Kitchen Snitch

Sometime in the ‘80s when businesses were converting to computers for email, documents and other functions _ yes, before the advent of the Internet, my friend Ken bought his first personal computer. Now what would you want a computer for? I asked. "I’m going to put my recipes on the it," he said. Sure, that would make sense, they would be easier to find and they would stay clean. You could print one out any time and share it. I just wasn’t convinced. I was really offended when Ken predicted that someday newspapers would be read on the computer. You see, we both worked for a newspaper. Lo and behold, we are both still reading and both reading online _ This Christmas I received an early gift. A Kindle. It’s beautiful. It’s exciting. I have yet to download a book, but it isn’t Christmas yet and I like to savor things like this. Adopt them slowly. There are people out there who know how much I love books. I can rattle off titles of my favorites, recommend authors and when I find a fellow book lover that recommends books, I write them down in my little black notebook. But you love books. I do love books. The smell, the feel, the weight, papers, colors, book jackets_ I am patiently waiting for my new library/living room. It’s in the works, but not quite there yet. In the meantime I have 12 or so boxes of books stashed in the closet. The day I get to put those on shelf will be like Christmas times ten. I’m not going to quit buying books. I am imagining instead being able to read twice as many books every month because I will also have one with me. I mourn the day that paper goes away. When I was a child I lived for paper. My earliest memory is of a wedding in the Fredonia church - I collected all the wrappings and ribbons and boxes and made a train of paper to entertain myself. I was always on the lookout for graph paper. That was in limited supply. We also didn’t have many crayons or pencils. And now, are there any children out there that want for paper and color in their lives. Probably not. It is abundant, and has become a nuisance dealing with all the paper that arrives in the mail every day. I guess my only redeeming grace is that I know how to make paper, crude at best, but paper nonetheless and I have an abundant supply of cattail reeds and other grasses, so in the future I may have to make my own to pen a letter to my friend. Of course that would be assuming that the mail carriers still transport my love and thoughts across the miles by way of blue-uniformed men and women. It must be time to write my Christmas letter.
On a side note...

My daughter and I were in Hobby Lobby the other day and saw this magazine on the stands near the checkout counters... Lo and behold, I said, “That’s my scarf.” I’m still so very excited about the fact that my pattern was used as the cover shot on this magazine. So, if you are in Hobby Lobby take note of my 15 minutes of fame. It still gives me the thrill that will get ‘ya when you get ‘ya picture on the cover of the Rolling Stone. I won’t get into that at the moment... I’ll save that for next time... over the weekend after Thanksgiving I knitted or crocheted about four mitten and hat sets... sold most of my fingerless gloves and therefore I have the means to make more... enjoy this beautiful day.