Tuesday

The snow has become a bit of yesterday's news. There is some light snow in the forecast. It needs to be done before noon Friday when I am scheduled to leave for Harvest Path.

One little inconvenience of the storm was the interference with the satellite TV service. In this case, the wet snow stuck to and piled on the dishes, giving no receptacle for the signal. On Maplecrest, I was able to reach the dish with a broom while standing about halfway up my step ladder. No prob. The office was a different story. The dishes are mounted on the South side of the building, of course, so there is no ladder access immediately below the dishes. And there was no way we were going to get on the roof from the rear of the building with such problematic footing up there.


So my solution on Monday at noon was to lob snow chunks from the plowed piles in the parking lot up at the dishes to jar the snow off. In the end, I was successful with that approach, but it took two sessions, and a rubber arm to complete the task. You would think that a guy who played D1 baseball ought to be able to hit a stationary target less than 30 feet away. Then again, the cut-off man wasn't that easy for me way-back-when either.

That little exercise with target practice gave me the idea that there is a list of things that don't get done as easily as in days gone by. There are the obvious ones like running slower (is that even possible for LtPC?), driving the golf ball shorter, and failing to remember anything. But there are other not so obvious diminishing capabilities. The list:

1. Reading the newspaper box scores. They HAVE to be using smaller print these days. And the NYT, I think that there's a left wing conspiracy to make the print of that entire paper smaller. I instinctively reach for Margaret's magnifying glass every time.
2. Running a 10-key desk calculator. Now this machine has kind gone the way of the flip phone, but I still have one at my small, side table in the office. In another life-time, that a was a no-look skill...feel the little nub on the 5 key and it was off to the races. I now have to look at the keypad for every stroke.
3. This is one we all have lost now. The Millennials never had it. But there was a time that someone with a good memory had a sting of phone numbers memorized for repetitive use. Now? It's just touching the name on the screen.
4. Staying up past 10 PM. What's that all about?
5. Polishing your shoes. I do have a couple of pair of dress shoes that a person could polish. But it has been at least twenty years since I have bought a can of shoe polish. Heck, in boot camp in Charleston for the USAF, spit-polishing shoes was a regular Saturday afternoon leisure activity.
6. All that stuff that the PN does. I wasn't all that talented, but there was a time when I did, or tried to do, all that handy-man stuff.
7. All the stuff in the house that the RCL does. Yeah, I never did much of that.
8. Partying the afternoon away at Wrigley. Haven't done that in years. No excuses. My pal Pete and I need to schedule a Chicago seminar for this Summer!
9. My Photography skills are essentially gone. The iPhone and the mini-digi have taken the science out of the art. Maybe I should get that big Canon and try to bring back thought to my picture-taking. It's an idea.
10. Learning something new. That's a good idea. Haven't really done that forever.

Okay. That was a little philosophical. Sorry. But I just couldn't believe that I couldn't hit that dish from 30 feet.

Make it a good Wednesday in your neighborhood. Happy TGIF to 4.

BCOT



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