March is a quirky month. It waffles between winter and early spring. Yesterday was an all weather day. The rain started gently, sort of a spring rain, then it poured but only for a few minutes. The snow, big fluffy, wet flakes, fell next but didn’t stay. The sleet was last. Luckily, last night was above freezing, no ice on the steps or ruts in the road. Today is in the 40’s and is still cloudy. The wind has finally gone.

On my dance card today is the dentist. All of me is old, even the fillings, so I’m having one drilled out and replaced. I go to the dentist to avoid the dentist.

Before I went to Ghana, Peace Corps told us to have any tooth issues solved. I found a dentist in Lawrence. My father had the bills sent to him. I think I went three times and had even the hint of a cavity drilled and filled. During staging in Philadelphia we had to find our way to the dentist to have our teeth checked. Mine passed.

When I was a kid and went to the dentist, he always gave me this red pill to eat then he’d check my mouth. The red stuff ratted me out. It showed where I wasn’t brushing enough. I’d then get a lesson on how to brush my teeth. I always got a lesson.

My backyard has branches, some of them large, strewn about the ground having been broken by the wind. It has trash from Nala. Her recent booty was a bag of flour. I found her with it and put it in the barrel. She found it again and made a big pile of flour in the yard. Henry was licking it. Henry was again guilty after the fact, abetting again. I couldn’t pick the flour up so I covered it with part of the bird bath.

My days are comfortable and easy. A cleaning lady comes every two weeks though I do a few cleaning jobs in between. I do the laundry when the basket is overflowing. I have groceries delivered. I eat when I’m hungry. I eat breakfast at dinner or leftovers at breakfast. I wear my cozies all day. I’m enjoying life.

Today is chilly because of the wind. I can see the oak branch over the deck keeping its own beat by rhythmically swaying back and forth. The tops of the pine trees bend first to one side then to the other. Through the trees, I can see a deep blue sky without a single cloud. It is a beautiful day.

Last night Nala and Henry had a bad night. He snapped at her twice and scared her. I hugged her and she settled down. I then noticed Henry was drooling and knew he wasn’t feeling good so he was a bit testy. I just didn’t know why. I found out later he was guilty after the fact. My cleaning lady did not shut the gate to Jack’s room. Nala went in and stole his food. She must have thought she was in a foody heaven on Earth. One stolen food item was a large container of Temptations, Jack’s favorite snack. I found the empty in the yard. I had seen Henry eating something, but it was gone by the time I got to the yard so I had no idea what he was munching. Last night Nala tossed her cookies, or rather Jack’s, on my bed. I told both dogs I had no sympathy, but they ignored me. Today they are back to normal. Nala stole cardboard. I watched her wrestle it through the dog door.

When I was in the seventh grade, I played CYO basketball. I wanted to be able to use one of the hoops in the schoolyard during recess so I asked. I was turned down. My teacher told me it was unseemly for girls in skirts to be jumping around the yard. I asked her why. She told me girls have a special responsibility to prepare for womanhood. That was her answer. I pressed once more and was again told no.

When I was a freshman in college, women had to wear skirts. We’re talking the mid to late 60’s. The winter of my sophomore year was brutally cold so the powers that be allowed women to wear pants. Skirts were gone for good. We had moved beyond the Victorian Age.

When I was twenty-one, I accepted a Peace Corps invitation to Ghana knowing little about that country beyond what the Atlas told me. We had nearly three months of training all over the country. It was during that training I realized I could do almost anything. I was living thousands of miles away from home. I was with other trainees I had just met who would become dear friends. I was eating strange foods with strange names. I was learning my way around Ghana, and I was learning a new language, Hausa. I was so immersed in all of Ghana I didn’t realize how important all these experiences were in making me a stronger, more confident woman, traits I have carried with me all of my life. I give thanks almost every day for having the courage, at twenty-one, to accept an invitation to serve in Ghana, to live in Africa.

Today is International Women’s Day which celebrates the global, social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. Wear purple.

The morning is cloudy but warm, near tropical for this time of year, 55˚. I stood outside enjoying the warmth for a few minutes when I went to get the paper. I noticed the green shoots of the dafs in my front garden are even higher than just the other day. Spring is gently pushing its way through winter.

The big news is I did my laundry, two loads of clothes and one load of blankets. All the clothes have already been put away. I felt accomplished.

I am in my element. I’m watching Earth vs. The Spider, a black and white movie from 1958. The girls all wear puffy dresses. Mothers wear aprons in the house. A teen couple are the stars. Her father was the first victim. My favorite scene so far is when the girl is lying on the couch crying and mourning her father. Her mother tells her, “Forget about it dear. You have homework for tomorrow.” Comforting words to a girl whose father had been sucked to bones. The spider is currently on a rampage.

When I was a kid, my first records were red and yellow and had songs like Farmer in the Dell and singers like Gene Autry. The records were 78-rpm, the ones with the small holes. I had a record player I had gotten for Christmas one year. With it came some Christmas records. I still have many of them. The Caroleers were big as were the Sandpipers. Bing got into the act with a song called How Lovely Is Christmas. I haven’t played these songs in a long time. They were in my room, forgotten. I found them again yesterday.

When I was older, I bought 45’s. One side was the A side, the side with the hit. The other side, the B side, sometimes had a great but seldom played song. I still have many of those stored in a cylindrical container called Disk-Go-Case. It looks space age. I still remember many of the songs but some are strange choices for me. I have to think that maybe they were gifts. Conway Twitty, Laurie London, an unknown singer to me, and The New Happiness are a few of them. Some records are by familiar singers like The Village Stompers and The Big Bopper. I have one of my all-time favorite songs, Scotch and Soda by The Kingston Trio. I spent a lot of quarters playing that song on the jukebox in the school canteen.

I’m going to listen to a few of these records today. I have a couple of those discs you put in the holes of the 45’s so they can be played. It will be a trip back in time.

The sky is covered in whitish gray clouds. It rained during the night and will continue raining on and off all day. The breeze is chilly, but the air is warm, 50˚. There is a fog warning. I need go to the dump today so I’ll go in between rain drops.

When spring is poking its head through winter, mornings are my favorite time of the day. The birds are back and singing to greet first light. A warmth breaks through the cold. Everything feels lighter. The air smells fresh. This morning I saw the first green shoots of the dafs in my garden. I did a happy dance.

I buy flowers when I go shopping. I put them in every room. Tulips and dafs make me smile. They bring color. They bring spring even on the coldest days.

The dogs are out a long time in this weather, even when there are no possums. Nala keeps busy with the stuff she steals. Yesterday she stole a stick of butter I thought was safe. It was far back on the counter. Later, she brought in a dog food can from the yard, a can she’d stolen earlier. I hope that’s a trend: Nala cleaning her own mess.

Last night, I put one of the cat’s food dishes near the gate so I’d remember to take it downstairs to wash. I was playing with Jack when I heard a sound I didn’t recognize. I looked and saw Nala had her head through the hole in the gate and was licking the dish which was clattering against the floor. I moved the dish, the path of least resistance.

I loved my mother’s brownies. She didn’t use a mix. She baked them in a square metal pan. When they were cool enough, she’d frost them with chocolate frosting then sprinkle the top with jimmies. It was a chocolate overload for which I gave great thanks.

My overloaded laundry basket still sits next to the cellar door, and I’m finally tired of seeing it so I’ll haul it downstairs to wash. Nala follows me to the cellar. It is a new space for her to explore. That worries me.

Fair Warning! The faint of heart and weak of stomach should not continue reading.

Yesterday, Nala was out a long while. I assumed she was playing with her dead possum, but I decided to to check on her but then I heard her come inside. I got up to pat the lovely Miss Nala. The dead possum was on the hall floor beside the dogs’ toy box. I made sounds of disgust, eww, eww, eww over and over. My face reflected the sound. I had to keep Nala away while I figured out how to get the possum out of the house. I grabbed a brown bag and a plastic bag. I used the plastic to push the possum into the brown bag. Nala wanted the bag so I held it high as I carried it outside. That totally grossed me out, and I eww’ed to the front door. Nala was right beside me. I took the bag outside to the front yard where Nala never goes. I went to toss the possum, but it fell out of the bag and slid down the small hill beside my house. I left it there in quiet repose. I’ll move it away from the house later.

Today will stay partly cloudy with a high of 39˚. The morning air is filled with the songs of birds, a welcome sign spring is coming. When the wind blows, I can hear the sweet sounds of the chimes hanging from a tree in the backyard. The morning is a delight for eyes and ears.

I went outside with Nala, the consummate thief, and saved some of the things she has stolen and picked up a handful of her trash. I’ll make another run on the trash later.

The dogs stay out a long time. Nala looks for trouble. Henry wanders the yard and sniffs the ground. Henry no longer whacks the dog door for me to come and let him in. He comes in on his own every time. In regard to the dog door, and only the dog door, Nala has been a good influence.

I have a chore list with only a couple of items. Any more, and I’d set myself up to fail. The kitchen floor, which I think is still there under the dog paw prints, needs to be washed. It is atop the list. My bed too is on that list but with parenthesis around it, a notation that means maybe. I have been dusting with my sweatshirt sleeve. It works the best.

I’m going out today. I’ll have to shield my eyes from the light. Other than the quick possum fiasco, I have been inside a long time.

The cold is still here. It is only 26˚. Again, the view from my window belies the temperature. The sun is squint your eyes bright. The sky is blue and cloudless. The day has nary a breeze. The dogs love this weather. They are out for the longest time, even Henry the sloth. As for the disposition of the possum, it will leave my yard today. Nala won’t care. She has lost interest.

When I was a kid, I never saw much wildlife. There were spawns of Satan everywhere. Once in a while a skunk waddled by. We ran in the other direction. I remember on a family Sunday drive to nowhere we all yelled when we saw deer in a field. My father stopped the car so we could watch. Even grazing cows rated a yelp. I remember hawks on the hunt riding the thermals and whirling in the sky.

Here on the cape, wild life abounds. Coyotes are common as are wild turkeys. I have seen as many as twelve or more in a single raptor. They wander up my street noshing as they go. One night a deer stopped in the road in front of me when it saw my car. I slammed on my brakes and slid a bit sideways to avoid hitting it. I saw the scared look of a deer in the headlights. I suspect the deer saw the same look on face. Foxes too are common. They trot along the sides of the roads. I saw a hawk dine on a spawn it had caught. That hawk was right out the window of the cafeteria during lunch. The kids didn’t care. They watched while they ate lunch.

My favorite sighting was in Ghana. I was riding my moto, as they call it in Ghana, on a bush dirt road on the way to visit a friend. The road was remote and only led to her village. A car driven by a white person stopped by my moto to ask if I was lost as that road didn’t get much traffic. Anyway, a bit further on, I could see what looked like hairy men on one side of the road. I stopped and watched. They were baboons, about five of them. One stopped in the middle of the road to look at me. I stood statue still. It decided I was no threat and took off with its gorilla pals. I breathed the biggest sigh of relief.

Looking out my den window, I can see a windy, sunny day with a cloud pocked sky. It is lovely day if you stay inside the house. It is cold, only 38˚, and the wind makes it feel even colder. We had rain last night so everything is still wet.

I did a couple of errands yesterday and took Nala with me. She likes the car. I wish Henry did.

My bedtime is late or early depending on your viewpoint. Last night, or this morning, it was three AM. The dogs joined me. Nala woke me up at 8:30. I tried to stay in bed, but she would have none of it and whacked me a few times then she cried and cried. I figured she needed to go out so I got up. Now, the dogs are napping, and I am jealous.

Tuesday I lived a nightmare. I put the dogs out before we went to bed. Nala was out for the longest time so I went looking for her. My head said she can’t get out, but Gracie did by hopping the six foot fence so I was worried. I looked over the back rail of the deck and saw her. Nala had something in her mouth. I went into the yard. Nala had a dead possum, a frozen dead possum, in her mouth. I wondered how the possum died. I knew it wasn’t Nala. It was a found treasure. I chased that dog, and every time I got close to her Nala ran with the possum. I threw a can close to her. She was surprised, jumped into the air and dropped the possum, but she picked it up again when I got really close. I tripped over a root and fell on my butt. The back of my pants got soak, but I got up and tried again. Nala ran again. I decided I was too cold and I was too wet so I gave up the chase and went inside. Nala came in on her own, possum less.

Yesterday morning I looked over the yard and couldn’t see the possum so I let Nala out. She found the possum. I didn’t chase her. She came back inside without the possum. This morning I looked, and the poor possum is still in the yard and needs to be buried, but I haven’t a shovel. I think a huge spoon will take a while to dig a big enough hole. It’s on my to-do list.

Today feels warm. It is 37˚. The sun has disappeared and been replaced by whitish grey clouds. A slight wind blows the smaller branches. The dogs have been in and out all morning. I went on the porch while they were out and checked the yard. I saw a couple of cans stolen from the trash, two dog toys and an unknown red object. Nala brought the toys inside. Sometimes she does. Sometimes she doesn’t.

The languor of the last few months disappeared yesterday and has given way to a kind of frenzy. It all started with a snow globe covered in dust. I swiped it with my sweatshirt, my usual cleaning cloth. The snow globe looked so good I ended up cleaning all of the snow globes then I moved on with a duster and wet wipes to the rest of the wooden boxes. All of the items in each of the boxes are now clear of dust. This morning, when I went to get the cream from the fridge, I noticed some of the fridge shelves needed cleaning. I cleaned right then as if I had been possessed by a monster with a fearful face dressed in an apron, a house dress and slippers and carrying a whip and a broom. The coffee got cold. The top of my desk was next. I organized it, but the wind up toys on the desk shelf still need cleaning. They are next. I have decided my only way out of this is either to roam the house blindly or go out to do a couple of errands. I’m thinking the latter.

In my travels I have eaten strange things. In Ghana, I always bought bushmeat on the train. The meat came on a skewer, and there was so much hot pepper on the meat you had to wrap it in bread to eat it. I never thought about the source of the meat. I don’t think I wanted to know. Much later I found out it was any wild meat. I’m glad I didn’t know.

I ate Guinea pig or Cuy as it is called in South America, a local delicacy in Ecuador. I remember the restaurant was a small, local spot with Guinea pigs running around. The Guinea pig was roasted and came whole with a bunch of side dishes. I remember the potatoes were delicious.

I had reindeer in Finnish Lapland. Sometimes I’m asked how it tasted. I always say it was delicious except I found the blinking red light a distraction.

Chicken feet taste better than you’d expect but eating them takes work with all the bones. I ate wild bird in Iceland. The ptarmigan is the only one I remember on the plate. I tried frog legs and found them far better tasting than I expected. I’d order them again.

In this country I’ve eaten Rocky Mountain oysters, but I didn’t know what I was eating. I think I would have gagged to find out they are bull testicles. I’ve had eel which is pretty good. I ate gross jello salad when I was young. I don’t even like Jello. I used to eat Spam, the unknown meat, but only when it was fried.

I am still ever ready to taste the oddities. I just don’t want to know what I’m eating.

The spring equinox falls on March 20th, a mere 20 days from today. When I look out my den window, I see a deceptively lovely day, maybe even a spring-like day. The sun is blindingly bright. The sky is a deep blue. In Crayola speak it is cornflower blue. The air is calm. But, it is cold, really cold. The high today will be 27˚. Winter still holds sway.

When I was in the eighth grade, my class from my elementary school, the graduating class, had a class trip to Paragon Park in Hull. Before the big day, my mother took me shopping for a new outfit. I chose clamdiggers which more sophisticated people called capri pants. My blouse was white and sleeveless. I wore a white hat with a visor and new white sneakers. My mother went as one of the chaperons. I remember ride after ride on the wooden roller-coaster called the Giant Coaster, my favorite of all the rides. It rattled on the tracks and tossed us against the sides of the car on the sharp turns. We held on for dear life. A simple seat belt was the only restraint keeping us inside the cars. We did a few of the other rides. My second favorite ride was the Wild Mouse, a small roller coaster with two people cars. It twisted and turned and went up and down. We were flung from side to side at the sharp turns. We loved another ride, but I forget its name. It was a big circle, a cylinder. We leaned against the wall when the circle began to spin. It went faster and faster and pinned us against the wall. We couldn’t move. The floor disappeared. We kept spinning. It was exciting, and it was scary.

We never played any of the games. We just wanted rides and food. I bought a hot dog and some fries and later an ice cream cone and popcorn.

At the end of the afternoon, my classmates offered us, my friend Jimmy and me, their tickets. We took them and went on the roller-coaster a few more times. What we didn’t realize was we got the tickets because it was time to leave, and my classmates were headed to the buses. We were hunted down by the chaperons, including my own mother, because we were the last of us in the park, and the buses were waiting on us so they could leave. We got on board and off we went. We only had to endure a reprimand or two.

Before the park closed in 1984, a couple of friends and I decided to visit the park one last time to ride the coaster. It had been sold and was going to be moved. One of my friends was afraid of the ride. She smashed again me at the turns and screamed the entire time. I think I rode the coaster four or five times. I wanted to remember every twist and turn.

Today will be almost tropical with a high of 38˚. The sky is a brilliant blue. The sun is winter bright. When I went to get the paper, the glint of the sun on the snow was so bright I couldn’t see for a bit. Everything is frozen again. My windshield has a layer of what is now hard-packed snow. The rest of the windows are clear. Later, I’ll tackle the windshield.

When I was a kid, Sunday was my least favorite day. I had to go to mass. Usually I walked. Because I had to wear a skirt or a dress, it was a cold walk even if I was layered and wearing knee socks. The warmth of the church after the cold was welcomed. Before mass, the church was mostly a quiet place. People whispered. The pews creaked when people moved. I could hear the hiss of the radiators. When the mass started, the priest’s voice was loud. People muttered their responses. I could barely wait for the priest to say, “The mass is over. Go in peace.” I sprinted for the door.

I always enjoyed Sunday dinner. We ate it together. I knew they’d be mashed potatoes, a couple of veggies, gravy and a roast of some sort. It was our fanciest dinner of the week.

The dog barking on TV put Henry on alert. He is now barking a warning. I don’t think the dog heard him. Henry had another milestone yesterday. He always licks my hands, but yesterday he gave my cheek a lick, a first. Also, Henry now comes in the dog door all the time. I have Nala to thank for that.

Speaking of the dog door, the other day the dogs perfectly executed a comedy movie bit. They both tried to go out the door at the same time and they were stuck for a few seconds until Henry broke free.

Nala has an accurate internal alarm. Today she woke me up at eight. Yesterday and the day before, it was 8:04 exactly on both days. She is not gentle about waking me. She whacks me a few times. This morning she even whacked the barrier. That’s when I figured she really needed out. I let both dogs out and went back to bed, but I was done sleeping.

Today I will do my laundry. I’m tired of the laundry basket in the hall. It has been weeks.