The Trap of Too Much To-Do

Putting a halt to Grandma Kay's subscription shenanigans.

👋 Hello, I’m Kevin Ferguson, author of 🍷 Rain on the Monte Bello Ridge,🍷 my forthcoming memoir about health, aging and winemaking. (Read the origin story of the book.) 🍇 The Centenarian Playbook is my newsletter, which features longevity tips and stories from Grandma Kay’s long life. It also includes stories of the Gemello Winery, which her late husband, Mario, ran for nearly half a century. 📖 I’m sure you’ll find my maternal grandparents are quite lovable characters. You can subscribe by clicking on this handy little button.

2022: Grandma Kay out to lunch

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Grandma Kay’s Subscription Shenanigans

I never thought I’d be writing this. It’s another example of how Grandma Kay at 102 defies the odds.

About 18 months ago, I wrote a post about Grandma Kay’s obsession with paying her TV Guide bill promptly after receiving a “renewal” reminder in the mail. In most cases, they weren’t renewals, but rather extensions of a subscription that had more than a year to go. Once the family caught on to this habit, Grandma Kay had extended her subscription for five more years. She was 98 at the time.

How we learned of this habit was one of the more peculiar episodes. One day she was scanning through her magazine and stumbled upon a programming error that rattled her.

“‘Chicago PD’ is not on!” She cradled the magazine in her lap, while seeing an unfamiliar reality TV show on the screen.

It was as if she’d never seen a mistake in her beloved TV Guide over the course of six decades of reading it.

“The problem with the TV Guide,” I advised, “was that it was printed two weeks ago, Grandma.”

“That’s ridiculous! I’m never renewing this ever again,” she said, flapping her TV Guide in the air.

When I asked to see her magazine, the evidence was right there on the mailing label: expires in 2024. Five years from the day of that conversation.

Later that day, I wrote about this conversation in my journal. Three years later and a year into launching this Substack newsletter, I reread the story. It made me wonder: could I sit on this story till she turned 103? Could you? I didn’t either. 

So in the fall of 2022, I shared this story with my readers.

And here we are, 18 months later. We are shopping for a 103rd birthday card later this month for Grandma Kay, and perhaps renewing her TV Guide for yet another year.

If you are wondering: her birthday is June 26th.

Writing Prompt:

Have you ever discovered a quirky habit of a family member that made you smile or shake your head in disbelief? I’d love to read about it. Share your story in the comments. Try to keep it at or under 15 sentences.

There are three buttons at the bottom of every post: “like,” “comment,” and “restack.” Restacking is sharing in digital form. It goes out to the Substack community. If you enjoy the content and click “Restack,” it helps a lot.