Today is warm, almost sultry at 48°. I have no reason to venture out though I am hankering for a piece of pizza with sausage and caramelized onion and that may just beat the sloth in me.

Snow is predicted for tomorrow. The amount of it varies by station. The common number has been 3 inches.

When I was a kid, weather, except for the exceptions, was no big deal. We walked to and from school every day whether in the rain, in the wind, in the snow, the sleet, the sun or the cold. I didn’t know a single family with a second car. The one and only family car was what my father and every other father drove to work so we all walked to school. On weekends, the car was reserved for usual activities, grocery shopping, the cleaners, maybe the barbershop. My father was the only driver. We were at his mercy. He was always early.

I had some groceries delivered the other day. Included with the bread, the dog food and the rest of the mundane, were some Oreos, double stuffed Oreos. It has been a long time since I last bought Oreos and I was taken aback by the changes. Either the double stuffed bag was mislabeled or the definition and measurements have changed. I can’t imagine what the cream in regular Oreos looks like, but, then again, I am old and maybe waxing nostalgic about a cookie long gone.

When I was in Ghana, my mother sent packages. The biggest and the best each year was her Christmas package. That first Christmas it came two months late as my mother didn’t realize it came by ship. The second year she overcompensated, and it came almost two months early. But time didn’t matter. Only the treasures inside the box did. I remember books, games, paint by number, origami, packaged foods and candy and the best thing ever, the paddle with the red rubber ball on an elastic. The paddle was labeled Paddle Ball on the front but it went by many names. It entertained us for the longest time until the elastic broke. When knotting the elastic didn’t work, the paddle was retired.

I didn’t have a TV in Ghana or a radio or a phone. I wore a watch when I taught so I could keep track of the time, and I wore one when I traveled except that last one, the traveling watch, was unnecessary. Nothing left on time. I was never late but always early.

This entry was posted on January 17, 2026 at 2:22 pm and is filed under Musings. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.