Scenes from Tonight's Treasure Hunt

Q and A

Q: How many days will it be before somebody finally breaks down and replaces the paper towel role?

A: Four Days.

Light Reading

When I got home from work today, I got caught up on how Sam’s day went. He filled me in on the various things, asked me how my day went, then he said, “Oh , and I found this book at the end of the driveway,” and he hands it to me. I tell him, “Oh that’s a phone book.”

Silence.

“Do you know what a phone book is?" I asked.

He didn’t, so I explained how in the olden days- before the internet, how most families in town would get a phone book and whoever had a phone number would be listed in there, in alphabetical order, along with their phone number, and I gave him a few examples. I told him that now, it was pretty much just business in this book, and I showed him some of these business on the inside.

He took the book back and said, “Hmm, think I’ll take a look.”

He takes the book over to the couch and after a few minutes I hear, “This is interesting. This company says that they exterminate ants, mice... and rats. Wait a minute... It also says they get rid of moles and squirrels! That’s weird!”

Since then, I’ve heard about how there are numbers in there for lawyers- even retirement lawyers, and there are numbers in there for plumbers, and there are a lot of numbers for something called the IRS.

Sam tells me that this book must have everything there is “in the entire United States.” He would know better than me. I’ve never spent more than two minutes looking through a phone book. Sam’s been over there reading it for the last half an hour.

Today's Brief Comment(s)

All these visits go by too fast.

Everything goes by too fast.

Tonight's Walk

Well Worth It

Next to the desk, I have a recycling basket to dispose of all of the junk mail and newspapers and envelopes that usually sit on the dining room table. And next to the basket, I have a bag for all of the things that I want to shred before getting rid of them. This bag consists primarily of bills and canceled checks and anything that might have account numbers on them, or other top secret information.

It’s been building up for a while, so I decided to hire Sam to shed all of this stuff.

Apparently, I had been putting it off even longer than I suspected. It turned out that there was more than one bag buried back there, there were three - all overstuffed. Along with the three bags, I added several folders of outdated financial aid information from the various colleges of the past.

On Saturday, Sam started shredding in the morning, took a break so we could run our errands and have some lunch, then he finished up in the afternoon. By the time he was done, he had filled six grocery bags with ribbons of paper scraps.

I paid Sam to do this job. Someone could argue that since he lives in this house, Sam should be doing something like this as a matter of course. And that’s true. But I look at it that Sam doesn’t collect a regular allowance - not that a regular allowance should be a gift or anything, but he helps around the house - in ways that are seen and unseen.

Sam brings his laundry upstairs and he puts his clothes away - always without me asking. He fixes his bed every night, also without me asking. And he washes his dishes, usually, and he’s always more than eager to help me cook. Sam always helps me out whenever I ask him. So, yeah, maybe he should just be doing that stuff anyway, and he does - with no expectation. But the thing is, most of all, Sam helps keep me sane.

I gave him ten bucks.

Tonight's Brief Comment

I like hearing the distant sounds of geese flying high above, returning from a winter spent who knows where.