In our sixties we constantly received offers for free dinners. Sometimes they were to listen to condominium sales pitches. Sometimes for time shares. Sometimes to discuss “wealth management”(proving they didn’t know much about us!) Eventually those offers dried up replaced with offers for free hearing tests.

Now that we are well into our seventies the latest postcard(no fancy brochures any more)we found this in the mail this week. Apparently they have reduced their incentive for this one. It’s down to lunch and a quick sales pitch for cremation. Even the lunch looks minimal, perhaps just a cup of soup.

I am struggling to imagine someone thinking up this promotion. I would prefer not to munch or sip away while we discuss cremating the same body I am fortifying with the free meal.

I was reminded of the old saying from my college years “there is no such thing as a free lunch!”

In the foreground is what is left of a ten foot tall branching sunflower which first emerged as a volunteer in June. Since then it has been visited by a series of creatures. In the beginning it attracted the interest of goldfinches, but they soon left. Then hundreds of bees feasted on the nectar throughout the ensuing weeks. As the flowers dried out they became the food source for downy woodpeckers, hovering carefully as they ate. Eventually the squirrels showed up. Some clambered up the sturdy main stalk, chewed off the flowers, took them to ground and devoured them. With little left of the largest blooms at the top the squirrels and woodpeckers have left leaving what remains to the bees and butterflies.

As you can see in the rest of the photo the trees are just starting to lose their color. The summer has been unusually dry so the change is coming sooner. The weather has been lovely, temperate and no humidity. Just right for Charlie’s late summer tasks of painting and repair of the deck and fences.

As for me, this time of year is a feast for the eyes! Time in the porch swing trying to just savor the season. Trying to stay out of politics. Occasionally succeeding.

On our walk today on the grounds of the local college, Charlie and I came across two benches like the one pictured above. Examining it close up, we could see that it has USB ports on the end, powered by the solar panels with electricity stored in the attached battery.

It seems an ideal amenity for both students and neighbors. An adjacent horseshoe pit, barbecue pit and picnic table allows people to play, eat, and charge their phones. We passed a neighbor who said he loves the idea but keeps forgetting to bring along his charging cable. For those of us who think we must always be doing something, we can now say that we aren’t just resting. We are being productive!

Thanks Goodwin College.

Perhaps it is because all of us who survived measles are well on in years. Perhaps it is the prevailing anti-authority mood that has swept the current national government. For whatever reason, the top official in our country responsible for overseeing vaccinations(the agency formerly responsible for putting out this notice) has decided that he(with no medical training)is the arbiter of what children need. So far he has promoted false cures for measles and downplayed its seriousness, claiming “herd immunity” should be sufficient.

I had measles when I was six. I was desperately ill, confined to a dark room, running a high fever of 104 and hallucinating. My little brother, then three, similarly suffered hallucinations. Except for rubbing us with cool wash cloths, there was nothing my mother could do to comfort us. When my daughter was born in 1975 I couldn’t contain my joy that she could be spared not only this but also rubella and mumps. All with immunizations.

Yes, shots were unpleasant, more for me watching sometimes than for her. Yes, she was often fussy after each one. But she never had to endure the measles or the mumps. She never had to be kept out of public places in the summer risking exposure to polio, which my generation contracted before the vaccine. She never got smallpox, diphtheria, whooping cough, or tentanus as had those in my grandparents’ generation.

These diseases are in fact a very big deal. I am heartbroken that “officials” are discouraging the vaccines that prevent them.