“Amazement awaits us at every corner.”
Today is the fourth or fifth day of clouds or rain or both. I went out yesterday for the first time in over a week. Last week I clocked 3.5 miles. Yesterday I went over 16. Yikes! No wonder I was exhausted and needed a nap. Yesterday, the big adventures were my uke lesson then Ring’s. Either one would have lured me out, but both them, nope, no resistance from me. I got to learn a new book at uke, and I bought some goodies, blueberry turnovers, risotto and a Snickers, from Ring’s. It was a glorious day.
This morning was still and so is now the afternoon. I woke up close to noontime. I had gone to bed close to four. It is a weird pattern of sleep, new in the last couple of weeks. I don’t like it.
I have been on a YouTube binge of late. I like watching tours of little towns and old highways. I have been all over Europe, and now I’m traveling through the Southern United States. I have only been to a city here or there in the Southern United States so the tours are interesting for me.
When I was a kid, I used to make travel scrapbooks of places I’d been. I used to cut out letters then glue those letters, the names of places now, to the front covers of the albums. I don’t know why, but I remember the red leather cover, okay the faux red leather cover, of an album I got one Christmas. I had the best time for weeks putting together my travels in my new album. I remember cutting up brochures of rooms and hotels, adding pictures of planes filled with people, well-dressed people, eating, taking tours of cities. Chronicling my whole trip, but the thing was I had never been to any of them, never slept in any, never flew on any plane and seldom ate out, especially to a fancy place. I had put together a pretend album of my vacation. I think I was around nine, maybe nearing ten. We used to sneak to Logan Airport, my brother, my uncle and I, where I loaded up on brochures which I hid so I wouldn’t get caught having been to Logan. I’d pull them out at home. Nobody gave them a second thought.
Anyway, where am I heading you might be wondering. I think my story, which is real, is about imagination, story telling, given life by wishing. I even wanted to travel before my vow and my Barrett’s disease, still a year in the future. It seems it was brewing early. In each pretend vacation album, I wrote descriptions under every picture as if I had been there. I especially remember the tulips in Holland, the pictures of the fields of so many colors of tulips in rows and rows. What is remarkable is I had never been to any of those places. I had made up the whole trip, including that wonderful description of the tulips!
I saw that field in real life. I stood where the picture I had cut from the brochure when I was a kid had been taken. I recognized the field and the sense of glee, of amazement. I’m in the exact same place. I knew it.
I had saved that one picture from all the pictures. I had cut it out then pasted it in my red album, the album I got that Christmas. I think it was a gift, that field filled with tulips. It reached across years from one memory to another. It was a wish then it was real. It was always amazing.
January 19, 2023 at 6:22 pm
We’ve had snow last night but it’s already gone. I stayed at home and just watched our regular visitors in the garden, two blackbirds and some robins and sparrows eating and the blackbirds even went bathing in freezing water. The female blackbird is the braver of this pair and the male one is more talkative. I don’t know what he’s trying to tell me but it sounds friendly and I talk to him too. She doesn’t care and she’s the queen of the feeder, everyone else has to wait.
I’ve never been to the tulip fields, I heard they are very crowded nowadays. Occasionally I check two twitter bot accounts while listening to the radio, random street view images and random restaurants all over the world just for fun.
January 19, 2023 at 8:42 pm
Hi Birgit,
It started raining again today. Nala stole more stuff and added it to the pile of trash in my backyard. I am now embarrassed.
Today I didn’t do much. I just can’t get myself moving. I have until Sunday (when I have a concert) to get everything in order. Christmas will be gone tomorrow. I just have to fill bins. The pile of gifts will take a bit longer.
I’ve watched some interesting videos from people I don’t know. I enjoy it.
January 19, 2023 at 10:43 pm
Hi Kat,
We haven’t had any measurable rain this year. According to my TV meteorologist we are still in a La Niña year. That means warmer than normal winter temperatures and drier than normal precipitation. At 50% of Meteorological winter his forecast is accurate.
In the 1950s people dressed up to travel on an airplane. It was an expensive way to travel and people dressed for there trip. I can remember my mother dressing up whenever we traveled by air. Today, flying has become one step or so above traveling by the Greyhound bus.
Your circadian rhythm is a little out of wack. I can’t stay up that late at night, but I can always sleep till noon on the weekends. Unfortunately, my spouse gets me going early on the weekends since she gets antsy sitting at home while I snooze.
Tonight I had a yen for Mexican cuisine. We drove to a place a few miles away in Bedford called the, “Mexican Inn Cafe”. I had a combination plate that included two cheese enchiladas, a pork tamale smothered in chili sauce, a crispy beef taco, served with Spanish rice and black beans. The meal was preceded by a bowl of fried corn chips with salsa and warm corn tortillas. The chips and tortillas are a nosh while awaiting the meal. 🙂
January 20, 2023 at 12:43 am
Hi Bob,
It is raining right now and has been raining since the afternoon. The rain will finally break tomorrow. I think we put a dent in that drought. We have had tons of rain. You seem to be bypassed by the storms. The coasts are getting them but no the middle.
Many people just don’t dress up for anything anymore. I was at a funeral and the outfits some of the mourners chose were wrong for almost any event or occasion but especially for a funeral.
I spent all those years getting up at 5:15 so I guess I’m due for late nights and late mornings now.
I wish I had a good Mexican restaurant close to me. There is one in Yarmouth which has okay food but that’s it on this side of the cape (except Sam Diego’s). You’d think they’d be more Mexican restaurants in this tourist area. I’d drive for Mexican food! (Good bumper sticker)