“I make no secret of the fact that I would rather lie on a sofa than sweep beneath it. But you have to be efficient if you’re going to be lazy.”
The morning is chilly. This is the time of year when the house is colder than outside. I need a sweatshirt. The sun is bright. The sky is a deep blue. The leaves at the ends of the branches are barely moving. Today is dump day. The car is already loaded. Anything else I need to do is in the house. My things to do list is getting smaller. I’m down to six from ten.
My new cleaning lady is here for the second time. She is great with Henry and waits for him to come to her. Nala likes everybody and everything except the vacuum. She thinks it is a beast and has been constantly barking. I’m sure both cats are under the beds hiding. Gwen hid under the bed this morning when I went in to give her the morning shot.
My week will be busy, and I’m not so sure how I feel about that. I miss my sloth days. Tomorrow, Nala goes to the vet for a booster shot. Gwen goes on Wednesday for a day of testing. As for my ukulele, I have practice tomorrow, a lesson on Wednesday and a concert on Friday. My fingers have permanent string marks.
When I was a kid, I didn’t know a single other kid who took music lessons. We did have that first grade rhythm band for which I played the triangle, but it took no musical ability to tap it, just timing. I think the sticks were the hardest to playing because you had to kneel on the floor to play them. We didn’t pick what instrument we wanted. The nuns picked for us. I became quite proficient on the triangle.
I never helped in the kitchen when I was a kid so I didn’t know the first thing about cooking. When I was in college, I had an apartment my junior year. My roommate did most of the cooking while I did clean up. When my parents came to visit, they always brought bags of groceries. They brought lots of meat and vegetables, but they also brought cookies, bags of cookies. They usually took us out to dinner. I loved when my parents visited.
In Ghana, I had a cook, Thomas, who didn’t have a repertoire of dishes. Each meal was pretty much the same. Breakfast was two eggs cooked in groundnut (peanut) oil, two pieces of toast and coffee, instant coffee, and canned milk. Lunch was a bowl of fruit: oranges, bananas, pawpaw (papaya) and maybe mango. Dinner was chicken or beef. The beef was cooked in a tomato sauce which tenderized it a bit. The beef sold in the market always came from old cows. We had mashed yam or rice as a side. Vegetables were hard to come by back then. Tomatoes and onions were just about it. When we had chicken, I had to buy one alive at the market. Thomas dispatched it for me. I could never do that. We also ate a couple of my chickens.
When I went back to Ghana, my students said they tried to find Thomas, but they thought he had passed. I would love to have seen him again and maybe enjoyed one of his meals.
Explore posts in the same categories: MusingsTags: busy week, canned milk, chilly morning, cleaning lady, cook, fruit, Ghana, instant coffee, rhythm band, the triangle
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October 18, 2021 at 1:09 pm
19,4F here this morning and I’m so happy that we’ll get rain and warm winds already tomorrow 🙂 🙂 I do hope I can start to like winter the day I retire 🙂 🙂
WE were lots of kids who learned an instrument in school. I learned the recorder but others learned how to play the mandolin or the guitar and a few the violin. We had to buy our own instruments but otherwise it was free.
Well You know that I early on started to make my own dinners 🙂 🙂
Have a great day!
Christer.
October 18, 2021 at 9:19 pm
Hi Christer,
It is far colder tonight than today, and it will get even colder, down to the 40’s. I got my storm door in the front door and am glad I did.
The high school I went to had a band, but the members already knew how to play when they got to the school. In the lower grades, there is a great violin program. The kids don’t have to buy the violins.
I do know about your cooking I envy your bread baking expertise
Have a wonderful day!!
October 18, 2021 at 7:23 pm
Hi Kat,
This morning started out chilly but I didn’t need a jacket. The low was 50° and the high was 75° with clear skies and no wind. I’m sitting on my covered patio typing this and enjoying the beautiful weather.
I also didn’t cook as a kid. My mother did everything for us. When I went to college I ate the horrible food served in the dormitory cafeteria. When I finally moved into my own apartment I started cooking things like spaghetti with store bought sauce in a jar, ice cream and takeout hamburgers. I could cook a scrambled egg and could make frozen toaster waffles for breakfast. I did make chicken or veal scallopini with pasta when I invited a woman for dinner. A large bottle of red wine made up for my lack of culinary capacity. A tossed salad with bottled dressing accompanied my home made dish. I’m thankful that my spouse is a great cook and enjoys preparing meals. Otherwise, I would be overweight or dead from eating fast food. 🙂
October 18, 2021 at 9:35 pm
HI Bob,
Today was chilly but tonight is cold, down to the high 40’s. It will be the same all week. There are warm days still to come, the 70’s later in the week.
When I was in Ghana, I baked sugar cookies for Christmas. That was my first time making them. My other had sent Christmas cookie cutters and colored sugar. That started me cooking and baking. I am a good cook but not so much for me but for company.I make what is quick and easy for myself.
You did well with your dinner for the invited guest. I am sure she was impressed. I would have been.
October 18, 2021 at 10:37 pm
Amazing how a simple dish with enough wine worked. The Sox hitting has been unbelievable. Three grand slam home runs in two games.
October 19, 2021 at 12:17 am
The Sox are beyond amazing right now. I hope it keeps up. They are setting records with those bats.
The games have been fun to watch!!
Wine did its job!