Keep the Coffee Comimg

The sun dropped by yesterday. It was still chilly, but I went out on the deck for a little bit with Henry. I didn’t want to miss any of that sunshine. I’m glad I did. The clouds are back today, and there is a threat of showers. I’ve been thinking that maybe all these cloudy days are really a gift from Mother Nature. She doesn’t want us longing to be in the sunshine. She wants us safe at home.

I’ve been watching movies and keeping a list of them disaster by disaster. Yesterday was earthquake day. One movie took place on the west coast, and there were naysayers even when the fires started and the electric poles toppled, but when lava forced the naysayers to face refutable evidence, they ran fast as anybody facing death by hot lava, all doubts erased. I think I’ll do hurricanes and rogue waves today. I’m avoiding contagion.

I found pieces of my Peace Corps flag in the front yard this morning. They had been chewed off into little squares. I left the pieces there. They are remnants of the flag I found which had fallen in the front yard. The spawns of Satan are at again. I didn’t put out dinner, birdseed, so I am now the decorator instead of the caterer. They’ve already taken the grill cover so maybe this is wall paper. That flag was difficult to find and now it is impossible.

I’m in the mood for a sub sandwich or Chinese food or seafood, probably scallops. I haven’t quite decided but am leaning toward seafood. Imagine if you will a restaurant filled with empty tables and chairs, a solitary cook and a phone ringing and being answered over and over. Around the walls are posters of seafood cooked to perfection. In the parking lot are cars with only a driver. They wait to deliver orders, and one of those orders will be mine. I’ve decided on a scallop plate with fries and the best onion rings around here. It will be my high tea or my linner or dunch, the suggested names of the combined meals. Eating brunch sounds so much better than eating dunch, but if that’s what I’m stuck with, dunch it will be.

The sun is shining today. The sky is blue. The wind is gone, but it is still chilly, in the low 50’s.

I tasted freedom this morning. I had my first excursion when I went to get the newspapers. I didn’t need 6 feet because no one was around. The street is quiet. I’ll get today’s mail when it comes later.

Being stuck inside has now become tiresome. I have stuff I can do, but I don’t want to do a thing. I just want to complain. It is a bit ironic I suppose as I enjoy being alone.

I have been watching disaster movies. I have seen earthquakes, volcanoes, tornados, avalanches and sea creatures run amok. My favorites are the earthquake movies. Everything happens in an earthquake movie. You get people sliding into crevices, fires breaking out and buildings falling apart rock by rock. Experts throw around the word unstable and women scream at every little quake. In most disaster movies, a hero always rises. In the movie I’m watching now called Faultline, the hero has just come to the fore.

Henry is upstairs napping. He likes my bed. The cat is also napping upstairs but in the guest room. Jack and Gwen nap together every day around this time. I nap later.

I don’t have enough bananas to make banana bread. You need three, and I have only two.

Market days are when you can buy just about anything. In Bolga every third day was and still is market day. I loved going shopping on market day. The hustle and bustle was loud and all the stalls were filled. I could find regular produce like onions and tomatoes, but sometimes I’d get lucky like the time my vegetable lady had a watermelon she’d saved for me. I’d fill my two shepherd’s bags with vegetables, fruits and meat, beef though it was always a bit suspect, then I’d put the bags over my handle bars and ride my moto home. I wonder now how Ghanaians are faring. They don’t stock up but rather shop market day to market day. They can’t do that now. But I, knowing Ghanaians as I do, believe they will solve the problem of social distancing and shopping. Ghanaians are both innovative and ingenious.

I can hear birds. They are always a welcome sound.

I admit to laziness today. It was close to eleven, yup, eleven, when I woke up then I took my time reading my papers and having a couple of cups of coffee. I know I will get little done today. I have no list although I could have a list. That is why I am lazy.

The wind is getting stronger. The forecast includes a high wind warning with south winds 25 to 35 mph and gusts up to 60 mph. The warning went on to say damaging winds could blow down trees and power lines making travel difficult. I wondered who was traveling. The storm could be terrific with heavy rain and winds. Maybe groceries or prescriptions drew people outside. I can’t think of any other reasons.

I have charged my electronics and found my flashlight and lamp. I have e-books and real books you can hold. I won’t run out. I have plenty of food. If need be, I can use my grill. I can sit outside staying warm beside my lit chiminea while keeping an eye on dinner. I have piñon wood to burn in the chiminea. Its aroma will sweeten the air. I know it all sounds amazing, my making the most of it and all, but if the truth be told, I prefer to keep my electricity and my stove. I could light my chiminea but not today. I am lazy today.

My Easter dinner was delicious. It was hmmm out loud delicious. It was a garlic lemon pork tenderloin. Before the oven, I also shook a bit of the odd spices I have from places like India on it. I had forgotten about the small potatoes I had boiled the other day. I added them to the roasting pan about an hour into cooking. I shook some Middle Eastern flavoring on the potatoes and dripped some olive oil on them. I cooked the peas. When I took everything out of the oven, the aromas were mouth-watering. I filled my bunny plate with potatoes, a bit of butter added, peas and slices of meat, cooked perfectly. I had two helpings. There is enough left for at least two more dinners then maybe a few sandwiches if I slice less liberally.

The wind is really whipping everything right now. The trees are swaying back and forth. It is getting dark. A heavy storm is coming and maybe even thunder and lightning, but I don’t worry about rain. I worry about the wind. Pine trees have shallow roots and often fall victim to heavy winds. I’ve lost three trees in front and four or so out back. More will go down out back today. I keep checking out the window.

Take care, my Coffee friends.

Today is perfectly lovely and warm in the sun, deck weather. My Easter basket, a beach pail, was on the walkway when I opened the front door. I went down to my friends’ house later than usual and decorated their tree, an annual event, and left their baskets on the deck rail. Their dog, Piper, got Easter biscuits and a new collar. Henry got Easter biscuits and a new stuffed squeaky toy. He has already eaten the decorated yellow Easter egg and some small pink ones. Henry always licks the frosting first.

Everything is now quiet. There was hammering earlier but not any more. I wondered why today, on Easter, he needed to work on his deck.

When I was a kid, nobody played outside on Easter. It was family dinner day, but after dinner, in the late afternoon, we usually went to East Boston to see my grandparents and a cast of thousands: my aunts and uncles and all my cousins. The house was always a riot of noise except in the kitchen. My grandmother, my mother, and the aunts laid claim to the kitchen. That was their domain. They sat at the table talking and catching up. They shooed us out of the room.

My sister has snow. My niece does too. She hid eggs before the snow for her three boys to find but they are now really well hidden, under the snow. This could work out though. They might look for hours especially if a big prize was offered.

I’m going to put dinner in the oven then I’ll get dressed. I think I’ll wear my flowered fascinator. I wear it to dinner every Easter Sunday. It always gets smiles. Today especially, I should observe all the traditions.

Happy Easter! Happy Passover!

The morning is pretty. The sun is shining though there are clouds. It feels warm despite the wind.

When I was a kid, you didn’t have to be good for the Easter Bunny. He hopped in regardless. Our baskets always had plenty of chocolate, especially a giant rabbit, and some gifts. I remember getting books, panoramic eggs, the wooden paddle with the red ball, jacks and a game or a puzzle. Even when I was in Ghana, my mother sent an Easter basket. Some of the chocolate had melted, but I ate it anyway. The wooden paddle was the big hit that Easter. It was the after dinner entertainment for weeks until the elastic broke.

My sisters always wore frufru dresses every Easter. They wore petticoats underneath and swirled a lot. Black patent leather shoes, hats and short gloves completed their outfits. I, on the other hand, preferred a more casual look, one I could wear anytime. Mostly I got a new skirt and blouse and a blazer. My shoes were never patent leather.

We went to the early mass Easter morning. My father was the usher so he drove us, my brother and me. The altar always had Easter lilies across the front. Everyone was dressed in spring colors.

Hyacinths in purples and deep reds have bloomed. A small yellow snowflake has bloomed near the house. It is the only bloom in that small garden. After winter’s drab, the colors are so bright and so welcomed.

My groceries are coming in a bit. I ordered them this morning. I tried all of last night, but I couldn’t get a time. They were all taken. I just checked and saw many of my items are out of stock. That includes the mashed potatoes. Seriously, a run on mashed potatoes? We’re all going stir crazy.

I saw the sun this morning. It was shining when I woke up, but it comes and goes behind the clouds. The wind is blowing, and it’s cold.

I didn’t make a list today. I still need to do more laundry and vacuum the litter area, but these are now suggestions. Yesterday I watered the plants and considered myself industrious. My standards get lower every day.

When I was a teacher, there was only one way to duplicate material in my school, on the ditto machine. I’d type on the stencil, the master copy, then put it on the machine’s cylinder and keep turning it until I had the right number of copies. When I passed out copies to my class direct from the ditto machine, my students always sniffed the pages. Ditto had a unique smell. Later, I learned the smell came from the ditto machine’s duplicating fluid, a mix of methanol and isopropanol.

The only homework paper, other than spelling words, I remember from elementary school was all about coins and how to make change. I remember there were pictures of coins and math problems like adding or subtracting, but I already knew about coins. A penny bought candy, a nickel bought ice cream from Johnny our ice cream man, a dime bought a balsa plane from Woolworth’s and a quarter bought the world. The only time I saw paper money was on my birthday.

I thought I had bugs, black bugs. I could see them here and there on the floor. I used a Kleenex to pick up a couple and threw them away. I didn’t look for fear they’d jump free. Yesterday I looked. No bugs, just a small ball of fur, a really small ball of black fur.

Henry is driving me crazy. He is howling at my neighbor across the street who is out in his yard. I guess I should let him bark. The poor dog has little to bark at now.

I hate looking behind the curtain. I’d choose magical any time.

When I woke up, there it was, the ugly day, same as all the rest, cloudy and damp, but today I have a different frame of mine. I have decided to approach these days as a gift from Mother Nature. She is giving us ugly days so we can better abide being inside.

Last night I had the best dinner. I think I even hmmed with every bite. Last night I had hot dogs, two of them. They came from the deli at Ring’s. They were plump and snappy. 

I do need dry cat food, but they still have a bit left. Maybe tomorrow I’ll leave the house and head for Rings. I do need some small storage bins so perhaps the hardware store as well. While I am out, I might as well add the dump then I’ll get myself a donut.

When I was a kid, I only read the comics. My father read the whole paper and passed it to me when he was done. I didn’t ever see my mother reading it. As for TV, we watched some programs in the late afternoon, before dinner, and a few after dinner. I remember all the westerns. I even remember their theme songs. The only radio stations I heard from my little radio played rock and roll. I never cared about the wide world except as part of my dreams, as destinations for when I’m grown.

I think it was in the sixth grade when I saw pictures of llamas and the Andes in my geography book. I wished I was there. That was the beginning of the change in me. I was never the same after that. I wanted to grab as much as I could of the world and all its parts. I still do.

I want my world to heal.

Today is another lovely day, warmer than yesterday, and already 53˚. I have to go to the post office. I wonder how that will work. One at a time would make for a long line as there is always a line at my post office. I’m sending Easter to Colorado.

When I was a kid, I loved the first spring days when I got to put winter away. My heavy coat and mittens went into storage in the cellar. My spring jackets, though, were too lightweight so I sometimes had to wear a sweater underneath. I didn’t care. It was a spring jacket, not a winter coat. I remember walking to school in the chilly mornings. The birds were many and loud. The sunlight was sharp, the air clear. I knew the day would get warmer. Spring mornings have that feel about them. Even now, when I go out to get the papers, I stay outside a little while. I check out the garden and the new buds and flowers. A purple hyacinth has bloomed. The garden is full of surprises.

My grass is getting green. Its winter brown is disappearing. All my day lilies are above ground but not close to flowering yet. This is usually when all the landscapers come out of their winter hibernation. You’d see and hear lawns being raked and gardens being cleared but not this year.

My backyard needs clearing. There are some fairly big branches which fell during the winter. In the back, in about the middle of the yard, one daffodil always blooms. It is color among the grey oak and pine trunks. I wait for it every year.

Today is lovely with a warm sun and a beautiful clear sky. It is a bit chilly at 49˚, but I was out talking to my neighbor and didn’t notice. I went out for my newspapers, but they weren’t there. I even looked under the car. I am such a creature of habit that having no papers has broken my morning ritual and left a giant hole. I know I can read on line, but it just isn’t the same.

My neighbor really loves to bake and has been baking cookies. She told me she usually saves a few then sends the rest next door to the kids. Now she eats them all. I asked her why she baked. She said it is calming. It is what she likes to do.

I never did my list yesterday. I started to and saw dust on the table and chairs and so I ended up sweeping and dusting the living room and the dining room. I used a real duster, not the sleeves of my sweatshirt.

Before this, I didn’t go out all that much, maybe three or four times a week. I had my uke lesson and game night and nothing else on my weekly dance card, but I was always willing to add something, but now my dance card is completely empty.

Yesterday was Palm Sunday. When I was a kid, my parents had a picture of, I think, Jesus hanging on the wall over their bed. They kept the palm behind the picture. It was green at first then over time it turned yellow and the frond edges got sharp. Every year on Palm Sunday my father would get the new palm fronds and carefully take away the old ones. I don’t know what he did with them, and I never asked. I didn’t really care.

A car stopped at my little library. I was glad to see her. It is good to know people have found my library. I have a few books to add. I’ll put that on my to do list.

I talked to my friend the other night for close to two hours. You’d think we’d run out of things to say because every day is so similar to the day before, but we don’t. Even grocery shopping forays are fodder for conversation. My dump run had her mesmerized. More is coming. Wait until she hears about my changing my bed.

I slept late, we’re talking almost noon. My guess would be it was the dump run which did me in. It took me four trips to fill the car then when I was at the dump, it took a while to unload. I had to drag then lift the heavy bags. One bag is still on the deck. It wouldn’t fit.

No sun again today!! The day’s only redeeming factor is it is warmer than it has been.

Color is returning to my world. All the dafs are blooming. The hyacinths are almost ready to bloom. The forsythia has its yellow buds.

I took a ride yesterday on the beach road. This time of year people usually come down to open their summer houses, but most of the houses are still shuttered. Cars were on the main road, but there were only a few riding on the beach road. It reminded me of the dead of winter when the cape slows down, when the tourists have left. The water looked dark and cold, the beach uninviting.

I went to Ring, my favorite grocery store, on my way home as I needed cream and milk. I never get just one thing at Ring so I also bought lamb moussaka, a cinnamon roll and cut fruit, tropical fruit. Henry does enjoy kiwi.

Last night I slid off my bed. I woke up and realized I was headed for the floor so I tried to grab the other side of the mattress, but I couldn’t reach it so I slid to the floor. Henry slid with me. We weren’t hurt. It was the mattress topping, the egg crate, which had moved to the middle of the bed so half of it was hanging off, my half. I have to figure out how to keep it from moving.

Today is a bit different than yesterday. I won’t be going anywhere, and my list of chores is simple: bring up the clean laundry, change the bed, water my plants and fill the bird feeders. I think I’ll sit outside for a little while, maybe play fetch with Henry. I got dressed yesterday. I don’t have to today.