The morning is partly cloudy, which means partly sunny as well, and warm, a sort of dress rehearsal for tomorrow when it is supposed to rain. It is 76°, the high for the day. The air is perfectly still. Everything is quiet. I’m having my coffee and toast which I slathered with mission fig jam. It is a pleasant morning.

The Ryan household is getting back to normal. This morning Miss Nala greeted me when she figured I was awake. That was the first time since the vet’s and the cone. She also drank water from her dish, the first time I didn’t have to hold the dish. We go back to the vet’s today to have the drain removed.

I had a couple of years of French in high school and two years of Spanish in college. I also had four years of Latin. The first time I used my French was in Africa, in Togo. I was able to tell taxi drivers left or right and order food. I ate a lot of boeuf and pommes frites. I could haggle in the market. I could buy cigarettes and matches. In some stores, like the boulangerie, I just pointed at pastries which looked good. I used my Spanish traveling from Caracas to Rio. I remembered enough to get us from one place to another, order food and shop. I got better as we traveled. In Ghana I mostly used English, Ghanaian English.

When I was eleven, I made my vow to travel. I never once wavered. I traveled all over. I don’t think my eleven year old self would be surprised at that, but I do think my eleven year old self would be surprised I’d live in Africa. I’m still a little in awe of that.

I have never wanted life to be predictable. I wanted surprises. I wanted Frost’s less traveled by road. I don’t know where that came from. It has been part of me for most of my life. It made me different, not weird different, just different, though some may contest the not weird part.

I had a friend tell me when she heard I was going to Africa she wondered who does that. I always thought the answer was easy.

This morning was one of those mirror under the nose mornings. The last few days caught up with me. I woke up a few times during the night trying to find a spot for comfort in bed, but both dogs were deep asleep and had all the room. They didn’t budge. I did.

Last night we had thunder and lightning followed by heavy rain. The thunder was right over the house. The dogs sat up quickly and looked nervously around especially toward the ceiling. I put one arm around each of them, and they were fine.

I swear there was sun when I woke up, but it is cloudy and dark now though no rain is predicted. It is warm at 70°. I’ll be at home again today.

The dogs are okay. Nala is better at navigating. She has figured out how to go through tight spaces. Henry is just Henry.

When I was a kid, school around now was close to ending. We could barely contain ourselves. Time passed slowly. We didn’t do much in class, just took a few end of the year exams. I remember the music exam with a part of it about Gregorian chant. Yup, Gregorian chant!

The library and the post office were the coolest places in town during the summer. They were also the quietest. In the post office, people almost whispered as if afraid to break the silence. The clerk was behind an arched window. The floor was tiled and heels made noise. The library was usually quiet. The whirr of a fan was the only constant sound. The librarians whispered and spoke only at checkout. I used to like to sit at one of the wooden tables and read a bit before I rode home on my bike.

Summer was always filled with possibilities. I could walk to the pool and spend the day swimming just for the cost of a dime. At the end of my street was the field with the playground in one corner. I could take early morning tennis lessons, play softball and horseshoes. I could do crafts for the cost of materials. Everything else was free. I’d spend the morning, go home for lunch just up the hill then go back for the afternoon. I loved those days.