“Remoted” Workday 184 / Day 275 (Wednesday)

Today had some unexpected highs. Pre-work computer time involved quick and interesting research. Last month, while looking at the 1900 census records for my great-great grandfather, I noticed that in addition to him, his wife and their three children, there were eight people listed as “boarders” in the household. All the boarders were from Finland, and some had been in the United States for only a couple months. One boarder had the occupation of “wool sorter,” and two were listed with “rag picker.”

This morning before work, I looked up the occupation of rag picker. A scholarly article titled “A Penny for Your Rags: Rag Pickers and the Paper Industry in the Later 19th Century” by Corinne Cardinale caught my eye because one of Fitchburg’s major early industries was paper making. It turns out, the rag picker was crucial to the paper industry, as cotton, linen were used in making paper, and the mechanization of the paper process increased the need for rags. Wool was sorted by color and recycled for use in "shoddy clothing." The rag pickers, through their trade, even helped keep the streets clean. Interesting. To me, anyway. It reminded me of all the afternoons spent in the Fitchburg Public Library browsing the card catalogue. Dang, I miss those file drawers.

After work, a trip to the Post Office went as smoothly as a trip there could possibly be. There were many cars in the parking lot, which caused worry about a long wait, but inside, there weren’t that many people in the socially distant line and three very efficient people behind the counter. The Post Office journey took a mere thirty minutes including travel. Euphoric from the unexpected ease of the mission, I boldly set forth to Family Dollar for tape, which has been forgotten on several previous store visits. I got the last available cart, which added to the high from the Post Office.

$2 Holiday Cookies are a
cheap pick me up.

The cart enabled restocking critical items like biscuits, canned food, and baby diapers for the dogs, and coffee filters for me. As impressive as the durability and number of times a #4 cone filter can be reused, it will be nice to stop rationing them for the next few weeks. It turns out paper napkins and toilet paper were not needed, but the reserves in the bathroom closet indicate I should be all set for months.

Thirty-five dollars lighter in the wallet and I was finally out of there and back home. Indulgent impulse buys including another $1 wine glass, new place mats for under the dog food bowls, Zapp’s New Orleans kettle cooked Voodoo chips, queso, and more of the highly addictive $2 Holiday Cookies were unpacked. That’s when it was discovered that the tape was forgotten again. 

Perhaps worse than the missing and much needed tape, this box of Holiday Cookies doesn’t taste as good as the box a couple weeks ago, with “not as good” being an almost soap-like after taste in one of the cookie types. Trust me, my potty mouth was introduced to soap at a young age, and the memory isn’t pleasant. Maybe the Zapp’s voodoo chips can offset it.