By David Fortier 

Come Sunday Morning, the third oldest will have returned home to help with some chores, mostly ones, I ordinarily would have undertaken myself. Ordinarily relates to that time prior to the knee replacement, ha; and in the future, once the healing has been done, the idea is that ordinarily will return.  

The chores were removing the window air conditioners and moving some furniture. Moving the air conditioners on a rainy day means someone is going to get wet. And the third oldest did get wet, and so did Mary who filled in for me moving the the living room air conditioner. And so did the floor, get wet, that is, and I got to get out the Shammy towels from their package under the sink to help sop up the water. 

That was Friday and Saturday, so we got to have our pizza Friday together—pizza from Chunky Tomato—a white pie with eggplant, ricotta, spinach and sausage (typically, we drop the sausage to accommodate the vegetarians in the house, but no vegetarians this night).  

I just feel that we are a bit late this year with our seasonal chores, and not only because I have been hobbled, but because I can’t get a feel for the weather. So, it feels pretty good to get somethings done. (I still am concerned about snow removal. Should I be?) The week started out so well, with those sunny warm days. It was nice getting an extra hour of sleep Sunday morning, and it was pretty smooth sailing into those wonderful days after the change. (More and more I am becoming a proponent of eliminating the time changes. Just stick with Eastern Standard Time or go with Daylight Savings—no more changes.) 

This past week the new city council held its first meeting, which we covered. A couple notable moments included, during public participation, an empassioned presentation about the inaugural being held in a church, a different slant on the same subject, and a short pointed statement about Covanta’s plans to burn medical waste. During the meeting, the council decided not to address the sale of a downtown parcel to Wheeler Clinic, which is ready to breakground. 

Regarding Covanta, we ran a meeting notice back in July. Click here. It includes a link to the presentation and information about Covanta’s plans, from Covanta’s perspective. If you are unfamiliar with the subject, this might be a good place to start. Since then, a group of concerned citizens has held meetings of their own. We hope to do more with this topic in the future.  

At the same time, we hope to continue following developments with Wheeler. The latest I have heard is that at least one council member has begun soliciting information on Bristol Talks about Wheeler. For information about the Wheeler purchase from the city’s economic development arm, click here. And here. And here. This is a somewhat piecemeal, but it may be helpful. More in the near future.

Otherwise, for this week’s reading/listening, here’s a program I tune into regularly—On Being with Krista Tippett. This week’s podcast is “Bessel van der Kolk: Trauma, the Body, and 2021.” 

Have a good week! 

“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.