Saturday is special in itself. When I was a kid, it was the day to do whatever I wanted. It always started the same with Saturday morning TV and a bowl of Rice Krispies. I sat on the floor to eat and sat close enough to the TV to risk blindness.

I had Saturday choices of what to do usually dictated by the weather. In the winter, I could ice skate either on the swamp or the rink the town built in Recreation Park. The rink had a small building with a wood stove and benches where you sat and put on and took off your skates. Under the benches were all the shoes. Uptown, the movie matinee was in the early afternoon, a cartoon and a movie for a quarter and candy for a nickel. I bought chewy, long lasting candy like Sugar Babies or Jujubes. During the rest of the year I often rode my bike. The route was wherever my bike took me. In the summer, I’d hunt grasshoppers in the field below my house or catch frogs from the swamp. Sometimes I went to the library. I’d pick as many books as I was allowed. I’d put them in my bike basket. Often, when I went over bumps, some books would go airborne and fall out of the basket. On the worst weather days, I’d stay home nestled in my bed and read.

Today is cloudy. It is 55°. Rain is predicted. The house is quiet. The dogs are napping. Nala is stretched out on the couch. Henry is on my bed upstairs. Jack, the cat, is in his room asleep on a pillow. I’m on the couch with my feet up on the table. I’m on my second cup of coffee. I’m going to make toast. I just bought fig jam.

I wondered about toast. Who decided to toast bread and why it is mostly a breakfast food? My only guess was maybe bread got stale and toasting it saved it. Over time I’ve had toasters, the kind where the bread goes down and pops up when it is done. I remember bread getting stuck on the coils and using a knife to get out the bread. I didn’t unplug it. The toasters were chrome. They always sat on the counter. One of my Christmas gifts was a toaster oven. It was multi-functional. I could toast bread and cook food like pizza slices. I still have a toaster oven, my third.

Today I have a concert at Margaritaville, a hotel in Hyannis. It is their Jimmy Buffett convention. I’ve got my Hawaiian shirt and my Hawaiian uke. We’re playing not only Buffett songs but also summer songs. I have to organize the songs and tune my uke.

Earlier this morning it rained. When I went to get the paper, I could smell the flowers and the wet soil. It is a spring smell, the smell of growing things. The rain will return this afternoon, a light rain. It will be in the low 50’s all day.

When I was in Ghana, I learned not to mind the bugs. They’d fly onto my food or land in my glass. I’d just pick them out. I’d sift my flour as the bugs loved flour. I wouldn’t get all of them, but I figured the rest were protein. Lately I’ve been the victim of another plague, gnats. It started in Jack’s wet food. The gnats multiplied. They attacked. They reminded me of World War II movies when swarms of planes attacked carriers. I vacuumed them. I swatted them. I grabbed them in mid-air. I killed the ones on the back door glass. They left streaks. My sister suggested I get one of those fly strips. I remembered them from my childhood. One used to hang over the lobster tank at the fish store. It was covered in dead flies stuck to the strips. It was gross but mesmerizing in an odd way. I looked up how to kill gnats. There are natural ways. I’ll try those before the sticky tape.

I love the early mornings when the air is filled with the songs of birds. When I get downstairs, the first thing I do is let the dogs out, yes I do. They run downstairs to the yard. I often stand on the deck to watch them. This morning I saw blue jays, robins, a couple of doves and a woodpecker. The morning was bird noisy, and Henry added a bark or two.

When I was a kid, I didn’t know birds except pigeons, blue jays and robins. I thought of robins as the harbingers of spring. The pigeons were city birds. The blue jays were the biggest birds, and I thought they were bullies. I remember bird houses, but I don’t remember seeing bird feeders.

At the zoo was a tropical bird exhibit, an aviary. The building was huge with a high ceiling. The air was thick with humidity. It was free flight. The birds flew overhead and sometimes dive bombed us. I remember people squealing and covering their heads with their hands. That was fun to watch.

I have two concerts left this week, one today and one Saturday. Tomorrow I need to grocery shop. I have a list.