I’ll bet that there are kids and young adults out there who have never heard music generated from a record player, or themselves operated such a device. Many have also most likely never used a typewriter.

When I was young, I thought that such things were here to stay. Change did come about slowly – there were 8 track cassettes, regular cassettes, then CDs. And there were electric typewriters and then computers. I remember when I was working on my MFA, the library dedicated an entire area to computer use. Me, for the longest time, I stuck to using typewriters because I liked writing drafts, and going back-and-forth between these drafts.

Alys and Raudi on ice

The advantage of each new technological innovation is that we end up saving time. The disadvantage is that with the gain in time there is a loss in quality. I am speaking specifically here about typewriters. Nothing would make me happier than to have computers go down and for us all to dust off the old manual typewriters and begin anew. Even I, at first, would be frustrated in what I’d see as regression. However, I’d be more accepting of it than most.

And so, with new innovations, language and phraseology also changes. Few youngers would even know what the phrase “sounding like a broken record” even means. For my younger readers, it means having to deal with the onslaught of repeated information.

A broken record, in this instance, is one in which the needle skips a groove, and the previous verse is repeated. This can go on indefinitely.

This is how I am feeling in mentioning (again) what’s going on with the recycling center and their lack of support for the Bright Lights Book Project. Every day, there’s another twist, but essentially, it’s the same old story, no pun intended.

Pete and I have talked at length about this, for hours on end because we are both attempting to make sense of it. It continues to make no sense. Why, we wonder, is the board president leading the fray? Why doesn’t he or the other members see that the this could further bring notoriety to the recycling center? And why are they so opposed to a project that has been well received by the local community?

Around and around Pete and I go, coming back to where we started and then repeating ourselves?

The record skips, and in that instance, we talk about other things, for instance, about the animals. It is winter, and as such, it’s cold. We are now blanketing Tinni at night and putting the five chickens together in their roost in the evening. All the water buckets and containers are freezing up, so we are busting up the ice and adding hot water.

Pete’s gotten a few loads of wood, and so the woodshed is filling up. This is our last big task before winter.

Next: 311. 11/10/21: Up, up, and Away