My Sunday guilty pleasure

The Sunday paper was always important to me. It became more important after I was disabled at 19. Since our church was not disability or wheelchair friendly in 1967. I stayed home most Sundays and read the capital city Sunday newspaper. Sunday newspapers were always a big deal in my home. My dad used to buy two newspapers on Sundays when I was young. One was from Pittsburgh since he used to live nearby. Years later he dropped that but the Sunday paper was always front and center.

Each Sunday I sat and read the paper the entire time they were gone. Then, usually after a brunch type breakfast, we scattered afterwards and I went back to the newspaper. There is a lot to read in it if you are like me and try to read it all. I liked to read the classifieds, real estate section, and I even read the legal notices. Anything that was written in the paper was interesting to me.

When I went online for the first time in 1997, I was surprised what was available. The World Wide Web is very important to readers. There was always so much to read there even before e-books had such a presence. I knew it would make the world of reading much more accessible to me.

At some point I ended up on the New York Times website. Back in 1997 I did not have to have a subscription to read what was on the New York Times website. I suppose they did not give us all of the content and maybe some of it was old, but I read it anyway. Most of the newspapers and magazines back then could be read for free online. But I knew the day would come when they would not be. And that day happened. All of a sudden I could no longer login to read at the Times.

I knew my sister had a subscription to the newspaper. I asked her if she had a subscription to the online paper and she shared her user ID. So, each Sunday after I come back from breakfast, I sit at my desktop PC and read the New York Times.

Some Sundays it is filled with all types of stories. Some days I go back to it in the afternoon hoping to read all of the good things out of it. However, there are Sundays when it seems there is not as much news that I want to read. On those Sundays, I still read the headline stories, the editorials, the health section, the book section, and lately because of the Trump Administration the opinion section.

I learned much reading about life in New York City. I love reading about the entertainment industry there. The restaurant and style sections enlightening. It's a way to keep up with pop culture without traveling.

I used to print out articles and give them to the nurses to read, or particular aides. Some of them were heartfelt nursing or physician stories. Others were just about good books that particular staff might be interested in reading. After all, a thrifty person can get many books at the library in hardcover, or paperback. Not everybody is into PDFs and e-books like me.

I always enjoy reading stories about disability and nursing home life if they appear in the New York Times. But I do miss the passing of The New Old-Age Blog which used to appear every Sunday.

I look forward to going to the New York Times website on Sundays, and sometimes more often, just to see what they're writing about that day.