Sunday Paper Anyone?

Sunday Dec. 4
I have two items on my “agenda” today, and that is find a good Sunday paper and read it. I think this is a tradition I need to re-establish, at least while down here. I stopped doing this back home because the Wisconsin State Journal back home has come to suck, what with the reduction in staff and their near-total reliance on wire copy.
And the other thing is to do a nice workout and swim. I start the day out with a strawberry/banana smoothie which I prepare in my new blender, and it turns out great.
I set out to find a Miami Herald, and no luck. A New York Times (NYT) is available at a nearby Starbucks, but it is $6. When did the Sunday NYT go up to $6? And there aren’t even any coupons! Not so long ago, couldn’t you buy a new paperback book for that? Yet another sign of getting old.
So I settle on an Orlando Sentinel for $1.79, with $523 worth of coupons inside. I sit outside the Starbucks in shorts and a T-shirt and read the Travel/Leisure section while sipping a Pike Market blend. I chat with a “local” who is from Chicago, and we discuss the weather. I also talk to a gal wearing a Green Bay Packers T-shirt, so I say hello to her as well (originally from Green Bay, moved here permanently, but still loyal to the Packers). I do a quick cell phone call to Dawn for a round of “Guess where I’m calling from?” and to brag about the weather here.
The book section of the T/L section is woefully inadequate, at just one page, so I may have to pop for the NYT next Sunday.
I take the paper back to the condo, prepare a proper breakfast of two over easy eggs, sausage, and one piece of toast, and finish the paper, finding $5.25 worth of usable coupons, so the paper more than paid for itself. I pack the gym bag and head over to 24-Hour Fitness. It’s dark when I get out. I’ve been trying to find a DVD of the movie “Get Smart” since before Thanksgiving, so I make one last attempt at the nearby Target store, and no luck. I ask a clerk, and find it’s been discontinued from most retail stores. So I settle on a copy of “Last Chance Harvey,” which I thought I missed in the movie theaters, for $5.
I’m hungry for a “Manhattan Steamer” (warm pastrami and melted cheese on a hard roll) from Firehouse Subs (which are not in Wisconsin yet), so I pick one up a few blocks from me. Back at the condo, I eat the sub while watching the movie. A few minutes into the movie, I realize that I HAVE seen the movie (yet another sign of getting older), but enjoy seeing it again. And the sub is yummy.
Expenses today: paper and coffee $4
Movie at Target: $5
Sandwich at Firehouse: $5
Total: $14
Bruce

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