The morning is lovely. It is also cold but not outrageously. The sky is as blue as any sky can be. I don’t see a single cloud. The air is mostly still. It is a pretty winter’s day.

Yesterday was busy. I made it to the dump, finally. My trunk was filled with trash bags. My back seat had the cans and papers and such. It was an overdue chore. My tree is empty, ready to go outside. My living room is back to pre-Christmas. It makes me sad. I love all the Christmas colors and decorations. Taking them down has made my world a bit drab.

When I was a kid, my grandparents lived in the city. We used to visit them often, on Sundays. I loved the city. My grandparent’s house was in the middle of the block. At one end of the block was a small corner store. That’s where I’d spend the dimes my grandfather would give us. The dimes were bribes. He wanted peace and quiet. The other end of the block had a house which opened its front window to sell Italian ice. I found that amazing. I ate cold, square Italian bakery pizza for the first time during one visit. I loved it.

I remember playing stickball on the street in front of my grandparents’ house. We used a broomstick and a half pink rubber ball. I was mostly the gofer. We also played stoop ball. The ball, an intact red rubber ball, was thrown at the front stoop by the batter. Fielders were spread out in the street. The batter hoped for distance off the stoop to get a high score. The fielders hoped for fly balls off the stoop. There were no real rules, and the scoring was often contentious. These were city games. We never played them at home.

My dance card actually has some entries for this week, all uke. I have been home most of the last two weeks. I have really missed people. The dogs are the worst conversationalists. They tend to spend their days eating and sleeping with an occasional trip to the backyard. The dump was actually exciting. I saw people, even said hello to a couple. They said hello back. I was thrilled.

This entry was posted on January 27, 2025 at 1:14 pm and is filed under Musings. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. Both comments and pings are currently closed.