Confessions of a Grandma

I had turned my television on briefly on Monday night after coming home from the poetry workshop at the library.  I did not see anything that I wanted to watch so I turned it off and read until bedtime. Tuesday rolled around and I had a meeting with my regular writing group.  I switched on the TV set before I headed off to the library once again to see if I could catch some of the news. This was all I could see. I called Comcast's automated service and pressed "1" for a refresh--"all that is usually needed" according to the non-person on the other end of the line.  When I got back, the same screen.  I called Comcast again and eventually got connected to a live person who assured me this was "a common problem that I can help you with right now." Press the cable button, then the power button. Try that again. Again. Read the cable box serial number to me. Find the input button on the TV remote.  Press that. Press that again. Unplug th...

It is time to think about packing up and returning to Vermont.  Wednesday was spent on yard work—weeding where needed,  shaping up some of the bushes, and rearranging some garden borders.  We had a local guy come in to do the spiny plants and we have a neighbor signed up to stop by once a day and pick up any fallen grapefruit.  Thursday will be dust and polish, vacuum and mop—generally tidy up the inside.  Friday we will do laundry, clean out the refrigerator, pack.  Saturday morning we will be good to go after a few closing up details are accomplished. I will have to catch up the new television season when I am back in Vermont.  I won’t be sitting out in the evenings watching sunsets and stars and moon risings, chatting with the neighbors strolling by. I just read Linda Reeder’s post about her SMART television .  My television in VT is not a smart one, although it sometimes gets the best of me.  I can use the on-demand for shows I miss an...

In the paper this morning there was an article about a Wisconsin man (Vermont, Wisconsin, oddly enough) who shot his televsion because Bristol Palin has not yet been eliminated from "Dancing with the Stars."  Oh, that struck me as incredibly sad...that someone would care enough abut that TV show to engage in violence against an innocent piece of electronics. And I think it is kind of sad that, if the ads can be believed, that "Dancing with the Stars" is America's most watched program.  Surely, surely, this nation could do better than that. Well, it is for certain that we can produce worse shows--much worse.  Anything that involves wife swapping, for instance.  Where is the moral outrage on that one?  Or anything involving "real" housewives.  Especially if those housewives are from New Jersey.  Come to think of it, it really seems like a bad idea to have any kind of program that features the denizens of New Jersey at all.  Those hair dressers?...

 We try to keep a clean and tidy house.  This plan is facilitated by the fact that we no longer have a.) children living with us; b.) cats, dogs, or other pets; c.) jobs that keep us too tired to care about an accumulation of dust and other grime. Add to that the fact that we are two mildly obsessive-compulsive organizing types, and you'd think that one could eat off the floor on any given day or check for a poppy seed between teeth in the reflection from the polished coffee table. Well, that certainly is NOT the case at all.  And then, too, one of us is a collector with an impressive amount of stuff that he does not like the other one of us to dust for fear she will break something.  Still, those TV shows of a few years ago--the ones where a professional organizer came in to help the homeowners get a handle on the garage, or make a home office more efficient, or a family room more functional--they really kind of made me twitch.  The shows that were on th...