It has been a fun week. We started school on August 6, but the kids came on August 10. The week just past was the first full, five-day week with the kids. Needless to say, kids AND teachers were exhausted on Friday afternoon. But it was a great opening. And the kids are wonderfully cute and interesting and their personalities sparkle like many facets in a diamond.
I look forward to Friday nights. Saturdays are for catching up on errands and laundry and household tasks and "must do" lists, and Sunday is for the Lord, so Friday night is truly the only "down time" I have. I'm physically and mentally exhausted so I look forward to laying on the couch in the evening and watching something innocuous or harmless on tv. And every week I get aggravated at the dearth of anything watchable on television. Here is something someone said about TV:
"When television is good, nothing — not the theater, not the magazines or newspapers — nothing is better."
"But when television is bad, nothing is worse. I invite each of you to sit down in front of your own television set when your station goes on the air and stay there, for a day, without a book, without a magazine, without a newspaper, without a profit and loss sheet or a rating book to distract you. Keep your eyes glued to that set until the station signs off. I can assure you that what you will observe is a vast wasteland."
"You will see a procession of game shows, formula comedies about totally unbelievable families, blood and thunder, mayhem, violence, sadism, murder, western bad men, western good men, private eyes, gangsters, more violence, and cartoons. And endlessly commercials — many screaming, cajoling, and offending. And most of all, boredom. True, you'll see a few things you will enjoy. But they will be very, very few. And if you think I exaggerate, I only ask you to try it."
The 'TV is a vast wasteland' quote is quite famous now. It was uttered in a speech "given by Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman Newton N. Minow to the convention of the National Association of Broadcasters on May 9, 1961." (source)
I have about 70 channels on my cable and there is literally nothing to watch. I don't like anything too mentally taxing but the available choices go between silliness and horror/blood/crime. Even the Food Channel is ridiculous with Friday evening repeats of Diners Drive-Ins and Dives for several hours. I can't stand Guy Fieri. He is too loud and too high-energy for me. By Friday night I need a Mr Rogers, not a boxing announcer shouting LET'S GET READY TO RUUUUUUUUUUUMBLE for three hours, or in Guy's case, LET'S GET READY TO EEEEEEEEEAT. Even HGTV features shows with entitled yuppies looking for the perfect house with the perfect number of bathrooms and the perfect color marble countertops. Ick.
If TV was a vast wasteland in 1961, fifty-one years ago, what is
television now? It hasn't improved, let me tell you that. So why do I
keep watching? I don't know. I'm an idiot, I guess. :) And I sound like
quite the curmudgeon, lol.
OK enough complaining. I woke up early this morning from a great night's sleep. In the cool, pre-dawn, I heard a warbling rooster from somewhere nearby. Then the geese flew over. It's geese time! I read in the local paper covering my former hometown in southern Maine that the public beach at Crystal Lake was once again hosting the migrating geese. They are on their way. This morning in the dark and stillness I heard a few honks. So the advance team was making their way to us here in Georgia. Fall in GA is simply glorious.
Today my plan is to do the dishes that have piled up in the sink, wash all the bedspreads, quilts, and couch coverlets and pillows, deal with the water level in my car radiator, steam a pile of potatoes (for bit-by-bit use in various dishes this week) cut up a cantaloupe, write another blog entry, and listen to two sermons.
So, I better get to it!
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