“Give me nights perfectly quiet… and I looking up at the stars…”
The sun is shining, and we have a snow shower. The flakes are so tiny they look like bread crumbs. They shine and glint in the sun. It is cold, 22°. Tonight will be colder. Today is winter. Tomorrow will be spring, in the 40’s. Nala will sunbathe on the only strip of grass in the backyard.
When I was a kid, the night sky was filled with stars. I would lie on the grass in the field below my house and watch the sky. I always thought the stars moved. Sometimes I’d see a falling star. I always made a wish on the first star I saw. In Ghana, where I lived, the stars were so bright you could sit outside and read by their light. I could see the Milky Way, and every night there were falling stars. During the dry season, I’d lie outside on a mattress in the back yard of my house. I was a kid again watching the sky. When I saw a falling star, I’d ooh and ah out loud. Now I go to the beach to watch the stars. I always sit in my driveway to watch meteor showers. I still on and ah.
My grandmother was born in 1898. She was part of the housedress, apron age. She never went outside without wearing a hat. When it rained, she’d wear those ankle high see through boots with a button for closing the top. Her shoes were tie shoes, clunky and ugly. Her dresses were flowered. She was a big woman. She stooped when she walked. She had a loud voice and an annoyingly loud laugh. Once, when she was out to dinner with my father and my aunt, she was so loud they were asked to leave. She wasn’t a kind woman. She lived in wrinkle city, as my father called it, in an apartment in elderly housing. He used to visit her just about every weekend. If I visited my parents, he’d beg me to go with him. I’d give in and go. Every time I visited I swear she told the same stories she always told. I remember telling my father if she told the Japanese restaurant story again, I’d cough, and that was the signal to leave. Well, she did tell that story, and I coughed. My father started to laugh and to hide it he pretended to cough. My grandmother whacked him on the back thinking he was choking. He laughed even harder. She whacked him harder. Finally, he was able to stop and we left, but he started laughing again in the car. It was pretty funny.
My dance card is again heavy on uke events, practice, a lesson and two concerts. We will be singing Irish songs. I have my Irish fascinator, a green sweatshirt with a harp and Ryan on the front. I also have white high tops with green flowers, shamrock socks and shamrock earrings. I’m ready.
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keepthecoffeecoming.blog 
March 3, 2025 at 11:01 pm
Hi Kat,
Today was cloudy all day with a high of 70°. Tomorrow morning we are supposed to get our first line of thunderstorms. There’s a slight risk of severe. We’re getting into the stormy spring weather.
When I was a kid in Dallas I remember being able to see a billon stars on a clear night. Today, it’s difficult to see any stars because of the light pollution.
My grand parents on my mother’s side came from Ukraine in about 1905. My grandfather and his brother moved to New York after being conscripted in the Russian Imperial Army. Ukraine was under Russian rule and Jews were regularly attacked by Cossacks.
After the Friday fiasco at the White House, I was never so embarrassed to be an American in my entire life. Both Trump and Vance set up President Zelensky to ridicule him and deliver Ukraine to Putin. Vladimir must be still grinning with joy as Trump did his bidding. In five minutes Trump and Vance destroyed the entire Western Alliance that has kept the peace for over 80 years. Last week the U.S., for the first time in the history of the U.N. Voted with Russia, China, and North Korea.
Here’s something you may find interesting:
“In June of 1941, Hitler’s Army began a rampage through Ukraine, razing towns, unleashing death squads, and massacring Jews by the hundreds of thousands. In one village, four Jewish brothers enlisted in the military, said goodbye to their parents, and walked off to fight the Nazis.
By the war’s end in 1945, only one of the brothers, named Semyon, was still alive. He returned to find that the Nazis had torched his entire village, burning his parents to death. Semyon’s family was dead, and his beloved Ukraine was in ruins. The Nazis had murdered between 1.2 and 1.6 million Ukrainian Jews.
Semyon married a fellow Ukrainian Jew who had survived the war by fleeing her city, in which the Nazis had killed 5,000 Jews. Two years later, in that same city, they had a son, Oleksandr, keeping alive the family line that the Nazis had brought a razor’s width from extinction. Thirty-one years after that, Oleksandr had his own little boy.
That boy was Volodymyr Zelensky, who grew up to become the President of independent, democratic Ukraine. Today, he leads his outmanned, outgunned, ferociously defiant nation against the onslaught of Russia. As Russia dashes itself against the will of his people, Zelensky, the survivor of survivors, summons the resilience of his ancestors. He does not bend.”
March 3, 2025 at 11:38 pm
Hi Bob,
We are a long way from spring because of the ocean. It always arrives later here than in the rest of the state. I don’t mind as we have the longest fall, also because of the ocean. The 40’s tomorrow will be nice. I like 70° but that won’t be here until late June.
I’m glad that here on the cape we can still see the stars. On meteor shower nights I am usually the only one out watching them. During the mid-August meteors, the Perseids, I sit outside with something to drink, a flashlight, a book and I wait. During the Leonids, in November, I layer, wrap myself in a blanket, bring some coffee and watch the skies.
The Russians believe that Ukraine is still part of Russia, same language and customs. They are just retaking what belongs to them. I’m surprised that Ukrainian Jews were conscripted into the Russian army. Fiddler on the Roof, though in Russia, actually take place in what will become Ukraine.
I totally agree that what happened on Friday. Zelenskyy was totally set up. That J.D. Vance and Rubio were there is proof. They don’t sit in other visits of heads of state. I swear they practiced what they’d say. Wear a suit. Say thank you for all we have done. Of course, Trump had to lie about money and weapons. Tonight they announced they were pausing aid to Ukraine. They have used pausing the pause has never ended. How embarrassing for this country to be represented by a Putin puppet. I’m sure he is sitting in Moscow cheering.
That is an amazing story. That his family survived is remarkable. He has continued to be courageous.