The morning is beautiful. The sky is cloudless, the air still and the sun is glint your eyes bright, but it is, after all, winter. The temperature is 38° but, in the scheme of things, it is warm or at least warmer than it has been. Snow is still covering lawns. It is crunchy snow, noisy snow. It sort of squeaks when you walk on it.

I really enjoyed my breakfast this morning. My coffee is from Nicaragua. I savored every sip. I had an English muffin. On it, I had a bit of butter and then a slathering of fig jam. Sadly, it was the last of my fig jam. I ate it slowly. The dogs did not even get a taste. I know you’ll find this unbelievable, but Nala stole something this morning. I know because I heard the noise of something falling on the kitchen floor. I ran to check. Nala grabbed whatever was on the floor and ran out the dog door. I didn’t have shoes on so I couldn’t follow. I did watch her run to the yard, drop something to the ground then look at me standing at the door. I think it was a look of defiance, an I won you lost sort of look.

My dance card is top heavy with uke events. Already I have had my lesson, practice and two concerts, one on Sunday and one yesterday. I have another concert today and one tomorrow. It is still Motown. I feel as if I am a throwback to the Supremes. I wish I had a sparkly long dress and the right moves.

The town where I grew up had a slew of drug stores, three in the square and two more off the square. My favorite was the Middlesex Drug Store. It was the biggest and the fanciest drug store in town. It sat in the middle of the square. The soda fountain had a marble top and stools which spun. A Coke A Cola was made at the fountain. I remember watching the soda jerk filling the glass with syrup and carbonated water. I always got a splash of vanilla. I tried cherry once but decided to stay with vanilla. I used to do some Christmas shopping at that drug store. I think it was always where I bought my father’s white handkerchiefs and perfume for my mother in a fancy bottle with a tassel around the cover.

The animals are all asleep. Henry is on his side of the couch, and Nala is right behind me with her head resting on my back. Jack is upstairs. He likes to sleep in front of the vent. I have no illusions about my spot in the hierarchy of the house. I am on the bottom. Both Nala and Henry take turns on the top. I never win.

This entry was posted on February 19, 2026 at 12:26 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.