By David Fortier 

Come Sunday morning, Mary and I will be deep into a home improvement project. Yes, in the midst of family texts and Facetiming, work and campaigning for her and my summer projects—getting TBE into its next phase, reading and writing, guiding a novelist through the publication process. 

Our home project began innocently enough: Hire someone to strip the woodwork in three rooms, so that we might stain it, and get the floors done in the same three rooms. That beginning was in mid-April with a deadline of mid-May. The floors are complete, but the stripping part is, let’s say, a work in progress—our work.  

The deadline passed, repeatedly, and eventually, our contractor moved on, leaving Mary and I to prep the woodwork for staining, which means for me, sanding four to six hours a day. I am very familiar with the different grits of sandpaper, different types of word, different molding, different grains. 

It’s all been very edifying. And just this weekend, we may be in the position to start staining two of the rooms. Wish us luck! 

*** 

As for TBE, we are pushing ahead with our membership drive. Memberships, which involve a small recurring monthly donation, will allow us to expand our reporting, especially of city news. 

And, thankfully, people are signing up. We have proceeded slowly and cautiously, because, if we are anything, we are a learning organization. This means we are learning about what it means to run a successful online organization. We started early on asking people to join our email list and many did, to the tune of over 1, 200 on different platforms. 

To encourage recurring monthly donations (and one-time donations), we shifted from unlimited access to limited access. Unlimited access is now reserved for donors. Free readers and email subscribers have limited access.

What we have learned with unlimited access, however, is that some donors, either one-time or recurring, have to take additional steps to ensure they get their unlimited articles. 

We recommend the following steps for one-time donors and recurring donors. 

1. Setting up an account with a username and password. 

2. When setting up the account, clicking the “Remember me” checkbox, so that your browser will remember your username and password. 

2. Logging into the website. 

3.   Closing the browser (do not log out), so that next time you receive an email with new posts, your information will be stored and all you have to do is click the log in button to read the stories. (This holds true whether you are reading on your computer or on your phone.) 

3.a. On an additional note, if you like to read on your phone, you can create a link with the TBE icon. Click here for instructions. If you like to read on your Android device, you can create a link by following these instructions: click here. 

As always, I encourage all readers to join our Bristol online community news venue (newspaper) with a small recurring donation. This is a growing community with Bristol’s best interests at heart. More financial supporters will allow us to cover more of the city more regularly.  

In other words, we all have an opportunity to make Bristol a better community by supporting and providing a reliable and comprehensive source of information to guide us as we make decisions about our future. 

*** 

Reading this week, Tom Nichols’s Peacefield newsletter. It is available free from The Atlantic magazine. I believe anyone who signs up for it is eligible for limited views, but even limited views are worthwhile. To sign up, click here. There is a link at the bottom of the page that allows you to sample Nichols’s work. 

In a recent piece, Nichols led me to this document by John Adams, where Adams recommends Americans (this was written in 1765) really need “to dare, read, think, speak, and write.” Read the piece by Adams by clicking here. Read the piece by Nichols by clicking here. 

The next Jan. 6 hearing will air Tuesday, July 12 at 10 a.m. Here is a link to information about his hearing as well as those that preceded it. Click here. 

“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.   

All TBE readers, supporters and donors   

The Bristol Edition will be limiting the number of stories non-members and free readers may access each week. This decision is based on our financial projections and, most certainly, to remind people that TBE is serious about providing accurate, timely and thorough reporting for Bristol. To do this we have devised a financial support structure that makes unlimited access extremely affordable, beginning with a $6 monthly donation.   

• Non-members will be able to access five (5) articles per week.   
• Free readers and people who have subscribed by email will be able to access five (5) articles per week.   
• Donors and financial supporters will have no limits.   

Note: Donors may have to contact TBE if they find they are being limited, since we will need to set up a membership account for you. Email editor@bristoledition.org for instructions. Sorry for any inconvenience. People with financial difficulties may write editor@bristoledition.org to be considered for free access.