Keep the Coffee Comimg

Today is a pretty day and a warm day, in the mid 40’s. I have a few errands later, and I’m glad to be going out. I used to find errands annoying. Now, they are the only break in the monotony.

My den smells like the stores I used to visit back in time which sold woolen jackets with embroidered designs, handwoven socks and those square decorative cloth bags we all carried. Some bags had fringe. Mine didn’t. Everything in the store came from Nepal, which was big in the late 60’s. I used to buy prayer flags to decorate my apartment. The store in Hyannis always smelled of incense. I’m burning incense right now. It smells like the store to me, but I don’t know what the scent is. All the long thin incense sticks smell the same to me. I’m thinking sandalwood. I think they are all sandalwood.

My sister once gave me small blocks of peat to burn and a ceramic Irish cottage peat burner. Peat has a particular smell. It is one of those smells you love or not at all. I love the smell of peat. I particularly remember it from one trip to Ireland. We were staying at a summer hotel before the season. Most of the rooms were cold including the tiny dining room where we were having dinner so they started the fireplace. They used peat. The room warmed quickly and was filled with the aroma of the peat. It stayed on my clothes. I could still smell the peat when I went to sleep.

When I was in high school, my friends and I used to go tobogganing at the Winchester Country Club. It had the most amazing hills. I remember a hill we took only once. We were speeding down that hill when it just disappeared leaving us in mid-air. We flew for a bit. My friend Bobby was in front. I was in the middle and poor Jimmy was in the back. The landing was hard. We slammed against the snow but continued down the hill. Jimmy had almost fallen off when we landed. We sort of dragged him for a bit. We didn’t know. That hill was a monster.

Yesterday I did my laundry. I also dry mopped the downstairs floors, especially the corners where puffs of white fur seem to hide and grow bigger. I ordered dog food on-line, but today I’m going to Agway for the cat food and litter and whatever catches my eye as something always does. Last time it was a new bird feeder and three small plants since potted and moved to the dining room window sill. I haven’t put the bird feeder out yet. It has been too cold. It is now at the top of my to do the list but not today. It is colder than yesterday.

My life continues to be quiet. I talk to my sisters and that’s about it. I don’t go out often. Usually I save all my errands to do in one day except for the trash. Trash has its own day.

When I was a kid, I never saw our town dump. I didn’t even know we had one. The weekly trash truck picked up everything, even the things they weren’t supposed to, the dump things, but a six pack always eased the forbidden trash into the truck. I remember a chair stuffed into the back of the truck.

When I was a kid, the square in my town, we always called it uptown, had wonderfully, amazing smells and sounds. Just before the movie theater was a set of stairs going below the square. When the door opened, I could hear the sounds of bowling balls and pins dropping. It was a bowling alley and a pool hall. I never went there. None of us did. It was a mysterious place where we figured the leather jacket crowd hung out. I don’t know if that’s true. Maybe it was a rumor spread to keep kids out of there. It worked. We went to the big bowling alley or the one at Redstone Shopping Center.

I remember the smell of popcorn popping. Somewhere behind the square was a candy making building. The aroma of fresh bread wafted from Hank’s Bakery. The fish market had a gross smell, a combination of smells of fish, dead and on ice, and salt water, but standing on the sidewalk in front of the fish market was worth tolerating the smell because the fish market had a great window. Lobsters swam in a tank you could see. I always watched. The lobsters never did anything. They just stayed on the bottom, but I watched anyway. That’s how I learned lobsters are bottom-feeders.

On Sunday I felt accomplished. I went to the dump though I will never go to the dump again on a Sunday at 1:44 pm. At the recycling area, both sides of the road were filled with parked cars so, having nowhere to park, I skirted the area and went to the trash bins. I found a free bin so I tossed the trash. The rest, the cardboard and such, can stay in the car until the next trip. After the dump, I shopped for cat litter and cat food. I also bought myself a Milky Way. I cleaned the litter box before I put in the new litter. It was a gross job. I rewarded myself with the Milky Way.

Now that Christmas is gone, there are no colors left to brighten my world. Last night was dark. No houses near me were lit, inside or out. The only light was a bit of a street light through the trees from a couple of streets away. The trail of white lights across my fence had been turned off by the timer. Henry wouldn’t go into the dark so I turned on the outside light for him. He is still afraid of stuff but not so much stuff.

The other day I was cleaning up some old photos. I saw my pictures of snow storms from past winters. I don’t love snow, but I think freshly fallen snow on the trees and bushes is lovely. I have lots of pictures of the snow in my yard. Of the few trees around me, the furs seem most at home with snow. Their covered branches look like flocked Christmas tree branches. A yellow or red light through the melting snow around the bulbs wouldn’t be unexpected. Scrub pine are ugly trees, but the snow makes them look their best.

Last night I asked Hey, Google how to spell Hawaii’s state bird. I wanted to know how to spell nene (easy, I know). Goggle started, ” Capital H-a-w-a-i-i, and that’s where I stopped Google. I felt silly.

A friend wrote about the pit he was growing in his kitchen which would become a palm tree. All of a sudden I remembered avocado pit plants. They were the things for a while. Just about every friend’s house I visited had a tall plant growing from an avocado pit balanced between the sides of a glass by toothpicks on each side of the pit holding it mostly out of the water in the glass. I think the plants were always on windowsills in the kitchens. I know mine was. It is strange what I forget, what I remember. Today it was the avocado pit plants.

(From 2018)

Posts for special days are important to me. They are the thoughts and feelings brought to mind about the day and what it means to me. This post is from another year, but the title quote is especially apt for the events now happening. I don’t think I could do better than have Martin Luther King write the post for today. 

Today is Martin Luther King Day. These are excerpts from Martin Luther King’s speech delivered on August 28, 1963 at the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington.

“And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

And this will be the day — this will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with new meaning:

My country ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. 

Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim’s pride, 

From every mountainside, let freedom ring! 

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.”

Sun and a blue sky have finally crowded the clouds away. It will stay sunny with a high in the low 40’s, but the wind makes it feel colder. I have two errands: Agway and the dump, but I might add a stop for me. I’m thinking chocolate. It has already been an I need chocolate day.

My hometown is much bigger now than when I was a kid. The square has changed most of all. The best stores are gone, replaced mostly by restaurants. The movie theater, my Saturday matinee spot, was saved and renovated. It now has live theater. If I could conjure up a return of a few of the stores, I’d bring back the Stoneham Spa, O’Grady’s Diner, Middlesex Drugs, the cobbler and that little restaurant that was long and narrow. I especially miss the cobbler. His shop was also long and narrow. It had a table the length of the room, and it was always covered in shoes, pairs tied together. The cobbler used to sit at the end of the table. He always wore a white apron. I remember bringing a pair of shoes for new soles. He gave me a numbered ticket and threw the shoes on the pile.

O’Grady’s was a wonderful old diner. It had red stools and lots of silver around the counter. The tables had red cushioned seats. On each table was a connection to the juke box. The songs were a quarter, and I would turn the pages until I found what I wanted. Mostly I had breakfast there with my father.

Middlesex Drugs was the best with its marble soda fountain counter and its gift counters. I could always find Christmas gifts for my parents. The perfume counter was in the middle sort of aisle a bit beyond the soda fountain. The perfume I bought my mother was never expensive. I doubt it even smelled good, but my mother always loved it. I bought my father his Christmas handkerchiefs there. I bought vanilla cokes.

The restaurant was next to the men’s store, also long gone. I never ate inside, but my mother would get me a sandwich for lunch from there when I had to go to the dentist in Boston. I remember the sandwich was always toasted and was wrapped in white paper sort of like a present.

I’m back to being a news junkie. The closer we get to the inauguration the more I watch. I’m hoping I see nothing but pomp and tradition on Wednesday.

The sounds of the wind and the rain woke me this morning. The rain was heavily beating on the roof, but the wind was intermittent. Both started last night, but the wind was first. I ran out for my newspapers with my hood over my head. Henry balked about going out but he did twice. The second time he went out he came in the dog door to get out of the rain. Usually he waits for me to let him in. I am well trained.

Potatoes and onions are baking right now. There are small Yukon Gold potatoes, a sweet potato, two regular potatoes and two white onions. I can smell the onions, but it is a sweet smell. I have to keep an eye on the Yukon Gold.

I cleaned more yesterday. I wasn’t going to clean but guilt got me up. I finished washing and dusting all the boxes and trinkets and books. I can’t believe how shiny and bright everything looks. The wall shelves are next.

While I was watching YouTube, I got a tour of a rental. The door was shown but not opened to the basement. Here we don’t have basements. We have cellars. We even have an interesting way of using cellar in a sentence as in put it down cellar, not put it down the cellar, just cellar. I remember my mother telling us to go play down cellar. Maybe it is a New England thing.

When I was a kid, I had everything I needed. I had a bike to take me anywhere. I had roller-skates which were just fun, never a means of transport, but I loved roller skating on the parking lot near my house. I remember the tingling on my feet when I skated and how strange it felt to walk after roller skating. I got a transistor radio one Christmas, and I used to put it in my bike basket and roll with the tunes, on AM stations back then. I remember the radio bouncing in the air when I hit a bump. I always thought I was a lucky kid.

Today is warmish and sunny. The clouds come and go. After yesterday, I am feeling accomplished despite my very late rising this morning. Yesterday I was able to tear up my completed to do list, finish all my errands and clean more shelves here in the den. I have even started my laundry on its guilt trip to get washed. The bag and basket are now by the cellar stairs. It was a two trip load from upstairs. If past history serves me, the laundry will sit by the cellar door for a week, maybe even longer. My guilt threshold is very high (or is it very low?). I even put away in the appropriate bin the Christmas presents I bought on sale after Christmas (Be Kind!). I have two more envelopes to mail, but I’ll do that Monday. They are the time capsule boxes for my grands to put last year away.

I’m staying home today. I have no other plans. For some reason I keep thinking it is a Saturday. It feels like a Saturday to me. Saturday is waking up late knowing you have no responsibilities, √. Saturday is slowly digesting the papers √. and watching an old movie √. It is wearing comfies and fleece-lined slippers √. It is eating popcorn, no check yet. That is my treat for after I finish here.

On a winter’s Saturday when I was a kid, I wore the Saturday uniform of sorts every other kid wore. I wore dungarees, girl dungarees. They had a zipper in the pocket and no fly. I wore long sleeve jerseys or blouses and a sweatshirt, just a plain sweatshirt with no hood or pouch, or, if going out on a really cold day, a jacket. I wore socks with my sneakers.

I always wore a pair of mittens in the winter because getting my fingers in each glove finger hole took too much time. Often I had to start over as my fingers were in the wrong holes and the glove dangled. Putting on gloves quickly is one of those I’m not a little kid anymore talents. What’s interesting is I still prefer mittens even though I have mastered gloves. Mittens keep my fingers warmer. My favorite pair is a bright pink fleece.

The furnace man came with the new part, an inducer motor. After it was installed, I couldn’t believe how quiet the furnace had become. I think it had been getting nosier but not so much I noticed until it wasn’t noisy any more.

I didn’t do anything yesterday, but I do have small, small (as they say in Ghana) things to do and a couple of places to go today. In front of me on the table is my checkbook which needs to be checked with my account. Yesterday’s mail hasn’t been opened, and it too is on the table, in line to be opened. I brought a cookbook in here, one I haven’t looked through for a while: Mma Ramotswe’s Cookbook. It is part of my collection of cookbooks from novels, ones like The Little Women Cookbook: Tempting Recipes from the March Sisters and Their Friends and Family which is my newest one. Others of my cookbooks include Anne of Green Gables and Game of Thrones.

The last pieces on the table are miniature figures from Peter Pan. They were sort of stored or at least kept together on the top of a wax candle and all were covered in dust. I was in a bored mood and cleaned everything. I don’t remember how long ago I bought these figures and anything else about them except their names are in French. I’m going to put them on the shelf my sister gave me for Christmas. It is in the kitchen.

I have found the perfect places for all of my amazing and unique Christmas presents. That took a while as I carried them from room to room and wall to wall. My newest Bolga basket is on the old blue chair with the painted moons, the corner chair in the living room. The dye free grass of the basket is framed by the deep blue of the chair behind the seat on which the basket sits. I love the way they look look together, the basket and the chair.

My fruits and veggies arrived yesterday as did the most wonderful cinnamon bread, all from Improper Foods. I so love that bread. It was out the last I ordered so I’ve been waiting a month. The bread is sitting on the counter. I’m going to have a toasted slice with my coffee in a few minutes. The toast gets crispy on the edges while the cinnamon melts on the inside. I think it is ideal.

Last night I watched Giant from the Unknown, a black and white science fiction-horror movie from 1958. For all you B science fiction fans, this is right up your alley so to speak!

Well, I have to finish here and go to bed as it is nearly two. I ended up dusting the shelves in my den and taking collections like my snow globes off the shelves one at a time then cleaning where they had been placed then cleaning them, all one a time. I worked my way around the room. I only have a couple of boxes left. As for my errands, they’ll have to be in the afternoon. I’m really tired, housecleaning does that to me.

When I woke up, the morning was pretty. The sun was shining. I was thinking about going out for a bit, but the sun has since disappeared behind a sky filling with clouds. I’ll just stay here nice and warm for now hoping for a return visit from the sun. The furnace company just called. The part is in, and someone will be here this afternoon. My furnace still comes on, but the poor thing sounds as if it is in horrific pain. Henry barked at the noise when it first started but doesn’t care about it any more. I do. I wince when I hear it.

When I was a kid, our house had radiators. When the furnace came on, I could hear the gurgling of the water through the pipes of the radiator. It was almost a comforting sound, and I sometimes fell asleep as the radiator on the wall at the foot of my bed hissed and steamed. If I felt cold, I used to sit in front of that radiator to get warm. I now have the sound of forced hot air, not in anyway as interesting as water coursing through the pipes.

My meals have been hit or miss. Last night I ordered in for the first time in a while. My money jar had plenty, mostly $1’s. I ordered a hot sub and French fries. For tonight I have chicken defrosted. I have no idea what I want to do with it. There are just too many possibilities. It’s a quandary.

When I was a rich kid with a nickel, I often bought a bar of candy, a single bar of candy with my whole nickel. I usually tried to buy long lasting candy like a Sugar Daddy. I got to lick the caramel, chew it and stretch it. My favorite candy for a long time was a Milky Way, a frozen Milky Way. One corner store a few blocks from my house kept some bars in the freezer. It was worth the walk. I used to like a Bit-o-Honey Bar. It had neat packaging with individual slots on wax paper so the pieces wouldn’t stick together, and it had an unfamiliar taste. Later, I learned it was honey. I think I’d still like Bit-o-Honey.

The furnace is blasting still. Every time it turns on I can hear the rumbling, the groaning. I called the fix-it company and am waiting for a call from the repairman as to an appointment to replace the groaning part.

Cloudy again and clouds are part of the whole week’s forecast. The temperature will be in the 40’s during the day.

When I was a kid, I’m sure we lost electricity and heat sometimes, but I don’t remember other than Carol, that fierce hurricane in 1954. I know it was in late August because my sister had just been born and was still in the hospital. I remember my parents glad she was there as the hospital had generators. My father took my brother and me outside during the eye of the storm. We were the only people out on my street. I think that was when I understood eerie. The air was perfectly still and the sky had an odd color. I was excited to be out during a hurricane, during a storm which toppled huge trees on my street. My father used to park on the street in front of the house, but when the hurricane was coming, he parked his car in the lot at the top of the street. No one ever parked there. That was the only time my father did. We used to roller skate and play games like Green Light and Red Rover on that lot.

I went to the dump yesterday. My passenger seat, the back seat and the trunk were filled with boxes and bags of newspapers and trash, mostly heavy bags of gross kitty litter. I had trouble lifting a couple of the bags over the top of the metal trash bins. I had to use two hands to lift the bags. Last night my back complained, and it really hurt when I moved. My ah, ah, ah’s got Henry’s attention, but he was a bit bewildered by my tone.

Today I was actually going to do some errands, but I dare not leave the house until I hear from the repairman. Meanwhile, I’ll just hang around and watch TV. I’m thinking it might be movie time, a distraction from my furnace and the news.

News Flash: I got a call. My needed furnace part been found, but it will take a day or two for it to arrive. It was close to $500.00. At least I don’t need a new furnace yet!!