Every bedtime and every morning involves rituals:
At night, be sure the doors are locked. Open the bedroom windows, take the pills. And in the morning, get out of bed and stand there a minute. Check out which body parts are working well and make the day’s plan accordingly. Make a conscious decision to be joyful. Go downstairs. Feed he dogs. Make some strong coffee. Some reports say coffee is bad for you. Others are contradictory.
This time of year, I walk out back by the alley and pick my raspberries. A handful to top the yogurt and the rest into the freezer for the long dark winter.
Next, my early morning ritual includes reading several newspapers online. Generally, I make a point to start with the happy stuff, skipping articles about rapists, shameful leaders, and egotistical parades. (Can a parade be egotistical?)
Today, I was overjoyed to read, “Cutting carbohydrates might also cut lifespan by up to four years, according to a new medical study.”
Yay! Pancakes for breakfast!
And I was happy to read that a parade that might have cost $93 million has been at least postponed. The ever-blameless instigator declared that this was the fault of the city of D.C. and that “we” would just spend the money on more fighter jets. Actually, that money is not just lying around waiting to be appropriated. And the cost of one fighter jet is — wait for it — $93 million.
On to the NY Times crossword.