Author Archives: Susanna J. Sturgis
Laundry Musings
I don’t need a calendar to tell me what season it is. My laundry line makes it clear. Guess what? It’s summer! Saturday’s laundry line included lots of T-shirts and no long pants. What prompted this particular laundry day wasn’t … Continue reading
Bread Baking in Summer
Hot, humid weather — which is to say “summer” — can be challenging for a bread baker. This bread baker uses sourdough almost exclusively. Most of the year, my loaves rise in a leisurely fashion. In winter they rise so … Continue reading
Happy Fifth of July
In 1852, Frederick Douglass declined to address a Fourth of July celebration. On July 5th he explained why, in one of the greatest speeches of all time: “What to the Slave Is Your Fourth of July?” That speech sparked a … Continue reading
Flunking Inspection
In Massachusetts, non-commercial motor vehicles get inspected once a year. When I learned to drive, in the mid/late 1960s, it was twice, spring and fall. Now it’s once, and the year is, sensibly enough, broken into months; probably some effort … Continue reading
June License Plate Report
Just Tennessee — I didn’t get out much in June. Too much work! Adding things up at the end of the month, I had a minor crisis: Tennessee was #40, and there are 10 states yet to be spotted: Nevada, … Continue reading
Repurposing a Parking Lot
For years the back parking lot at the West Tisbury School was used by off-duty school buses. Teachers were having to park on the grass (apart from field trips, school buses are off-duty during the school day), so the decision … Continue reading
Spilt Milk
Yes, I spilt it, but no, I didn’t cry. I cussed. I live at close quarters in a studio apartment. Sometimes I forget how close things are, like how close the milk pitcher (from which I pour milk into my … Continue reading
May License Plate Report
Finally Washington shows up: the West Coast is now complete. Arizona isn’t all that uncommon. I did manage to meet the annual challenge of keeping Arizona and New Mexico straight. Can you tell I’m a New England girl? May’s best … Continue reading
April License Plate Report
Four good ones in April: Missouri, Delaware, Mississippi, and Utah. The year-to-date total now stands at 36. Spotting Delaware and Mississippi during the same down-island errand-running circuit would have been (almost) enough, since Missouri appeared near the beginning of the … Continue reading
March License Plate Report
Not a huge haul for March but a good one: Indiana, Arkansas, Kansas, and North Carolina. I was thinking that North Carolina was seriously overdue, but a quick look at the 2020 map says that it didn’t appear till April … Continue reading
