“Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.”
The crowds are frenzied, running amok in all directions. A few people who fell are being trampled. “What is it? What is it?” The round bright disc in the sky emits light. It travels slowly. Finally, the people are reassured and told not to be afraid. It is the sun, gone so long it had been forgotten.
Today is cold, so very cold. I have no reason to go out, and I am glad. As for the collar, it is still missing despite my having looked so many times. The offshoot of all that looking was cleaning, the last thing I expected or wanted. I have vacuumed, dusted, quick washed the kitchen and bathroom floors and culled and rearranged the den. I did not water the plants or do the laundry.
When I was a kid, winter was my least favorite season as there wasn’t all that much to do. Most times it was too cold and dark to play outside after school. Just about every Saturday afternoon we went to the movie theater. I remember a cartoon was always first, and I saw The Wizard of Oz there even though it was an old movie. I was amazed when the movie turned to color after Dorothy got to Oz. If the weather had gotten cold enough, we ice skated. I sometimes took the bus to the rink in Medford, the next town over. Other times I skated on the swamp or the rink put up in Recreation Park by the town. We sledded down the hill right by my house. When we were older, high school age, we tobogganed, usually at the golf course. We sometimes bowled on Friday or Saturday nights. Here in Massachusetts we only had candlepin bowling, the type which has small balls and three shots to a frame. I was a really bad bowler. I threw a lot of alley balls. My father had been a pin boy at the same alley where we bowled. I always liked that alley with the smell of wood and the noise from the pinsetter. More often than not we didn’t have money so we’d spend Saturday nights together at one house or another. Our friend Tommy’s house was our favorite as his mother always made pizza for us. My house was the second best.
I never thought life was boring when I was growing up even if we did nothing but spend time together. That’s still the way I feel.
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keepthecoffeecoming.blog 
January 11, 2019 at 2:04 pm
I’m not as afraid of the sun as I was when it first showed because it has shown itself here rather much lately 🙂 🙂 Not entire days but most of them. They say that it won’t happen again for a long time though because a new low pressure with strong winds is on its way. I’m glad I got a chance to see it though 🙂 🙂
Now days I prefer to do nothing to be honest 🙂 Well reading books and watch movies is to do something but I don’t count things like that as doing anything 🙂 Winter has never been a season I’ve liked except for that one winter when I spent a christmas vacation at my summer cottage all alone and it was nasty cold and half a yard of snow on the ground 🙂 Then again, I couldn’t do much so I guess I’ve always liked to do nothing 🙂
Have a great day!
Christer.
January 11, 2019 at 8:11 pm
Christer,
We’ll have sun, but we’ll also have frigid temperatures. It will be in the low 30’s for the next few days and down to the teens at night. Today reached the mid 30’s, and I thought it was freezing cold.
Like you, I prefer to do nothing. Reading and watching a movie don’t count as nothing to me either. They are wonderful ways to spend a day.
Have a great day!
January 11, 2019 at 5:16 pm
we are having, so far, a pretty easy winter. i have spring bulbs coming up in the posts and the beds. the lingering minnesotan in me knows better than to rejoice in this
January 11, 2019 at 8:14 pm
greg,
The temperature is frigid. It will be in the teens tonight and for the next few nights. The days will be in the low 30’s. My bulbs will not be poking their heads above ground for a long time.
I get it, the lingering Minnesotan.
January 11, 2019 at 5:22 pm
Hi Kat,
Winter has sort of arrived with a high in the low 50s and some very light mist. The big rain hasn’t come yet. Maybe the missed forecast is due to the government shutdown. 🙂 I understand the Air Traffic Contollers union is going to file a lawsuit against Trump to get their paychecks. If the are smart they could instigate an air traffic slowdown which will cost the airlines millions of extra dollars and they can pressure 45 to end the shutdown.
Figures don’t lie but liars figure. Most of the illegal immigrants enter this country legally through ports of entry. They get tourist visas and just over stay there visa. They don’t scurry across the Rio Grande in large numbers led by a coyote. Unfortunately, there are millions of crime victims in this country and finding a few family members of people who have been killed by illegal immigrants or gang members and calling it an epidemic is unconscionable rumor mongering for a normal person and criminal for the President. In January 2018 he claims we have an illegal immigration crisis even though illegal immigration is declining. Then, after beefing up border security he claims that he fixed it because illegal immigration numbers have continued to decline during his re-election campaign in 2020.
January 11, 2019 at 8:30 pm
Bob,
I’d be happy if my start to spring is that warm. Here on the cape it stays chilly for a long time, usually into late April or early May.
I also heard they were filing a lawsuit. They continue to report to work recognizing the importance of what they do: keeping the air safe. I would understand a slowdown and the airline’s response, but I suspect that wouldn’t change Trump’s mind. He is determined to keep the shutdown going until he gets his way.
From the Pew Research Center:
1.The number of Mexican immigrants living in the U.S. illegally has declined by more than 1 million since 2007. There were more apprehensions of non-Mexicans than Mexicans at U.S. borders in fiscal year 2017 for the third time on record (the first was in fiscal 2014).
In fiscal 2017, the Border Patrol made 130,454 apprehensions of Mexicans, a sharp drop from a peak of 1.6 million apprehensions in 2000. The decline in apprehensions reflects the decrease in the number of unauthorized Mexican immigrants coming to the U.S.
Increasingly unauthorized immigrants are likely to be long-term U.S. residents: Two-thirds of adult unauthorized immigrants have lived in the country for more than 10 years.
January 11, 2019 at 8:38 pm
Also, most of the illegal drugs are brought into the country through ports of entry in various vehicles not through tunnels.