Saturday Morning Ritual 07/02/2011

Saturday morning means that The Wall Street Journal has an expanded arts and culture section with in-depth book reviews. I have always loved both newspapers and books, so on Saturday morning, before 7AM, I head down our 120 foot driveway in my pajamas and flip-flops to get the paper. The street, a fairly busy one at other times of the day, is quiet at this early hour, and our house is set back onto a treed lot, so no one can really see me unless I'm at the very end of the driveway

If I'm lucky, the paper is lying on the gravel and not in the drainage ditch that lies on either side of the driveway. More than once, however, I've had to place one foot on the side of the ditch and lean precariously as I reach as far as I can to grab a corner of the plastic covering.
In the past we have had paper chutes, or paper tubes, as some call them, but we are located on a curve, and more than once, the paper chutes have been run over and smashed. Once, when we put them into a wine barrel, a truck drove over the wine barrel and rolled it down the hill. Now, the delivery persons (We do get a local paper as well) just put the papers in plastic covers and toss them in our direction.

Paper retrieved, I head back to the house where coffee is already dripping and likely ready. I will pour a cup and, since it's summer, I will head onto the screen porch with at least two of my three cats to savor the WSJ and read about the wonderful new books I won't have time to read.