Yesterday’s rain was heavy at times and has given way to a chilly, damp morning. Clouds cover the sky, but the sun is supposed to be here by the afternoon when we’ll jump from the current 50’s to the low 60’s. Fallen leaves are all over the driveway and the backyard. Most of them are yellow. Fall is firmly entrenched.

When I was a kid, fall meant darkness came early so we had shorter afternoons for outside playing after school. My mother didn’t care about the time. She cared about the streetlights. We’d usually watch TV until dinner or do homework if we had anything but mostly we didn’t. I remember watching Superman, not a bird, not a plane but Superman. I can still remember the whole opening. I had a lot of questions. How did Lois and the rest never recognize Superman as Clark without his glasses? How come nobody noticed he was wearing something under his suit and did he go back for his clothes?

Supper was usually around six. We ate at the table. We would rather have eaten in front of the TV, but that was only a Saturday morning treat. I remember the Melmac dishes, especially the ones with a sheaf of wheat as the design. They never broke, but they did crack usually straight across the middle of the plate. My mother had one or two of those plates for years. They had been free at the supermarket, a dish a week. I remember the gravy boat.

My weekdays were mostly the same when I was growing up. My mother would shout up the stairs to get us out of bed. She usually made us a hot breakfast. My favorite was dropped eggs on toast which I found out later were officially poached eggs. My other favorite was soft eggs in eggs cups. I ate the oatmeal, lumpy and palatable with only lots of sugar and milk. I always drank cocoa. My mother also made tea and served it in a teapot. While we ate, she made our lunches.

There are three concerts this week, but I will probably only play at two of them. Practice and my lesson will finish off my uke for the week. I do have a list of chores but they are suggestions.

The sun is on hiatus. We have clouds, and rain is expected this afternoon. It is warmish, in the high 50’s, where it will stay, even tonight. Nothing is moving in the still air. It is Sunday quiet.

I’m considering tours to my upstairs. I washed and waxed the bathroom floor, the hall and down the stairs. Everything is shiny bright. I don’t know how all of that started. All of a sudden I was sweeping the floors, washing the floors then spreading floor wax. Today I wanted to continue with my mad behavior on the floors down here, but the rain is a perfect reason to let my sloth hold sway.

When I was growing up, my favorite Sunday dinner was roast beef. We didn’t have it often so it felt special. My mother cooked it medium well but there was always a hint of red in the middle. She covered the top with onions slices which browned in the oven and were always coveted. Roast beef demanded mashed potatoes slathered in gravy. My mother made great gravy, always smooth and thick. I remember it pouring out of the gravy boat. We had a couple of vegetables, often peas and corn, niblet corn. For dinner, we sat at the table together, my father at the head. My mother sat but more often hovered.

I carried the Sunday dinner ritual with me to Ghana. It was special. We ate local food bought from a chop bar in the lorry park. The chop bars were lined up on one side of the lorry park. They were small buildings with inside, uneven tables or two which tottered and with mismatched chairs or benches. The cooking was done in the back. We always did take-out. We’d bring two pots, one for the fufu and the other for the soup, and carefully bungee them to the backs of our motos. We had learned to eat Ghanaian food with our fingers, our right handed fingers. The technique was to pull off a piece of fufu then drag it through the soup. My favorite was okro soup, as they call it in Ghana. I didn’t even know okra existed until Ghana. Often we would buy a Cadbury chocolate bar and a Coke to make Sunday even more special. The DPW had a store around the corner where we bought our goodies.

Now, I sometimes cook dinner for myself but mostly I scavenge from what is in the fridge. Today I have some sliced ham and in the counter basket, a sweet potato. I also have some peas. Sounds like dinner to me.