I don't know why we pay $______ for cable TV, $_____ for Netflix, and $_______ for Prime when we watch our local PBS channel 90% of the time.
A night or two ago, PBS aired a documentary about Benjamin Franklin. Have I told you about my fascination with him?
About 20 years ago, I somehow stumbled over what is called an "armchair treasure hunt" that offered a million dollar prize for the first person to find the "key" and solve the puzzle. Intrigued, I paid the $10 for the book. This wound up costing me thousands of dollars spent on other books for researching the broad range of puzzle clues. Several years later, the puzzle-makers announced that, although no one had solved the puzzle, they were closing it down, and they posted the key. I wasn't too unhappy (or too surprised) about the prospect of not winning the money. Along the way, I had met some fascinating people and learned more history than I ever expected to learn, but I never felt close to solving the mystery. What I did make me unhappy was the fact that the puzzle-makers had planned to issue sequels that would identify the LOCK, and now these sequels would not be forthcoming. What good is a key without a lock, eh?
Long story short, I quit spending time on the puzzle, but I never really stopped thinking about it. This spring, when I purged the sewing room and my former office (which is now The Husband's ukulele room), I donated three car loads of books to the local libraries, but I could not bring myself to dispose of some of the books I'd bought for the puzzle. I kept ALL the books about Benjamin Franklin, for this international man of mystery had become my hero. :)
Something in this week's PBS documentary started me to think about him again. I spent all day yesterday researching him. All day. I even dragged out some of my puzzle notes from way back.
This fascination is not conducive to achieving my other goals. Time's a-wasting, and I need to be doing other things.
* * * * * * * *
My BFF lives in another state. We see each other once every couple of years, and we send each other little trinkets that we find or make. Just before the snow-pocalypse, she told me that she'd mailed me something she'd made. I don't know which of us was more excited for it to arrive. Well, it didn't come, and it didn't come, and she was tracking it as it went NOWHERE , , , ,
It finally arrived yesterday.
The thing she'd made was a really cool basket made from cording (of some kind). In the box with it were two bags of Harvest Cheddar Sun Chips and a handful of chocolate-covered cherries, the good kind with the clearish liquid inside. (Heifer knows me well, eh?) One or two of the cherries had leaked in transit, and the basket was a little sticky, but I rinsed it off and it is none worse for the wear.
I ate two of the cherries right away but put the rest of them in a bag and froze them. CHOCOLATE-COVERED CHERRIES ARE NOT ON MY DIET! :)
I did not open the Sun Chips.
I will not open them.
Yet.
;)
No comments:
Post a Comment