Archive for the ‘Musings’ category
March 25, 2017
It rained last night leaving today cloudy and dark. It’s warmer than it has been. All my chores and errands got finished, scratched out. Today is a stay at home day. Right now Boris Karloff as The Mummy is on TV. I have seen this movie several times, but that doesn’t ever matter. A propeller plane circles the world, the eerie music starts, and we see Egypt and the desert. We’re at a dig: it’s 1931, and the mummified remains of Imhotep, who had been buried alive, have just been found. A warning on the top of the chest buried with the mummy warns that whoever opens the chest will die. Despite the warning the chest is opened, the sacred words are said and the mummy comes back to life. There’s more but not here.
In winter, cloudy days sometimes make me feel subdued, and, after several in a row, even melancholic while other cloudy days, like today, make me feel cozy in my warm house. Life doesn’t get much better than being in my comfy clothes and watching one of my favorites, a black and white science fiction movie from the 30’s. I’m even having Chinese for lunch. It’s one of those perfect days.
When I was in Ghana, I lived alone for the first time. My house, one side of a duplex, was brand new and on school grounds right by the back gate, which I had to climb a few times as the watchman chose not to hear me yelling for the gate to be opened. (Sorry for the digression. Back to the story.) I was really lonely the first few months. I hated the quiet of my house. I played music especially at night to ward off the silence, but, by Christmas, I relished the night-time quiet because every day was busy and filled with sounds. In the morning it was the swishing of the hand- held brooms as the students cleaned the compound. After that, I could hear buckets being filled with water for bathing and the conversations of my students in a variety of languages. From that morning time on, the day was only quiet after the students had lights out.
It is always a marvel to me that life in Ghana took on a routine, became every day. Here I was living on a school compound in Bolgatanga. It was eggs and toast and coffee, horrible coffee, for breakfast, fruit for lunch and chicken or beef with a sauce and yams on the side, sometimes fried but mostly mashed, for dinner. I went to the market every third day and filled my basket with vegetables and fruit. The amazement of living in Africa was replaced by familiarity. It was home.
I think the memory of living in Ghana surfaces on days like today. I recognize the comfort in the quiet I felt then and I’m feeling now. It is contentment!
Categories: Musings
Tags: 1930's science fiction, Bors Karloff, chinese food, clothes, cloudy dark, cloudy day, comfy, Egypt, living alone, melancholic, noisy, Peace Corps Ghana, perfect day, school compound, silence, sunny, The Mummy, winter
Comments: 4 Comments
March 24, 2017
Snow flurries this morning dashed my hopes for a spring-like day; instead, it’s still winter, cloudy and cold. Rain is expected later. Right now it is 37˚. The sound of big wheels woke me up this morning. The boys from down the street were out riding early, before the bus. I cursed their mother. I tried to get back to sleep, but the buzz of saws kept me awake. I cursed them too. When I got downstairs, I realized the saws were in my backyard. My landscaper and his guys were cutting down dead pine trees and lopping dead branches from other trees. Because my back gate was open, I took Gracie out front. She was quick. I was grateful.
All of my errands got finished yesterday. I expected crowds at my house clapping and dancing for me and my achievements. I have no to-do list. I do have an appointment to get my eyes checked. This is the month for doctor’s appointments for me.
I am watching 12 Days of terror, a low budget Jaws-like movie with similar plot details, like a great white shark menacing the shoreline. So far one victim was screaming as he was being pulled back and forth in the water. His dog kept barking. The swimmer had a huge bite wound and did not survive the attack. The lifeguard, who pulled the swimmer from the water, said it was a shark bite and wanted the beaches closed. The mayor didn’t agree. A state commissioner thought it was a torpedo from a u-boat. Now that’s a strange new twist. I’m watching and hoping for Quint to scratch the blackboard.
Fin and humpback whales come to Cape waters every summer. Whale watching boats out of Provincetown take tourists out to sea hoping they’ll find the whales. They are seldom disappointed. Further down cape, great white sharks are the attraction. Last summer some beaches were closed after as many as six great whites were spotted feeding on a whale carcass. Scientists agree it’s not a matter of if, but when, there will be a fatal attack on Cape Cod.
Jaws is one of my July 4th movies on the deck. It doesn’t matter how many times I’ve seen it. The shark music is all I need to hear to get the adrenalin pumping.
Categories: Musings
Tags: 12 Days of Terror, adulation, cold, dead trees, errands, Jaws, lifeguards, Quint, Shark attack, snowy, trimming trees, u-boat, whales
Comments: 8 Comments
March 23, 2017
Cold, it’s bone chilling cold! Last night I took Gracie out and she just walked around. I kept exhorting her to pee, but she preferred to sniff the ground and check out the house next door. I got so cold I couldn’t take it anymore so we went inside to the warm house. She got up on the couch and went to sleep. A couple of hours later I took her down the back stairs to the yard. I have to lead her down any stairs as she is afraid ever since her fall. I face her and go down the stairs backward holding her halter. That works just fine, and it only takes a couple of minutes. I figure that’s a small price to pay for a loving, funny member of the family who happens to be a dog.
I’m looking for adulation accompanied by a drum roll. I have finished all my inside chores. The laundry is put away, the bed has clean sheets and the litter is changed. I even went to Agway this morning for all my pet supplies. My to-do list is much smaller and only has a couple of errands left.
Mothers bend the truth. Think back to all those warnings our mothers gave us. I never swallowed gum fearful of that giant gumball forming in my stomach. A certain look could make my face freeze and going outside with a wet head could cause a cold.
Some things my mother said were downright silly. I didn’t ever think money grew on trees, and I didn’t at all believe huge potatoes could grow in my dirty ears. After she said that once, I laughed. Big mistake! I ended up in my room. She, after all, was the boss.
I don’t remember what the warning was but my sister told her grandsons they had to be potty trained by the time they turned three. They were. One was even earlier than three. My sister is following in my mother’s footsteps.
Categories: Musings
Tags: adulation, bending the truth, change the bed, chores, cold, Dog, down stairs, drum roll, gum swallowing, Laundry, litter, money growing on trees, mothers, pee outside, to do list, wet haeds
Comments: 12 Comments
March 21, 2017
Today is a wonder. It is bright and warmish, almost springlike. I stood outside on the deck for a while watching Gracie, but I got a bit chilly so I came back inside. She stayed outside. Both doors are open. The sun is streaming through the front door working its way to the back, to the south. A day like today recharges my batteries. I have a long to-do list, but I have already crossed off two chores. Granted, they were quick and easy, but I still feel accomplished.
I figure my energy is a reflection of the warmth and the sunlight. Winter days make it easy to do nothing but lie on the couch under something cozy and read or watch television, but I’d feel guilty wasting a day like today.
When I was a kid, I loved to go miniature golfing. It was at Hago Harrington’s where the windmill was my nemesis. It had three lanes at the bottom leading from under the mill to the green. I don’t know how many times I missed them all. I still remember the thud sound of the ball hitting the wooden windmill, not the lanes. It was frustrating. My favorite had a slope which, if played right, dropped the ball right into the hole. On the last hole, a hole in one got you a free play. Hago Harrington’s is still there.
On the way to the beach yesterday, I saw a couple of houses still lit with Christmas lights. The colors lit up the darkness. I have new lights, all white bulbs, I need to put on the gate trailing the new star I bought. I also have a multi-colored set for the deck rail. They are on my to-do list. My neighbor will be glad. She called me a while back to say how much she loved my lights.
I’ve been watching CSI: New York on Netflix. They have a plethora of dead bodies, a necessity for the crime lab. After watching murder after murder, I’ve decided that being a murder victim would be the perfect role. There are no lines to learn so all I’d have to do is lie down and try not to breathe or blink. Sounds easy to me.
Categories: Musings
Tags: a bit chilly, Christmas lights, CSI: New York, dead body, deck, energy, hole in one, Miniature golf, recharge batteries, springlike, sun, to do list, warmish, windmill
Comments: 6 Comments
March 20, 2017
Happy Spring!
Good reasons are responsible for the lateness of my musings today. First off is Miss Gracie. I grabbed her as she started to fall going up the stairs. I was filling Maddie’s dish on the stairs so Gracie tried to go by me but lost her footing. We went up the stairs, got to my room, and she was hesitant to jump to the bed. I helped. She tried to settle down but just couldn’t. Finally, I grabbed my pillow and a blanket, took Gracie downstairs, and we both slept on the couch. She snored so I knew she felt better. On the first day of spring every year, my friends and I go the beach to welcome the sun. We sing Here Comes the Sun and Rockin’ Robin. We recite a poem by Frost, Two Tramps in Mudtime.
The sunrise was at 6:28. It was a cold, windy early morning. We sat in the car facing the east and waited. When we realized clouds were hiding the sun, we stayed in the car to sing our welcome. We watched seagull after seagull carrying breakfast then dropping it on the parking lot. We figured they were opening small crabs. We saw geese along the shoreline and ducks in the marshes. It was an amazingly high tide. The water in the marsh was all the way to the edge of the road. We didn’t get the sun, but the clouds were jaw-droppingly colorful. Red and orange spread across the sky in all directions strikingly set against the white of the puffy clouds. My friend Clare braved the wind and cold to get our shells, a first day of spring tradition. We stayed a while then went to breakfast, another tradition.
When I got home, I took Gracie out then settled on the couch and slept over two hours. When I woke up, I put on MSNBC to watch the hearing questioning James Comey and Admiral Mike Rogers. That is still holding my attention., makes me hopeful
Today will have a high of 44˚. I’m thinking that’s hardly spring, but I am hopeful. Spring does that to me. It makes me hopeful.
Categories: Musings
Tags: Beach, breakfast, Clouds, cold and windy, dusks, geese, MSNBC, seagulls, Singing, spring, stairs, sunrise
Comments: 4 Comments
March 19, 2017
When I woke up around nine, the snow was just starting. Because of the wind, the fluffies were coming from different directions, from the north and south. Then the snow suddenly disappeared, but it’s back now, small flakes tossed by the wind. I doubt it will last long enough to accumulate.
I didn’t go out yesterday. I had no motivation. Today, though, I have a list of weird items. I need a bulb for my bathroom nightlight, an extension cord, and a plastic container for my snowmen. I’m putting them away for the season. I think they jinxed me.
I remember my first pair of nylon stockings. In those days I had to wear a garter belt. The back snaps were always the hardest to attach. I remember sometimes one would swing back and whack my leg. Pantyhose is one of the greatest inventions of the 20th century.
I never get gussied up anymore. I don’t go anywhere demanding gussy. The closest I get to dress up is coordinating the color of my pants with a clean shirt. That works no matter the season: long sleeves in winter, short sleeves in summer; corduroy in winter, cotton in summer; shoes and socks in winter, sandals in summer. I don’t even own a pair of panty hose. I do have three dresses: two flowered dresses for summer, one green dress for winter.
I don’t wear my winter jacket much. My sweatshirts are usually enough, but I do have the warmest sweater, blue with snowflakes, the sort which used to be called après skiing, for single digit temperatures. I have several pairs of mittens, but I don’t remember the last time I wore them. I have earmuffs and knit caps. My mother would be pleased.
I love Mad Magazine. I used to buy it every month. I remember the Alfred E. Newman for president drive. Mad taught me about satire and parodies and thinking for myself. I didn’t understand it all because I was young, but as I got older, I learned what it all meant. Spy versus Spy was a favorite of mine. Sometimes the white spy won and other times the black spy won. I believe that Mad Magazine helped form my politics and those of my generation. “What, me worry?”
Categories: Musings
Tags: Alfred E. Newman, Après ski, black hat, Dresses, errands, gussy, knit caps, list, Mad Magazine, mittens, nylons garter belt, pants, sandals, shirt, shoes, Snow, snowmen, spy versus spy, sweatshirts, white hat, Wind, winter coat
Comments: 9 Comments
March 18, 2017
Huzzah! im6 got a copy in his e-mail. Here it is!!
Monday is the first day of spring. On Sunday the cape may get 5-8 inches of snow. I’m thinking that’s an up yours from Mother Nature. What is even worse is today is warmer than the last few days, in the 40’s, lulling us into a false sense of flowers, scented air, lunches on the deck and the end of bulky clothes.
When I woke up, it was sunny. The dark blue sky was clear. Since then clouds have begun taking over, and the blue is disappearing. I have some errands, but before I leave I need to get outside to fill the bird feeders.
My yard got a spring cleaning today. All the wood left from the fallen pine tree is gone, the lawn and gardens have been raked, the backyard has been cleared of all the limbs and branches which fell this winter, and my deck has been tidied.
When I was a kid, weather like today’s was prime bicycle weather. I’d dress accordingly with as little as I could get away with, haul my bike out of the cellar and take off down the forbidden hill hoping my father wouldn’t see me, but I always knew there was the chance bike treads on the grassy hill would give me away. I didn’t care. I liked the hill.
We didn’t have much money when I was growing up, but I didn’t know that. I had everything most kids had back then. I had skates and a sled for winter and my bike, my all seasons ride. For Christmas one year, I got a transistor radio. It was the Christmas of radios as my friends also each got one. I took that radio everywhere, and it wasn’t small. It was the size of a hard-covered book. The clothes I got for Christmas were always the fashion rage, the same styles all my friends were wearing. My mother knew exactly what to buy.
When I think back to growing up, I figure I got the best parents. They were fun, involved and generous. They were loving. I got the luck of the draw.
Categories: Musings
Comments: 10 Comments
March 18, 2017
I don’t know what happened, but after writing prose worthy of a Pulitzer, I couldn’t find the entry, today’s musings. I had hit publish, and it didn’t; instead, the post disappeared. I checked drafts and it wasn’t there where it should have been saved automatically. My post is gone. I’m thinking I was hacked by the Russians and expect soon enough my words will find the light of day in cyrillic with a For Your Eyes Only cover sheet. I don’t think the British had anything to do with this.
Sorry there is no post today. I just don’t remember enough to replicate it.
Categories: Musings
Comments: 6 Comments
March 17, 2017
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
The day is sunny and beautiful though still chilly. I was out on the deck watching Gracie. She ran with wild abandonment through the backyard. I could hear the crunch of the dead leaves and small branches as she ran. I got cold and went back inside. She stayed out a bit longer. It must have been exhausting as she and Maddie are taking their early afternoon naps.
St. Patrick has always been my favorite saint. I went to St. Patrick’s grammar school, belonged to St. Patrick’s parish, and when I was 10, I started marching in St. Patrick’s Shamrocks, a drill team. I was in the juniors and only had practice Saturday mornings at the armory just beyond Stoneham Square. The armory was a wonderful old brick building. On the first floor were military banners and flags and, in one room, a pool table. Upstairs was a large open room where we practiced. It was smaller than the fields for the summer competitions so we learned our maneuver in pieces which were put together once we got outside on the field. We practiced twice a week, Tuesdays and Thursdays and, once the season started, some Sunday mornings before we left for the competitions. We also marched in parades, including the St. Patrick’s Day parade in South Boston. We were naturals as we had a shamrock in the middle of our uniform blouses and between the skirt and blouse was a sash with one bit of yellow, a shamrock. Our colors were green and white. The crowds watching the parade were huge. We got lots of applause.
My parents always celebrated St. Patrick’s Day. Some years they’d have a party, and the house would be filled with people. There was always lots of singing at every one of my parents’ parties especially on St. Patrick’s Day. The kitchen was the party hub. I can still picture my dad and my uncle Jack standing together by the table with an arm on each other’s shoulders as they sang When Irish Eyes are smiling. Their voices were filled with such joy and exuberance. That memory from so long ago is one of my favorites.
Categories: Musings
Tags: armory building, drill team, parades, party singing, practice, South Boston, St. Pat's Shamrocks, St. Patrick's Day, Stoneham
Comments: 10 Comments
March 16, 2017
Last night I was freezing though I was only outside for about 5 minutes. It was Gracie’s last trip before bed. She sniffed the air, checked out a couple of sounds and walked around outside the fence. She didn’t seem at all inclined to do her duty. I begged. She ignored me. I begged again. She sniffed the ground, but that was it, no squatting. It was the end for me. I brought her inside. We went to bed. She slept the whole night, but I got up once.
When I was a kid, my room was upstairs on the left. The bathroom was also on the left. The stairs were a quick right turn from my room. In the small hallway outside my door was the dirty clothes hamper and the linen closet recessed in the wall. When I was 10, I walked out of my room and turned right. I fell down the stairs. You’d think the sound of me falling would wake someone up. It didn’t. Either I fell quietly or my family slept like the dead. That is an important memory for me, a milestone of sorts. It was my first fall down stairs, the first of many.
Yesterday we didn’t go to the dump. It was because of the weather. The dump is generally cold, and if it is a windy day, like yesterday, the dump is as cold as Siberian steppes. The wind whips and freezes you to the bone. This morning I brought the trash to the car. I decided to bite the bullet and go despite the cold, 33˚ which will be the high today.
My front yard is still covered in branches from the huge pine tree branch which fell on the lawn. The small stones from my front parking space are on the street and in the garden. They were moved around by the plow. My back yard has several different size branches lying where they fell during this winter. One skinny pine tree breathed its last. Another leans and its future is doubtful. Winter is harsh.
Categories: Musings
Tags: Bathroom, bedroom, cold, doggy duty, dump, fallen branches, falling down stairs, Lawn, outside, small branches, Snow, stairs, Stones, stones in the road, sun, winter
Comments: 4 Comments
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