tree, but found that any tree tall enough would have been hugely expensive. . . .
Giving Thanks
Even though there are only three of us at Thanksgiving dinner today, it’s still a multicourse meal so there’s a lot to do. Thus, I’m going to keep it short and just note a few of the things I’m thankful for. . . .
Litter in the Year 2020
Like many people in my neighborhood, I pick up any litter I spot as I’m walking around the block. Nowadays, of course, picking up litter, especially litter like this, requires extra care. I usually have a plastic bag in my pocket for picking up after my dog, so when I come across something like the item pictured here, I pick it up the same way. . . .
Abandoning My News Diet
I wrote in July about cutting back on my consumption of news, and in August about how bad a steady diet of news can be for our mental health. But that all went out the window this week. Whenever we weren’t busy with something else, Jennifer and I were glued to the television — CBS, MSNBC, CNN, even Fox. . . .
And the Waiting Is Over
I was in the middle of drafting a blog post entitled “And Still We Wait” when I heard a shriek from the other room. My wife had just gotten a text from her sister in Manhattan saying, “People are cheering outside!” She then turned on the TV and saw that Joe Biden had been projected as the winner in Pennsylvania, and thus the election. . . .
And So We Wait
I noticed two things when I woke up this morning to learn that the presidential election was still undecided and was so close that Donald Trump might win. The first was how heartsick I was at the idea that Trump might be re-elected. I could feel despair and resignation start to settle over me like a heavy blanket. . . .