Best Laid Plans - or Waylaid in this case

When I was planning my retirement in 2008, a big question from friends was 'What will you DO???  Actually, not doing anything sounded pretty good to me.  But I did have some serious plans to spend my mornings drinking my coffee and reading my newspapers.  I had not done that for twenty years.  I could do my NY Times Crossword puzzle in the morning.  Who had time for that with a full-time plus job and three kids?

So, there I was a few short months after retirement, when the Detroit News and Free Press, who had already merged their Sunday editions, decided to only home deliver three days a week.  The other days were available online.  Sitting in front of the computer with coffee is not exactly what I had in mind.  Plus, I can be a bit of a klutz.  Coffee + keyboard = potential disaster.

To my surprise, I actually enjoy the online edition (after I drink the coffee in the kitchen, just in case).  I hit the highlights: major news, editorial, Frazz, Dilbert and anything else that may look interesting.  I also get the Oakland Press everyday for local news (and aforementioned NYT X-word).  A major benefit to not having the daily paper in 'paper' form is fewer bags of newspapers to recycle each week.

As for the NYT X-word, did you know that Alpo was the first sponsor of '60 Minutes'?  I had the four-letter word starting with A and I am like 'Alpo?  You must be kidding.  Must be something else'.  Nope.  Alpo.  So there.  See how invaluable it is get a newspaper and have time to read it.  If you are on a game show and they ask that question, now you know.