SIMPLE PLEASURES

These are, for me, deeply depressing times.  I genuinely do not know how I am going to maintain some measure of equanimity, day by day, in what I now am forced to consider my declining years.  In these circumstances, I find that I need to take such simple pleasures as I can find, merely to preserve my sanity.

Susie and I have been watching The Young and the Restless pretty faithfully for twenty-eight years or so.  We cannot watch it when we are in Paris, of course, but since nothing ever happens in a soap, that doesn't make much difference.

Y&R, as it is known, is the premier soap, on for an hour, not a half hour, five days a week.  New characters are constantly being introduced, but a few central characters [and the actors who play them] have been on the show so long that they feel like members of the family.  A few moments ago, Tracy showed up again for one of her rare appearances [Tracy Abbot, sister of Jack and Ashley, for those in the know.]  It was sweet, sort of like when Han Solo, played as always by Harrison Ford, showed up in The Force Awakens.

A simple pleasure.