“In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: It goes on.”
The day is already lovely. The sky is the deepest blue with nary a cloud. The sun is gleaming. The breeze, though, is a bit strong so the morning is a mite chilly, at 53°, but it will warm to the low 60’s. Welcome to a day in June on Cape Cod.
Sometimes I stare at the screen hoping for inspiration for the day’s Coffee. I sort through my memory drawers. I go way back in time and place.
Today will be a mishmash.
I don’t remember when I first spent some time thinking about life in general. That was a skimpy drawer until I was older. Life, when I was a kid, was school, my bike, the library and playing in the woods, the field or the swamp. I had Girl Scout meetings and drill practice, but nothing else was planned. Life just happened.
I am sort of back to that place. I have my uke twice a week, practice and a lesson, and I have concerts. In June there are about twelve of them. The rest of my time is unplanned. Life just happens.
The spring cleaning infection I’ve had is getting more intense, weirder. Yesterday I cleaned the cabinet at the bottom of the hutch. I found a few neat surprises. I also cleaned my silver. I don’t have a whole lot of silver, but I do have what were tarnished serving pieces. They now shine. I can see my face in the tines of the fork. What an accomplishment!
My favorite European country is Portugal. I visited there with my parents. We traveled north into the Douro Valley, to Miranda do Douro. We stayed a night or two in Nazare at a hotel on the water. It was off-season. We ate seafood at a restaurant across from the beach. We could see the ocean crashing against rocks, and we watched the sunset. My other yummed his way through a platter of shellfish. In Lisbon, on our last two nights, we stayed at a hotel, a grand hotel, in the middle of the city. That was our custom, to splurge at least once, during every trip.
When I lived in Ghana, I used to go to Togo, mostly Lomé , the capital, during school vacations. My high school French got a workout there as French is the national language. I stayed at the Peace Corps hostel. Usually I met friends there from Ghana. We roamed the city. I remember eating lobster off the grill on a patio of a huge hotel. I visited bakeries, pâtisseries, every day. I ate crème glacée. I shopped at the Grand Marché, on the third floor, for cloth. One time I rented a mobilette, a moped, well before I bought my own motorcycle. I rode all over the city in heavy traffic. It was frightening and amazing.
Okay, I managed to find something to write about today. Talk to you tomorrow.
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May 25, 2023 at 5:29 pm
Busy times, sorry, I’m going to visit my relatives, my aunt turns 91. Still packing, starting tomorrow morning. More than seven hours by train, 3 or 4 slow crowded trains, the cheap way to travel. We have two Pentecost holidays here so many people will travel and it will be adventure rail traveling down south, either chaos or nice or both, we’ll see.
No spring cleaning infection yet, -good for me, bad for my home. My aunt’s home is very clean and tidy, I will get a helpful shock when I return home 🙂
May 25, 2023 at 6:19 pm
Birgit,
I never travel north to see my relatives. I only have cousins left. I am the older generation. My sister is close to the cousins as most of them are around her age.
This Monday is Memorial Day which is a holiday.
My next project is clearing the cabinet of old long expired cans. I just usually put the new cans in front of the old. I do have some big time stuff like painting furniture. Today, though, I did no work!
May 25, 2023 at 6:47 pm
Hi Kat,
Today was partly cloudy with a high of only 85°.
Like you, as a kid I gave no thought to the rest of my life. Now that I’m upper middle aged, I think about the rest of my life a lot and what I want to accomplish. I don’t think of 76 as old but just mature middle aged. Old is always ten years older than I am now. 🙂
I never made it to Portugal nor the Iberian peninsula. Sometimes I watch Andrew Zimmer on the cooking channel with his travel program to visit exotic places to eat the local food. Tonight we are eating exotic stuffed peppers from Costco.
Sadly, Tina Turner passed away yesterday at 86. Somehow that seems young. I was never a big fan, but appreciated her gumption after years of abuse by her late ex husband, Ike. to run away with thirty six cents in her purse. Her escape occurred while they were here in Dallas. The hotel here gave gave her a room back then has now has a display of her memorabilia in the lobby. RIP Tina Turner.
May 25, 2023 at 7:12 pm
Hi Bob,
Only 85°!!
I don’t make many plans. I have a list of uke events and soon the summer play season will start so my weeks will get busier. I love nothing better than sitting on my deck reading with a cold drink in my hand. That’s paradise.
I have been all over Europe and enjoyed my visits to different countries but nothing compared to Portugal. In some places lights on each end of the town told you when it was your turn to pass on the one lane road through town. The food was excellent.
I like some of Tina’s songs. I was amazed at her energy.
When I heard of what Ike did to her I was horrified at him but thought her so very brave.