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Winter holds sway. Yesterday was windy and cold, really cold. I did my errands quickly so I could return to hearth and home. The day is a pretty one still cold but much less windy.

I have plenty of books to read, and there are B science fiction movies to watch. Right now it’s acid rain that eats through cars, buildings and people. It is really awful so I’m enjoying it

My dance card has been empty of late. The only entry most weeks is Sunday game night. I do errands but reluctantly. Winter puts me into a bit of a stupor.

My father worked for Hood Ice Cream. He became the manager in Hyannis which is why we moved to the cape. We ate a lot of ice cream. I remember my father once brought home a pint, and my sister wanted to know if it was for dolls. My father loved vanilla ice cream with Hershey’s Chocolate Syrup, lots of chocolate syrup. My favorite is mint chocolate chip though I did go through a mocha phase for a while. I think the only ice cream I don’t eat is butter pecan.

I’m staying in my cozy clothes. I have a book I’ve almost finished and a new one I got yesterday. I have plenty of food to keep me nourished like plantain chips, pizza, crackers and cheese and one frozen ice cream bar.

I do have to fill the bird feeders. A cardinal couple drops by most days as do the stalwart chickadees and nuthatches.

Henry seems to love this weather. He goes several times a day and runs all over the yard. I envy his energy.

I’m now watching a movie called Ice which is the whole plot. Sorry about the spoiler.

Today is a lovely winter’s day. The sun is bright with nary a cloud in the wide expanse of the blue sky. Though it is cold, it is above freezing so I can hear drips from the roof. When I went to get the papers, there was black ice on the road. I walked gingerly.

When I was a kid, a patch of ice meant running then sliding. The game was to slide the furthest. Sometimes we’d fall but usually into a snow bank next to the sidewalk. We’d laugh. It was all fun.

Recess this time of year wasn’t much fun. It was always cold. Most of the school yard was plowed and sanded, but we couldn’t play much, no jump roping, no basketball, no catch. Mostly we stood in groups, tried to stay warm and just talked. Girls were with girls on one side of the schoolyard and boys were with boys on the other side. We were too young for the twain to meet.

When I was in high school, we had the tiniest outside area. It bordered a parking lot. I think it was just meant for us to get some fresh air. We’d go out after lunch for ten or fifteen minutes and huddle in groups to stay warm.

Henry loves being outside and stays for the longest time. Yesterday I went from window to window watching him to see what was holding his attention. He ran along the fence line then stopped, sniffed a bit then ran again. His paw prints are all over the yard.

Last night I had the weirdest dream. I’m guessing its source was the story of the man who fought off a mountain lion. In my dream, I think an animal was attacking me so I kept fending it off with my hands. In defending myself, I grabbed my arm, perhaps thinking it was the animal’s face or leg, with my other arm and used enough force it woke me up. Should I run into a mountain lion, I’ll be ready.

No snow last night, just rain, so I’m content. The sky is gray but a light gray. It’s warm for now. Tonight, however, will be cold so I need to put deicer on the front steps before the wet snow left over from Saturday freezes.

Yesterday, the kids on the street were sledding down a neighbor’s front lawn, a hill of a lawn. They used thin metal sleds that look more like metal signs. They went far and fast, even across the snowless road.

Game night was great fun. Luckily, I did not have to wear the L earned last week, a night of total losses for me; instead, I was the big winner. My friend Tony wears the L.

I have no chores on my to do list. I could find a few, but I don’t really want to do anything constructive. Yesterday was busy. I went to the dump and then to the grocery store and then made food for last night. I went with comfort: mac and cheese and garlic bread. The Mac and cheese was delicious, oozing with Irish cheddar. The garlic bread was just the right touch. My friend, Clare, did the dessert: mint chip ice cream with hot sauce and whipped cream, a decadent end to a great evening. We do treat ourselves well.

When I was a kid, we couldn’t eat meat on Fridays. That meant school lunches with egg or tuna salad sandwiches. We didn’t like peanut butter and jelly or peanut butter and marshmallow. We thought of those as snacks, not meals. For dinner my mother often made fried dough which was our favorite. She’d fry the dough, and we’d slather it with butter then sprinkle on a bit of salt. She couldn’t fry fast enough.

Everything is melting. The drips are falling from the roof. The snow is gone from the roads. When I went to get the papers, I easily pushed the snow off the windshield using those papers wrapped in plastic. The sun is so bright on the snow I had to squint. The high today will be 40˚.

I didn’t go out yesterday, but I will today, to the grocery store for a few provisions. A snow storm starts tonight around eight, but I won’t get the heavy snow as it will turn to sleet quickly. The prediction is for 1-2 inches of kick away snow. The cold is coming back with a vengeance starting Tuesday night.

I’m in trouble. The best food to ward off inflammation is beans. I really hate beans except for string beans. They just don’t look like beans to me. String is the perfect description.

I want companies to hire older people, older like me, to test opening cans, bottles and packages. Today I tried to tear open a Henry treat bag at the indentation on one side of the top. It didn’t open after three or four tries so I had to use scissors on what was a reusable bag. Jar and bottle tops are often difficult to open. I turn and twist the top to no avail then I tap it on the floor hoping that will do the trick. I have a few gimmicks, tools, for easily opening tops, but they don’t always work either. Once I almost took the jar down the street to my neighbor, but that seemed too silly, and I’m not one to give up. On a few cans, the silver hand can opener won’t work. I think evaporated milk is one of them. My solution is to poke two holes, one on each side of the metal top, and wait for all of it to drain out of the small hole. Given all of this, I am willing to offer my services for a small fee to any company hoping to accommodate the growing older generation of baby boomers. I can see the ads now: Top tested by older folks and guaranteed to open.

“Walking in a winter wonderland,” is my theme song for today. The snow started around seven. It must have been mixed with rain as it made a sound when it hit the windows. I went back to bed. When I woke up, the world was silent. It was snowing.

When I let Henry out, he didn’t make it beyond the back door. I didn’t know if it was the snow or if he just couldn’t wait. He did go out later and went down the stairs so the snow was not a factor. I guess I slept almost too long for Henry.

The snow is heavy, perfect for making snowballs and snowmen but not so good for sledding. If I were a kid again, I’d want to be outside playing in the snow.

TCM has brought back my Saturday Double Creature Feature and has even added a third creature. I watched The Time Tunnel first, and now I’m watching Forbidden Planet. One of favorites is next, Them! I love those giant ants. “Make me a sergeant in charge of the booze,” is a line I always remember.

I am not going out today. Nothing is urgent enough to get me to clear off the walk and the car so I can hit the road. I’m thinking of baking later this afternoon. I’m hankering for something chocolatey.

On Saturdays my sisters played in the backyard, my brother was with his friends or even sometimes with me roaming the town either on foot or on bicycles, but if a good movie was playing, we’d go to the matinee. I think my mother loved that we were out of the house for so long.

I have racked up a fair number of sloth days lately and am actually getting antsy. I need to find something to entice me to get busy. I guess chocolate will do, maybe even frosted brownies. My mother used to make chocolate brownies with chocolate frosting and chocolate jimmies (sprinkles for those of you outside of New England). I don’t think I can do any better!

It is quite late I know because I had to be out and about early then I came home and did my usually morning stuff like the papers and a couple of cups of coffee. I added English muffins to the mix on which I slathered a royal fig fruit spread which raised the muffins to an ethereal level. I ration the fig spread.

Snow is coming again. The first storm will only drop around 2 inches, but the second snow storm on Saturday will be a combination of rain and snow, a wintry mix here on the cape. North of us could get hit with as many as 9 inches of snow. There is still time to pack your bags and move. As for me, I’ll hunker down after a quick trip for provisions which include chocolate and maybe a piece of pie.

Henry has turned another corner. The last one was when he started following me even into the bathroom so he can get patted and scratched. When I got home today, he came out of the den to greet me. That was a first.

I am watching The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind. It takes place in Malawi, but one scene is the same as one of my memories of Ghana. To prove that a child is old enough for school when there are no records, the child has to put his right hand across the top of his head and touch his left ear.

Now I have to hunt for my mukluks.

The snow started around ten last night, and we have flurries right now, but only two or three inches fell. It wasn’t even over my shoes when I swept away the snow on the path and in front of the car. Skip came, and I had him plow out the car and mailbox and shovel the back steps for Henry, who is out now. He enjoys the snow.

When I first went outside to get the papers, I noticed large paw prints across the snow in the front yard. The space between the prints made me think the animal must have been big and moving fast. I wondered if it had been a coyote. I’ve seen them in this neighborhood but not for a while.

I watched a spawn of Satan try to get at the seeds in one of my feeders. It was relentless climbing up and down and then around the seed holder, but the no squirrel feeder did its magic, and the spawn left seedless.

The windows in my grammar school were huge. They went from the high ceilings halfway to the floor. The ones in the back which faced the school yard were more interesting than the ones on the side, but we couldn’t see out those windows. The nuns were smart so they configured the room so the windows were behind us. The side windows faced a small driveway between the school and some bushes and trees, but on days like today, the side windows grabbed our attention. We watched the snow fall.

The classroom was always quiet on snowy days. It was as if the snow muffled sounds. The nun taught, but we barely listened. Our attention was on the rhythm of the falling snow.

I did have a couple of errands for today, but there is no rush so I’ll postpone them until tomorrow. I am delighted by so many sloth days.

The day looks beautiful, sunny and clear, but the cold weather has settled in for a while. It is 29˚ now and the high will only be 31˚. The high?

I don’t have a junk drawer, but I have a tool drawer. Anything I need is there. It has both kinds of screwdrivers, a regular (I know it has a name, but I have no idea what it is) and a Phillips head, a couple of wrenches, two hammers, one small and one not so small, an awl, Gorilla tape and black duct tape. It has nails in different sizes, screws, thin wire and Christmas ornament and picture hooks. A couple of old frames, some wood pieces needing glue and a book bird fill out the rest of the drawer. Once I organized the drawer and put all the nails and screws in small jars, but the drawer still gets stuck anyway. I’m okay with that. I’m a pro at unsticking drawers except for the middle drawer in my desk. I have tried everything, but it doesn’t budge. It’s frustrating.

I wish I could build stuff. I once took a woodworking course and made some shelves. But whenever I used the huge electric saw, I envisioned losing fingers. I didn’t, but the fear was always there.

The first sort of exotic thing I ever cooked was chicken Kiev. I even made a table decoration, a styrofoam church with an onion dome. When I put my fork into the chicken, it spewed the garlic butter the way it was supposed to. It was a success. That got me got hooked on cooking and later baking. I always try to make my table decorations mirror the cuisine. For my Mexican dinner, I even made piñatas once using balloons. I love decorating the table. It is the awe factor even before we sit down to eat.

I have decreed today as another lazy day though I am going to change the bed. After that I’ll rest from my exertions.

Winter still holds the upper hand. Today is cloudy and cold with periodic snow flurries. The strong wind is whipping even the sturdy oak trees back and forth, back and forth. The sun appears then disappears behind the dark clouds. Luckily I haven’t need to go anywhere and can stay home cozy and warm. I’m going to do nothing constructive.

Henry is restless. He wanders up and down the hall, turns and stares at me then wanders some more. He’s brought a couple of toys to the couch and is now chewing on his Christmas elf, a stuffing less shadow of what it once was.

Yesterday for game night I made tapioca. My mother used to make it all the time. It was one of my father’s favorite desserts as well as one of mine and my sister’s. I like it either hot or cold though I mostly eat it cold. The taste is a memory.

My muse is resting. Last night I read for a while then finally fell asleep sometime after three. I’m still tired which, for me, translates into being easily distracted. I read one paper, checked my e-mail, then read another paper. I tried to watch a couple of movies, but neither one has held my attention. I’m now watching Logan’s Run, a movie I’ve seen before, a couple of times, so I don’t need to give it my full attention. I can let my memory fill in the blanks.

I’ve run out of words. I think I’ll get a cookie.

Today is perfect for the ten year old me. It is cloudy, but warm, sweatshirt or jacket warm. I’d spend the morning munching on my cereal in front of the TV watching the usual Saturday fare. Around noon, I’d haul my bike out of the cellar and hit the road. I’d never have a destination. I just wanted to ride. Sometimes I’d go to the square and look in the store windows. The square was filled with wonderful stores like Woolworth’s, Grants and Kennedy’s biscuits. That store had barrels in front with different cheeses and crackers for sale. I remember a huge circle of cheese. I didn’t know at the time it was cheddar. The only cheese I knew was orange and it came individually wrapped. The square was always busy on Saturday so I’d walk my bike on the sidewalk. Just out of the square was a pet store. I’d always look in there. Once I even bought a chameleon. By late afternoon I’d be hungry and tired so I’d head on home for a bologna sandwich with yellow mustard on squishy white bread.

Peapod came last night. I bought beef bologna but no squishy bread. I also bought Vermont cheddar cheese. My tastes have somewhat matured over time.

On the only cruise I have ever taken, the one through the Panama Canal, one movie night they showed Titanic. I thought that an odd choice for a movie on a boat.

I am going to watch a Grapefruit League spring training baseball game: a Red Sox-Yankees game. I know spring training games don’t mean much, but I’m hungry for baseball, and I can’t wait until opening day on March 29th. As if I needed it, this game will whet my appetite even more for spring and baseball.

Today I’m going to finish the book I’m reading and maybe later I’ll go out and hit a few shops. I’ll have no destination in mind. I’m hoping for serendipity.