“Time felt slower when we do nothing but wait.”
Today is the last of the warm, sunny days. Tomorrow will be cold and rainy. I have been a sloth of late so I need to motivate myself to go out and enjoy today. I’ll grab Gracie and my camera and off we’ll go.
In the winter I stay home a lot. It is, after all, usually cold which is the best reason to stay inside cozy and warm. In the summer, I am a deck denizen and love to sit and read and watch Gracie in the yard and the birds at the feeders. Right now I am just… You probably wonder if I left off a word but I didn’t. I can’t describe my mood exactly. I am not sad but I am not happy either. I am just…
I am unmotivated though I did dust strange places this morning and wet mop the kitchen floor. There was no sudden burst of energy. They were necessities. I couldn’t take it any longer. The dusting was the top of the baseboard behind the tavern table and the back of the Morris chair. The kitchen floor was filled with Gracie’s paw prints.
Grace, my student, not to be confused with Grace my dog, had her appointment at the embassy today hoping to get a visa to visit. I think she is probably done already given the time change. I called but got no answer. She is willing to come even in the cold, but Grace has no idea what cold really is. During the harmattan, especially around December, the nights are cold but only in comparison to the hot, hot days. I had a wool blanket on my bed. The mornings during the harmattan were my favorite times of the day. They felt like cool fall mornings when you knew the sun would soon enough warm the day. My students wore layers of sweaters. They complained bitterly about the cold. I relished it. It was such a strange feeling to be cold in Ghana. Well, Grace is in for a jolt. I doubt she owns enough layers for November cold. Luckily I have plenty of jackets. I don’t even know if Grace owns shoes. Sandals are all everyone wears. Shoes are unhealthy. Maybe our first stop will be a shoe store.
I am on tenterhooks waiting.
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Tags: a sloth, cleaning weird places, cold mornings, cold nights, cold weather, embassy appointment, harmattan, jackets and socks, mopping the floor, nothing sort of mood, shoes or sandals, warm and sunny, wearing layers
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keepthecoffeecoming.blog 
October 22, 2013 at 1:12 pm
Good luck for Grace’s visa!
October 22, 2013 at 4:24 pm
Thanks, Birgit, but she has called and was told she didn’t qualify. I find the whole thing ridiculous.
October 23, 2013 at 8:47 am
So sorry. These bureaucrats should have listened to your
president and say “YES, WE CAN [give you a visa]”.
October 23, 2013 at 11:11 am
Thanks, Birgit
I am sending her back to the embassy to get a reason. According to the state dept. web site she must be given a reason, and she wasn’t.
October 22, 2013 at 2:19 pm
Hi Kat,
I do hope Grace gets her visa even if she does have to come in the cold.
If it snows while she is here, think what a wonder that will be for her visit.
Riiiight. Always look on the bright side of Life. 🙂
Rocky and I went to the lake and I didn’t bring my camera because I wasn’t planning on going to the lake. I went to the post office but the day was so lovely and Rocky was looking so bored that I decided we would go there.
I took some token photos with my crappy dumbphone camera. Rocky had a good time sniffing and peeing on things. There were no friendly dogs to play with though.
Now we are doing nothing on couch again and it is getting very cloudy and a bit cooler. I’m glad I didn’t waste the warm.
Enjoy the day.
October 22, 2013 at 4:29 pm
Hi Caryn,
No go-Grace was told she didn’t qualify. I have no idea what the US is looking for in tourists from other countries. She has land, enough money and family to go back to.
She was willing to come in the cold knowing I’d give her clothes and keep the house hot enough for her. Snow would have been neat for her to experience.
I went upstairs to get dressed and it started to rain. First it was little drops then it poured then the sun came back out then went back in again. I decided the gods were against me taking a ride so I came back downstairs and read a while.
It is much cooler now here too. The weather is not looking good for tomorrow’s game.
Stay cozy!
October 23, 2013 at 4:38 pm
I’m sorry that Grace got denied again. What kind of assurance does the US want of people if property, money and family isn’t enough?
It’s Wednesday evening now and it hasn’t started raining here yet. In fact this morning was sunny and not too cool. It’s cloudy and cold now and the oil truck just made a delivery.
Ah well. It’s that time of the year.
October 23, 2013 at 6:44 pm
Hi Caryn,
I have no idea why she was refused, and they didn’t tell her though the State Department website says they do.
It’s raining here and has been since around 4:30. It is also getting colder. My house is still warm so no heat yet. I’m cozy and ready for the Series.
October 22, 2013 at 2:21 pm
I really hope she gets that visa now! I can’t understand why she didn’t get it the last time.
Yes a shoe store is probably a must and wool socks 🙂
Warm again today and it will stay for a few days they say. I like it 🙂 The strong wind is still blowing but my neighbor’s house takes most of it. Every now and again however, my cottage trembles when a hard gust hits.
Lots of mopping floors here when it rains sometimes it feels like it’s all I’m doing. That’s the only good thing with winter though, almost no mopping since the ground is frozen and snow only leaves water on the floors 🙂 But I don’t mind waiting for winter and mopps the floors with a smile as long as it is warm outside 🙂
Have a great day!
Christer.
October 22, 2013 at 4:34 pm
Christer,
No visa this time either. She was told she didn’t qualify. Her decision is to hope I make it back to Ghana next summer and can go with her.
We got rain and chilly weather today. It blew away my idea for a lovely sunny ride. I took a nap instead.
Gracie has been digging under the deck. She comes in with dirty paws and sand on her face. I saw the hole last night when I was in the backyard checking lights. Gracie loves hole digging.
Have a wonderful evening!!
October 22, 2013 at 2:27 pm
winter is an awfully mean trick to play on unsuspecting company!!!
October 22, 2013 at 4:36 pm
greg,
She was forewarned but decided she’d come anyway, but no visa so Grace won’t be coming. Her hope is I can get back to Ghana and go with her to the embassy when she tries again.
October 22, 2013 at 10:03 pm
Sorry to hear that your friend could not get a tourist visa to come to the US. In 1994 I attended an examiner’s training course given by the FAA in Oklahoma City. An FAA air safety inspector was pontificating on a difficult to understand Federal Air regulation. He excluded a dependent clause which everyone couldn’t figure out the official meaning. He just blew off an entire clause. When I told him that his exclusion made no sense he replied, “We in the FAA don’t have to make sense, because we make policy”. I assume this kind of convoluted crazy thinking is not reserved only for the Department of Transportation but includes the Department of State as well 🙂
I actually took a light jacket to work this morning because of the chilly weather, upper 40s, and then forgot to bring it home because the temperature this afternoon was in the mid 70s. Luckily tomorrows mornings low is predicted to be in the mid fifties.
October 22, 2013 at 10:15 pm
Bob,
Thanks. I totally agree with you.
Grace was told she does’t meet the requirements which is odd as there are none to be found. She owns land, has an income generous for Ghana, has 28 cows (a veritable fortune in Ghana) and a family to which she would return. Grace said not one person got a visa today. I don’t get it.
We had a warmer morning than afternoon because the rain cooled down the day. The really cool weather will be here tomorrow night when it will get to the low 40’s at best. Awfully cold for baseball!
October 23, 2013 at 8:47 pm
So there I was with a poem about Baseball rattling around in my head and it was starting to work…words…associations…
And then Lester threw the first pitch and like a hanging curve given the “Shane” it rocketed over the left field wall into infinity…
October 23, 2013 at 8:57 pm
Beto,
I am happy that your last two lines are merely poetic.