The morning is beautiful but a bit chilly, in the 50’s. The sun is squint your eyes bright. The clear blue sky is unmarred by a single cloud. It stretches across from east to west. The weather report, though, belies this lovely morning. Rain is predicted.

Having no car means I am housebound. In some ways I don’t mind. I like being home. I like having no expectations on my time and energy. I love my cozy clothes; however, there is one glaring loss, I am missing my ukulele events. I have already missed two concerts and will miss more next week. I do love playing my ukulele.

When I was a kid getting punished, I had to listen to my angry parents. They had stock phrases to meet any situation. I used to get myself in even more trouble as I had an answer for every one of them. “How many times do I have to tell you?” was too big a temptation. I always gave them a number. My father would get even more red faced when I did and the vein on his neck got more prominent. That was his tell by which we could measure how mad he was. My mother always threatened to tell my father. We ignored her threats so my mother escalated the confrontations and started throwing things. Once she even threw my dictionary, my red American Heritage Dictionary, across the room. The binding broke. “What do you think you’re doing?” was a trick question. When I’d question their authority, the answer was always, “Because I said so.” That was never enough for me, but that was all I got.

My mother used to tell me I had a wise mouth. She didn’t mean it as a compliment. I knew that she meant smart-alecky, fresh. She was right. Flippant answers just jumped out before I could stop them. I didn’t have a filter. I was a kid with a smart mouth.

This entry was posted on May 9, 2025 at 10:46 am 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.