The weather has the feel of fall about it. The morning temperature is a bit chilly, long sleeve chilly. The sunlight is sharp, the sky a clear blue, and the breeze ever so slight. Earlier, I sat on the deck steps to drink my coffee. Nala stayed with me. Henry went into the house. We each greet the mornings in different ways.

My life is pretty quiet. Most of my days are spent at home, just me and the dogs and Jack. I read or watch movies or do spot cleaning, my last resort. Ukulele gets me out of the house. I am still amazed I can actually play a musical instrument. I mostly live in my cozies. I am up until the wee hours. The nights are lovely. By then, my house is the only one with lights. We don’t have any street lights so the darkness is dense. I can hear birds and insects and every now and then Henry barks. When I finally go to bed, I fall asleep quickly.

I have a sort of morning routine. I read the paper, do all the puzzles and have two cups of coffee. Sometimes I have toast. I still slather it with fig jam if I have any. I then start writing Coffee and have YouTube on in the background. Often I watch the walks through Accra, Ghana. I feel as if I am there. I know the sounds and the smells. I recognize the aunties selling their wares along the sidewalks. They haven’t changed in all these years. I see fruits and vegetables and clothes on mannequins with no arms. Pots and pans in different sizes are piled. Tinned goods are stacked. It is all so familiar.

When I was a kid, my grandparents were the oldest people I knew. They were quite different, my mother’s parents and my father’s. We loved to visit my mother’s parents in East Boston. They were warm and loving. They lived in a city we could explore. On weekends, their house was a meeting place for all the siblings. My mother was the third of eight. I had what seemed like hundreds of cousins. I still picture my grandmother. She was short, the whole family was mostly short. She wore a bib apron usually with flowers. She wore slippers with the backs down. Her stockings were rolled down to her ankles. She was not really cheery. She sometimes wore a tired smiled.

My other grandmother was a tall woman, taller than my grandfather. She stooped. She also wore a bib apron with a flowered dress underneath. Her shoes were always black with clunky heels. She had a laugh that was always too loud, strident. My father visited them most Saturdays as they lived in the same town as we did. The rest of us seldom visited. They weren’t very welcoming. Once in a while they did invite us to dinner. I remember one time going on Thanksgiving night for a second turkey dinner. They had a dining room. The furniture was dark. It is funny what you remember.

The rain stayed around most of yesterday, but, by late afternoon, Mother Nature had finally gotten tired of pelting us with all that rainwater. The sky lightened, the dogs went out and the night had stars. Today is a perfect fall day. It was 62° this early morning, but the temperature has already creeped up to 72°. The breeze is constant, strong. The trunks are swaying and the leaves are spinning. I can hear them swishing.

When I was a kid, fall was my favorite season. I loved all the colors. I loved the crisp mornings. The air was always clear, almost shimmery in the light. Summer humidity was finally gone. My mother used to make us wear a light jacket which, by afternoon, was too warm. I’d put it in my school bag for the walk home. Most afternoons I’d quickly get out of my school clothes into my play clothes. My neighborhood friends and I would sometimes play games on the street like Red Rover. We all knew the strategy. Pick the weakest player who probably couldn’t break the hand chain. We played Simon Says and Red Light. Other afternoons I’d bike ride, but I never went far from home. The street lights came on too early. That was fall afternoon’s only drawback.

Supper was more formal than in summer. We always had meat, mashed potatoes and a vegetable. My mother’s meatloaf was one of my favorites. Sometimes she’d put ketchup on the top and cover the ketchup with bacon. We fought over the bacon. It was always wonderfully crisp. Other times she used mashed potatoes like frosting. She’d cover the beef and put it back in the oven. The tips of the potatoes browned. It looked like a baked Alaska. We never had baked beans during the week. They were only for Saturdays. We had corn, niblets and creamed, baby peas, cut carrots which we ate reluctantly and green beans, mostly French green beans. I remember watching Leave It To Beaver and The Donna Reed Show. They always had a stack of white bread on the dinner table. We never did. Dessert was mostly cookies from the supermarket. I am and will forever be an Oreo Fan.

Lately I have been testing Oreo flavors, some new, some already traditional. Double Stuffed and Mega Stuffed are just perfection. I’ve had the Golden Oreo and liked it, but it took a while to get use to as Oreos were always chocolate when I was a kid. Mint and Peanut Butter are easy to like. I just tasted Banana Pudding Oreos. Okay, a taste doesn’t cover it. I ate the whole package. I also ate the whole package of Deep Fried Oreos. It wasn’t in one sitting but over time. I will never buy them again. They are so good they will never last. I‘d be making several trips to the kitchen for handfuls. Now I’ll just dream of my Oreos.