By David Fortier 

Come Sunday morning, Mary and I will have had a second babysitting gig of grandbaby boy, so it looks like things are picking up now that we are all vaccinated—except for the grandbabies who don’t qualify yet. 

We wound up in the same place, but things did not start that way. I drove out on Friday night with Child No. 6, who was in town dress shopping for a wedding party. We drove out together, and she returned with my car. Mary who had the first “Coffee and Tea with District 3” live stream from the front porch on Saturday morning, joined me that afternoon. 

This was the first time away from baby for his parents, who were attending a wedding—that included about 130 total and where everyone in attendance had to present evidence of a having passed a very recent COVID test and would be subjected to having their temperature taken to get into the venue. There’s a reminder that we are still living in interesting times. 

While they were gone, grandbaby boy provided the entertainment—non-stop—and some valuable feedback. The entertainment for me, at least, comes in lots of forms—what he will do with a hat (he is around 15 months), such as pulling a knitted hat over this head and walking around the living room bumping into things. And then there are all the words that bump and rumble out of his mouth as he absorbs them. 

Then there is lunch and dinnertime: secure in the high chair, “clip,” as I buckle him in, a bird sings “tweep, tweep”; bib on; food on the tray, food in, some food down, most food out, food back in, smushed and “oops,” “uh oh,” “water” and “done,” and if you didn’t hear, “drop,” as in food on the floor at the base of the high chair. 

And later, after being clean up, running around, until I turn on the air conditioner and he stops in his tracks, points at the air conditioner: “off,” which reminds me who is in charge. Ha! 

And home, for Mary and me, and back to FaceTime, photos and videos. 

Around here, the rhododendron blossomed on Monday and all week I have reveled in its being there, huddled against the front porch, reminded that these things occur regularly and help me remember that there are some things beyond our control and they all aren’t bad.  

But they don’t last too long, so I am reminded that I need to slow down and enjoy them while they are here. (An idea that might be applied to the people in our lives—time is fleeting, you know the drill.) 

Finally, some background on TBE and what we are attempting to do in our pages. I realize that it looks as if we are sports central, thanks to Mike Letendre’s incredible output, which is a great contribution because Bristol is a sports town, but this is only a start. We hope to be making more in-roads into becoming your go to news source, and to follow up with as much information as possible about Bristol. We are working on our events calendar—so if you are a local non-profit—please add editor@bristoledition.org to your email list so we can include your event. 

Regarding our reporting, we are trying some new techniques that challenge conventional journalism. For instance, in the story I wrote about term limits last week, I purposely chose to focus on the how’s rather than the who’s. In other words, there was plenty of information about what had occurred up to this point and how it unfolded, but there were not a lot of names. The hope was, and is, that this type of reporting will allow our readers to understand the process and to draw conclusions, without getting side-tracked. I don’t know how successful it was. I just wanted our readers to know a little about our thinking. 

And throughout the month, look for some new features. 

And remember there is a council meeting this week on Tuesday. Prior to the joint meeting of the council and finance board, there will be the raising of the PRIDE flag at city hall. The Farmers Market kick off is just around the corner, and of course, the Bristol Blues started their season this past week. 

Until next Sunday, be well! 

“Come Sunday morning” is intended to be a weekly review, a recounting of the past week and an anticipation of week to come. Among its features will be reviews of old and new books, sharing of favorite podcasts, some family news, Bristol events and happenings and issues surrounding education, work and community journalism. He can be reached at dfortier@bristoledition.org.