Okay, now for the weather: snow is expected late this afternoon then it will turn to sleet and become slippery. The local paper says 1-3 inches while the Boston TV station says 0-2. I don’t mind the snow, but slippery is a bit scary. I am supposed to go to a meeting at 5. I’ll have to see what the weather is doing before I make up my mind as to whether or not I’ll venture outside.

When I was a kid, snow turning to rain was the worst. I loved snow, but I hated winter rain. Walking home from school meant getting soaked and being cold through all the layers. My feet were frozen from soaking wet shoes and socks. I was miserable. When I got home, I changed before I did anything else. I remember the feeling of being warm again in my pajamas and slippers. Sometimes I’d sit by the hissing radiator until I was really warm.

I do love rain but summer rain mostly. Sometimes, when it’s a soft rain, I sit on the deck under the umbrella and listen to the sound of the rain pitter- pattering on the umbrella over my head. I feel surrounded by the rain.

As a going away gift, one of my friends gave me a travel umbrella. We knew only a few things about Ghana, but we knew there was a dry and a rainy season. I remember our stay in Winneba at the beginning of training. On a rainy day I used that umbrella and then sat on steps out of the rain for a while. When I left the steps, I forgot my umbrella. It was gone when I went back. I was upset until I learned how little I needed that umbrella. I stayed out of heavy rains, but I never minded the gentle rains. Getting wet was a relief from the heat.

My favorite rain is a storm with thunder and lightning. I love the crack and rumble of the thunder and the flash of lightning across the dark sky. The best part is I can feel the thunder and am awed by the flashes of lightning. It is almost magical.

It was cloudy when I first woke up, but now the sun is shining, a hazy sun. The breeze is slight, only the tops of trees seem to be moving. It is cold, a wintry blast of cold, a portent of the snow predicted for tomorrow night though here on the cape we will escape most of it. I’m okay with that. On Wednesday we’ll be back to the 40’s during the day, the 20’s at night, a typical cape weather pattern this time of year.

Henry is a barker. That’s all he did for a while this morning. He barked at the noise of a car door shutting at my neighbor’s house across the street. My neighbor had company. He barked when the car left and barked again when it returned. He howled when two doors slammed. He drove me crazy. My father always said to praise a dog for barking as the dog is protecting his territory, but by the time Henry got to baying, I was irritated. I yelled. He didn’t stop until the car left, after more barking when the door shut.

The cold never manifested. I still have a scratchy throat, but I have no idea why.

When I was a kid, I didn’t miss school very often. I didn’t have too many common ailments, colds or coughs, but I did have childhood diseases like measles, chickenpox and mumps. They used to travel like wildfire from kid to kid in my school, and then to my siblings at home. My mother was just fine with us spreading those childhood diseases. She preferred we all get them at the same time so she didn’t have to deal with one kid then another getting them. I remember wearing gloves and taking baking soda baths when I had chickenpox. They kept me from scratching the chicken pox because if I did, I’d cause scars, something my mother said over and over. I don’t have a single scar from my bout with chickenpox thanks to my mother and her constant nagging. That is, after all, what mothers do, all for the best.