Skip to main content

The Channel Was Missing

 


Last night I announced to our oldest that I would be in bed a little after ten. I wanted to encourage her to be home earlier than she had been the past few nights. But I knew she’d defy my desired wishes. For she had now only days left away from studies, being back at her dorm and studying for the winter’s quarter courses.

I’d finished working on editing, learning, and making a trailer for a potential monster film at half past eight. And now I’d sat down to watch an episode or so of “Arrow” on Netflix to unwind from the day. My oldest parted to go bowling with friends. At around ten after having a half cup of coffee that does help me sleep, I was beginning to dose in our living room.

I knew it was time to shut down. And I’d check on our youngest doing homework and say ‘goodnight’ to her. I’d entered my bedroom, knowing that watching a few minutes of the NFL game between the Bills and the Bengals would get me more settled into a calmer sleep. So, I thought. Until for some reason I could not get that channel to show. I scratched my head wondering what was awry with the station saying there was an issue with antenna repositioning. I thought it was our antenna’s issue. I reset various things and checked the connections. Still no channel seven, the ABC station was missing. I thought how odd.

I hit the hay a few minutes earlier due to the issue, instead of grappling with a nominal blip on the radar screen of life. This morning as I’d awakened and took care of pets, making coffee for our youngest’s thermos for school. After finishing various chores, I knew to settle into my writing before I ran and trained. As I did, I saw the news. A young football player from the Bills went into cardiac arrest and there was no game to watch after the first quarter. It was like the antenna knew I’d be distracted, had I known last night a player was near death’s door. It would indeed have disturbed me. I’d been watching the NFL since I was age four. I’ve looked forward to some NFL viewing when it’s on and am disappointed when the season ends. No other sport season has had me so fixated in watching it so intently all these decades.

So, this morning as I was writing a piece for my blog. I went online to check a grammatical issue; I then saw the NFL news. It was something that if I known about it; then I might not have been able to get a full night’s rest. I read a variety of articles on Damar Hamlin of the Buffalo Bills. I saw some ill-regarded comments by a viewer. Instead of commenting, I closed the site and said a prayer for Damar Hamlin that he recovers well. I then texted our youngest at school and expressed to her perhaps why I couldn’t get the station the game would have been being aired on. But one thing I didn’t say to her was… I’ve cared so much about people; that even after I decided to no longer be in the care-giving business after nearly three decades in it. My soul still reaches out and makes me care about complete strangers with heartache. Even if it’s only a message from an antenna.---Jody-Lynn Reicher

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2023 Holiday Letter from the Reicher's

Well, I didn't think I'd be doing a Holiday Letter this year, but here goes... The Spirit of Norm is in the air. As the wind whips with minus a true snowstorm.  In hopes the Farmers Almanac was correct, I pray to the snow gods. Rain ensued the month of December thus far. We have nearly tripled the amount of rainfall usual for December in New Jersey. And I've witnessed its treachery. Storms such as these hit us hardest in July. Then remained fairly intense through til about early October.  Our daughters are doing well, Thank God.  Their Dad would be proud of them. Our oldest Sarah, now a Junior at UCLA pursuing her degree in Chemical Engineering. She's digging the whole California scene. Which I thought it was for her. She's had some good traveling on her off times from school. For her March 2023 week off, she drove her and a few friends out to Lake Tahoe and went downhill skiing for a first in nearly 5 years. She had to rent the ski equipment.  Funny enough when
3 comments
Read more

Sledging the Hammer

  "You could have a steam trainIf you'd just lay down your tracks..."---Peter Gabriel's 'Sledgehammer' lyrics. This is not the tune that lay in my mind this morning as I reminisced about yesterday's volunteers to help on trail crew.    However, as I looked up the proper definition of sledging that song popped up. I say sledging, which is my own take on swinging a hammer that we call a "Double Jack". The Single Jack is six pounds. I know that because our regular crew of five including me and one staff supervisor are handling Harriman State Park Trails, and have to carry about four of those, two shaping hammers, along with a hoist, belay bag with heavy equipment, first aid kit, double Jack, three 18lb rock bars, a lopper, three buckets, three eye to eyes, two burlap straps, two green wrapping straps, two pick Mattox, a roe hoe or two, a bar for either the two ton or one ton hoist, the feathers with pegs for splitting rocks that we drill... s
Post a Comment
Read more

It Follows Me...

One may wonder what would inspire someone to work hard labor voluntarily. For me it’s the love of many things. It’s the passion that won’t be broken. Because there are so many aspects to such service for me, that it may seem beyond comprehension. I’d compare it to my youthful desire to enter the military as a young child. Then for a multitude of reasons only to follow through thirteen years later at age eighteen entering the Marines. There were things that followed me throughout my life. Sometimes they were questions of how I ever gave up my over decade’s life dream to become a New Jersey State Trooper. My childhood desire to never wed—to never have any serious relationships with another human being. I desired only service in military and law enforcement nearly my whole childhood. Too the extent that even one of my Marine Corps superiors expressed to me last July, “I never thought you’d ever get married. It just wasn’t who you were. You were always a loner.” I replied, “Yeah. I know.
Post a Comment
Read more