Apologies, apologies for the lateness of the hour. I slept quite late then a former student from Ghana who lives here in the US called, and we spoke for well over an hour. It was catch up time. We spoke of her days as my student and of Bolga. Franciska is a FraFra, the tribe in and around Bolga. Her family home is in a village outside of Bolga. She was one of the youngest students in my class the first year. She was also one of the smartest. Franciska has had some heavy duty medical issues, but she sounded healthy and said she was feeling good. We caught each other up with what we’ve each been doing. She hasn’t been back to Ghana for a long time but hopes to go. I told her that was also my hope.

I am taking it easy again today. That worked yesterday as my leg is much better, and I can stand up without moaning. The Tylenol helped as I woke up only a couple of times during the night. I still need to do an errand.

The afternoon is mostly sunny. It is in the high 50’s. The air is still. My neighborhood is quiet though Henry did break the silence when he barked at the Amazon driver delivering a big bag of dog food to the house. Nala is still up to her felonious ways. I found a rolled pair of sneaker socks in the hall downstairs. They had been upstairs. I think I have to do a yard check.

Duke, the boxer I grew up with, was not a thief. He didn’t usually steal food from the counter except that one time we caught him, my brother and I. My mother had put the Sunday roast on the counter to defrost. It was roast beef, my favorite. My brother and I were watching TV when Duke came out of the kitchen with the roast in his mouth. We jumped up, grabbed him, opened his jaw and took the roast. He was not a happy dog. The roast has teeth marks. We washed it and smoothed out the teeth marks as well as we could. We must have done a great job as my mother didn’t notice. As we were sitting around the table eating, my brother and I were hard-pressed not to laugh.

Fall is firmly entrenched. The sunlight is sharp, no longer diffused as in summer. The breeze is chilly and constant. In the mornings the house holds on to the night air and is cold. I bundle a bit, a hoodie and warm slippers. It is time to put the storm door on the front. It is time to prepare for the coming of winter.

I’ve always loved this time of year. I remember how crisp the air felt in the mornings on my walk to school. I wore a jacket. The day would warm, but I still needed my jacket on the walk home. Darkness came in the late afternoon. We were inside early. We’d watch TV, or I’d do homework or read to pass the time until supper. We’d eat at the table in the kitchen. We could hear the TV in the background from the living room. We’d finish eating then to go back to watching TV until bedtime.

I used to love walking in the gutters and kicking the leaves. They flew into the air and onto the street. My front yard didn’t have trees which dropped their leaves. They were mostly fir trees. The backyard had a big hill and no trees. The sidewalks, though, were sheltered by big trees and long branches and were covered in fallen leaves.

My father raked on Saturdays. He’d clear the sidewalks and rake and sweep the dead leaves into big piles in the gutters. He’d burn the piles. I remember the smoke was gray, and the burning leaves had the best smell. I’d watch them burn. My clothes would hold on to the smell long after the fire was out.

Nala is sneaky. She quietly gets into things. This morning I found torn paper napkins and paper towels in the hall. I think she stole them from the bag I keep in this room for recycling my newspapers and magazines. I am either too engrossed in what I am doing or too absent minded to notice. When I accuse her, that stub tail wags, and she sort of smiles. That is her tell.

I was tired yesterday after nine straight days of mostly uke so yesterday I didn’t go to my uke lesson or the concert. I went back to bed and slept until noon. I am still tired today, and after all that activity my leg is hurting. The pain woke me up a few times during the night. I heard moaning. What a shock to find out I was the moaner. This morning I have started taking Tylenol again. I do need a few things, my usually bread and cream, but I won’t go out; instead, I need to stay home and do nothing, to rest my leg. I’m getting good at doing nothing.

Today is another lovely fall day. The sun is shining, but clouds are predicted for later. It is 61°. The breeze is every now and then and is strong enough to blow the leaves at the ends of the branches. The dogs romped this morning.

I remember so much, and if I close my eyes, I can see pieces of my childhood. My third grade classroom is intact in my memories. We were in the cellar of the rectory with the walls and the floor painted and tables and chairs about the room. A clock was the only wall ornament. I remember my seat was at the last table in a chair not against the wall. My nun’s desk was across from the door and facing all of us. We kept our books in the center of the table while lunches and book bags went under the chairs. We used to line up in the middle of the room to go outside. We had to walk beside the cars in the garage. It was a strange place for a classroom, but we never minded. It was as if we were in our own school.

I remember the eighth grade. My room was on the second floor. My seat was by a window overlooking the school yard. A bookcase lined the wall under the windows. I used to hide candy in the bookcase beside my seat. I’d covertly eat it during the day. Later, I got more brazen and kept my transistor radio in the bookcase. I’d listen through ear buds and hide the buds with my hands. One day as I was listening and eating, I got called on. I pulled the candy out of my mouth but wasn’t fast enough to take out the air buds. Sister Hildegard thought I was hard of hearing and raised her voice. I almost laughed out loud. Later, she changed all our seats, and I was in the front desk of the second row. She never remembered my hearing problem, and I couldn’t hide my candy or music anymore.

I can still see the classroom block and my classroom at Women’s Training College in Bolgatanga where I taught. The windows had no glass. They did have shutters. We sometimes had to close them when the rains were heavy. The door was an opening. Once in a while a goat would make its way inside the room. We’d just keep going. The goat always left. There were small wooden tables and chairs. Each table held two students. The chalk board was at the front of the room. Some of it had cracks. I wrote around them. My desk was in front of the board. In my memory drawer is the most vivid picture of that classroom. It will always be with me.

Today is ugly. The morning is dark. A strong wind is whipping everything back and forth, even the big limbs still covered in leaves are being tossed. I can hear that wind. Rain is predicted.

I remember Dick and Jane and their little sister Sally and who could forget Spot and Puff. I was in the first grade. They were in my first reader, Fun with Dick and Jane. Jane wore dresses all the time, frilly dresses. She had blonde hair sometimes tied with red ribbons. They never did anything once, “Run, run, Dick, run,” said Sally. “Look, Jane, look, look, see Dick.” Even the pets talked in doubles. Sometimes we’d read the books out loud as a class. We sounded sing-songy. Other times the nun would call one of us to read. I remember using my finger under the words so I could kept track. The books got boring quickly. We could read run runs and looks and sees only a few times. It was then we’d move on to another book with Dick and Jane. Each book had new words to learn, bigger words. I don’t remember when we were done with Dick and Jane, but I do remember different readers, bigger books with individual stories and questions at the end of each. The stories were actually interesting, and the questions were easy. They were in the same order as the story. They were usually homework.

The other lesson I remember is learning how to use the dictionary. That words were in the same order as the alphabet was the first thing we learned. I remember the guide words at the top of each page. That was the big lesson. We had work sheets with words, and we had to find the guide words for each of them. The test we had was the same. I loved my dictionaries. I used to open a page at random and look for new words. I kept a paperback dictionary near my bed so I could look up words I didn’t know when I was reading before going to sleep. I still have my red covered Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary. The pages have begun to yellow.

In Ghana, I used to teach my students fun sounding words. Their favorite was bamboozle. I remember a history teacher asking me if I had taught them that word because it appeared in several essays. It seems the British bamboozled the Ashanti.

My dance card this week has my regular uke events, my practice and lesson, and also two concerts. I have a doctor’s appointment today, just a regular check-up. During the rest of the week I might vacuum and dust though I’m hesitant as I don’t want to risk my inner sloth.

Today is a lovely fall day. The sun is staying around. It was missing most of the week hidden by rain and clouds. Everything is glinting in the light, especially the leaves dangling from the lower branches. The sky is a light blue. The breeze is every now and then. It is 57°, the high for the day. The weekend will be a pretty one.

My dance card still has two events, today and tomorrow. I didn’t post yesterday because of the concert and may not post tomorrow for the same reason. I have to be in Hyannis at eleven thirty. This has been the busiest week I can remember in a long time. I’m tired.

When I was a kid, life was easy. During the week was school. Every day was the same. When my mother woke me up, she already had breakfast ready. The menu mostly depended on the weather, but I could count on my cup of cocoa and my brother’s tea, served in a pot. Sometimes we had eggs with toast while on cold days we often had oatmeal. My mother did her best to beat down the oatmeal lumps, but a few sneaked through. I didn’t care. I never ate naked oatmeal. Mine was always drowning in milk and covered in sugar. Once in a while I’d add cinnamon. After breakfast it was time to get dressed. I didn’t have to choose my clothes. I wore my uniform, but I did get to pick my socks. Sometimes I wore short socks, but in the cold I often wore knee socks. My friend and I walked to school together, the same way every day. I loved that walk. The straightaway was on a sidewalk with branches overhead. The sunlight was here and there. We’d sometimes jump from spot to spot. We’d cross the street, and school was right there. We’d wait in the schoolyard for the bell.

I was a dreamer. I didn’t plan day to day, but I did plan for when I was older. I knew I’d go to college, the first to go in my extended family. I knew I’d see the world. No one in my family traveled far, but I knew I would. I never doubted that my dreams would come true.

After Ghana, the first trip I made was to Europe. I went to Finland then on to Russia. I’ll never forget that trip. I ate reindeer in the Arctic Circle when it was midnight sun time. I took a train from Helsinki to Leningrad. Only three of us were on the through car. It got dis-attached from the Finnish train and added to the Russian train. One uniformed train person stayed in the car. She gave us tea, lots of tea served in clear glass cups.

I always think myself lucky. My life has been interesting. It has been all I dreamed it would be.

The sun was through the clouds earlier, and I saw a bit of blue, but both have disappeared. The weather report calls for light rain. It is chilly at 50°. Today might even be light coat weather.

This is a busy week for me, all uke. I’ve already had practice and my lesson. Today, tomorrow and Sunday are concert days. The concert book is songs of the sea. On Saturday I am playing with a few friends at an ordination. We will play the dismissal song. My dance card groans.

I am back to being pleasant. I have my coffee. The animals don’t avoid me anymore. It is a happy household.

When I was in Ghana, tea was the Ghanaian drink of choice. I had to buy instant coffee. Ghanaians didn’t drink milk either so I had to buy canned milk. Every morning I drank at least two cups of coffee, one with breakfast and another after teaching a class or two. I had a giant mug. I used to sit on my small porch and drink the later cups of coffee. I loved watching the world go by. Little kids walked passed my house in one direction to the primary school while older kids also walked passed my house but in the other direction to the middle school. Both schools were just outside my school fence so through my school was a shortcut. I was an attraction. Kids either said good morning or stared at me.

I had eggs and toast every morning for breakfast. They were cooked over a small charcoal burner. The eggs were cooked in groundnut oil, peanut oil to us, which gave the eggs the best flavor. The toast was buttered with margarine (I couldn’t resist the word play). Because butter came in a can and was expensive, I only bought it for holidays and for baking. Margarine was also sold in a can, but it was fairly inexpensive.

I never minded the margarine, canned milk and, aghast, the instant coffee. After a while, they tasted just fine. In Ghana I learned to make good with what was available.

The rain continues, but the darker clouds have given way to lighter clouds. A few leaves are moving in the breeze. The air is chilly with the dampness. The dogs are resting, having their morning naps on the couch. I woke up late. I went to bed late though I always think late is a misnomer. It was close to 4 when I turned off the light. That’s early morning.

My dance card is filled this week, all with uke. It starts tonight, and there is something every day through Sunday. I can’t remember any other week as busy as this.

My mother always made great lunches. We had bologna a lot which I loved. We never had peanut butter and jelly even on Fridays when we couldn’t eat meat; instead, we mostly had tuna salad or egg salad. I saw kids with gross peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. The jelly seeped through the bread, and there was always a blue looking circle in the middle of the top bread. It was always Wonder Bread which was thin and sort of squishy anyway. Cookies were the usual desert. Oreos were my favorite. Chocolate chip was a close second. I bought my milk. It was delivered to each classroom just before lunch. Candy to be sold was delivered at the same time but in a lunch box. The bars were a nickel. Once in a while my mother would give me a nickel, and candy was my dessert. That brings me to Sister Hildegard. She was my eighth grade teacher. She was quite old. I remember that she would take the lunch box, check out the candy bars and take a few. She hid them in a desk drawer. Once in a while she’d eat some covertly. We always knew because she’d be chewing. I remember once she spit nuts on a paper of mine.

In the winter my mother sometimes gave us soup for lunch. It was always chicken noodle, Campbell’s chicken noodle. The top of the thermos was the bowl. I had to be careful pouring the soup as sometimes the noodles plopped hard and drops flew usually onto my blouse. My mother included saltines and dessert in my lunch box.

I am still partial to bologna and Oreos. I only have soup once in a while, but when I do, I sometimes crush my Saltines and put the pieces in my soup. I like chicken soup still, but I prefer tomato soup with grilled cheese. I love to dip the sandwich into the soup, a sublime taste, a heavenly lunch.

The rain continues. The day is dark. The wind strong. The ground is littered with leaves and twigs and small branches. It is a day to stay close to hearth and home, to wear comfy clothes and to read the day away.

I’m glad I live alone, not for me but for my non-existent roommate. I am grumpy, another day without my morning coffee. I should go out to get it, but that seems such an exertion. I want the coffee fairy to wave her wand then abracadabra coffee would appear in all its glory on the table in my den. I wouldn’t complain if her wand also delivered a butternut donut.

I like the rain. I love being surrounded by rain falling on the roof and windows. Last night, actually early this morning, close to 3:30, the wind howled. I could hear branches against the windows. Jack, my cat, was alert to the sounds but not for long. He went right back to his treats.

I remember walking to school on rainy fall mornings. The sidewalk was covered in yellow leaves pasted to the ground by the rain. Cars splashed as they rode by me. I didn’t have rain boots, only snow boots, so my shoes and socks always got wet. Sometimes water bubbled out of the tops of my shoes. My shoes would eventually dry still on my feet.

On the walk home from school, my shoes and I would get wet again. I’d change quickly after I got home but usually into my pajamas. There was no need for play clothes.

I grew up with categories for clothes. All of us did. Back then, I had school clothes, play clothes and church clothes. Pajamas were on their own. Now, I mostly just have play clothes.

Where I lived in Ghana has distinctive rainy and dry seasons. The rain comes almost every day. It never interferes with life, with daily living. No one has umbrellas or raincoats. I’d walk to the classroom block, go to town and shop in the market in the rain. If it got torrential, I’d take refuge under a market stall overhang. The aunties in the stall were always welcoming. My house had a tin roof. It made music when it rained.