Archive for the ‘Musings’ category
July 18, 2016
The gypsy moths are everywhere. They are brown and small. They flit from spot to spot. When I opened the back door for Gracie to go out, there were three hanging around the screen, but they didn’t stay long. The males are hunting for a mate and are flying to find the females who are too heavy to fly. The female moths exist only to reproduce once with the male moths After they lay their eggs, moths of both sexes then die. I figure it is no wonder that they spend so much time flitting.
I am still in my house behind closed windows and doors with the AC at full blast. It is far too humid to be out. The forecast is for a heavy thunderstorm tonight. I am skeptical.
Going to the market is on my short to do list. I am out of bread and fruit. Watermelon is my favorite fruit right now. It is perfect for hot summer days. When I was a kid, my mother gave us slices. We had to eat it outside as watermelon slices are messy mostly because the rind always curved because the watermelon was oval. My cheeks got wet from the juice, and it often dripped down my arm. I read that the Japanese started growing square watermelons about ten years ago. I first I thought how strange they’d be then I realized the shape doesn’t matter. It’s the fruit inside. I also need bananas as I have a new box of Corn Flakes, a boring cereal which definitely needs a lot of help.
When I still worked, I had far less time but got everything done. On the weekend, I grocery shopped, went to the dump, did my laundry, changed my bed, watered the plants, prepared lessons and corrected papers. Now I am the queen of delay. When I do a single chore on any day, I feel accomplished. My laundry has been leaning against the cellar door for a few days. I don’t care. Maybe tomorrow I’ll do a wash. But then again, maybe I won’t.
Categories: Musings
Tags: AC, chores, Corn Flakes, going outside, gypsy moths, humidity, juice down my arm, Laundry, moth eggs, reproduction, Shopping, watermelon
Comments: 15 Comments
July 17, 2016
It’s a later than usual start for me as I was on the phone with my sister. We talk every Sunday. Today we ended up chatting for two hours. For those of you thinking that in no way could you chat for two hours, believe me, the time goes quickly. We never ran out of things to talk about. We never do.
This morning, I tried to live for a bit without the air conditioning. I turned it off, opened the windows and the doors. I lasted an hour and a half.
There is a small breeze, but it is still hot and humid. When I let Gracie out the last time, I followed her to the deck. As soon as I walked outside, I was hit by the heat blast and stifled by the humidity. The day looked far better out the window. I figure I was taken in by that breeze ruffling the leaves.
My front garden has a few but is mostly in between flowers. Many of those flowers have so many buds I am anxious to see them bloom. The clematis has spread to three fence pieces and is filled with buds. Other flowers whose names I don’t know are tall and also filled with buds close to opening. In a short time, my garden will be glorious.
I ordered some Mexican hat jellies thinking they’d make good movie treats. I haven’t seen that candy in a while. The picture had a yellow, red, green and black hat. When I mentioned the candies to my sister, she said she liked the black ones. I do too. I also love Chuckles black jellies. Being my favorite flavor, I save them for last. Black jelly beans are also a favorite of mine. I was thrilled when they started selling only the black ones in a package. Anise cookies are my favorites. My uncle used to make the best-tasting anise cookies every Christmas. He said the secret was using anise oil, not anise flavoring. I actually hate black licorice. I like the red licorice but think the black tastes awful. My sister, strangely enough, has the same weird taste. She told me her son, Ryan, also hated black licorice but loves all the same black candy we do. She thinks it’s a strange gene the three of us have.
The only entry on my dance card this week is a follow-up appointment for Fern at the vets. I guess I’m still in my solitary confinement.
Categories: Musings
Tags: air-conditioning, anise cookies, black jelly beans, black licorice, breeze, chatting, Chuckles, flower buds, flowers, glorious garden, hot and humid, Mexican hat jellies, red licorice
Comments: 12 Comments
July 16, 2016
Yesterday I mentioned how living in an air conditioned house was like a voluntary solitary confinement. This morning, to add to the isolation, I was totally disconnected from the digital world. My phone, internet and cable weren’t working. I did have my two newspapers so I pored through each drinking coffee all the while. I decided to call Comcast. They attempted to reset my modem. The modem didn’t respond. I decided to stay on the line for what seemed forever. Finally, a real person answered who said the East Coast had lost its connection, but they were coming back a section at a time. He said mine should reconnect by 9:30. He was almost right. It was 9:50 when my internet came to life followed by the phone and about five minutes later the TV.
I thought it horrible to be so disconnected. It wasn’t as if I needed the connection, but I like the choice. I did have my book to read after I finished the papers so I was content. Now I’m watching The Great British Baking Show and have the urge to bake bread.
My broom is at the ready. I have to sweep away the last of the poop which is under the table. I have just unfurled my table umbrella. I next need to connect the umbrella adaptor to the lights and unfurl my second umbrella. Once all that is done, it will be deck time.
I love coconut. In Ghana, small girls used to sell balls of toasted coconut. The balls were in a square glass container with wooden corners which the girls carried on their heads. I always stopped to buy a few when I saw the small girls. Along the sides of the road, aunties, older women, sold coconuts. When you bought one, they’d use a nail and a mallet to make a hole so you could drink the coconut milk. I aways love buying food from the aunties on the sides of the road.
The caterpillars have left and the moths have taken over. If this were a science fiction movie, I’d go outside and the moths would cover my body. When they were sated and had flown away, only my bones would remain. Okay, maybe I have been alone too long!
Categories: Musings
Tags: coconut, coconut milk, digital meltdown, man-eating moths, newspapers, no internet, no Phone, no TV, poop, reading, sweeping, The Great British Baking Show, toasted coconut, Umbrella
Comments: 17 Comments
July 15, 2016
It feels like solitary confinement. The heat and humidity are keeping me inside the house, in the cool of the house. When I stepped outside to get the papers, I gasped because of the thickness of the air. It almost felt as if I were walking in slow motion. Every time I open the back door to let Gracie outside I am blasted by heat. She is out only a short time but comes in panting.
I think it might have rained a bit last night. The driveway was wet, and the outside table was filled with water, but it doesn’t matter. What little it might have rained isn’t enough.
The caterpillars are gone. My deck has very little frass. It has leaves and small branches from the trees but that is easily cleared. When my lawn is cut, they’ll blow the deck clean. I just hope for a cooler day so I can sit outside and read. Saturday night movies will probably start next week. I’ll have to get my hot dog machine and my popcorn maker ready.
My Saturday night deck movies will probably start next week. I’ll have to get my hot dog machine and my popcorn maker ready. Maybe I’ll test the popcorn maker this week.
I haven’t seen people in a while. I might as well be living by myself on a deserted island. Once in a while a car goes by the house. I hear it but don’t see it. My trunk is filled with trash and recycles.
My trunk is filled with trash, cardboard, papers and bottles. A trip to the dump is on my list but not today. The dump is always an extreme reflection of the weather. In winter it is a Siberian steppe. On days like today the heat is almost unbearable and reflects off the metal bins. Even a short stop is a sweaty stop. Maybe the afternoon will be cooler, but that, I suspect, is a faint hope.
Categories: Musings
Tags: caterpillar frass, cool house, deck movies, dump, hot dogs, hotter, humid, leaves and debris, popcorn, solitary confinement
Comments: 14 Comments
July 14, 2016
I woke up to sun and now it is cloudy. The official report says a partly cloudy day with 78˚ as the high. Weather reports never seem optimistic. This is a half full, half empty sort of prediction. The optimist would say partly sunny.
It hasn’t rained much in a while. We had spitting rain one morning, but that’s about it. The cape, though, is not under a drought warning. Neither is the western part of the state, but the rest of the state is. I miss the summer rain.
I love onion rings, not the thick ones but the skinny ones with the light batter. Two seafood restaurants I really like serve them, and I always order a plate with onion rings. Lately I’ve ordered clams. Neither restaurant serves clams without the bellies. Those are for the tourists. The plates come heaped with clams, onion rings and French fries. I always eat the French fries last because sometimes I run out of room and would never want to leave a clam or an onion ring.
At a pub or a similar eatery, I usually order cheeseburgers covered with cheddar cheese. They usually come topped with lettuce and tomatoes with French fries on the side. I use mayonnaise on my French fries and my cheeseburger. I am not a big ketchup fan. I don’t know why but I consider ketchup on hot dogs and scrambled eggs as trevesties.
I have the TV on, unusual for me during the day. I’m finding most of the commercials are aimed at old people by age, not disposition. I have seen several about buying life insurance not dependent on physical condition or how old you are. A couple of commercials are touting the I’ve fallen and can’t get up alert button. The companies must figure only older people are home during the day.
I got all my errands finished yesterday. This morning I made my bed, and now I’m done.
Categories: Musings
Tags: 78˚, cloudy, daytime TV, French fries, fried clams, Ghanaian food, insurance commercials, life insurance, light batter, mayonnaise, onion rings, rain, skinny rings
Comments: 8 Comments
July 12, 2016
The weather is glorious this morning. It is sunny, still and warm. The street is quiet. Last night the street was filled with kids, noisy kids. Gracie went to the door to see what was going on. She found it boring so she went back to the couch and fell asleep.
Yesterday I finally planted the flowers which have been sitting on the brick walk for nearly two weeks. I filled the front step pot and three pots for the deck railing to replace the ones the spawns broke. By the time I was done, I wasn’t fit for social interaction. Sweat poured down each cheek and my hair was soaked, but I didn’t mind. I felt accomplished. I even swept the step and walkway. It was a productive afternoon.
Today will be nonproductive. I have to go to the library. It’s the big event of the day. I’ll take my shower later, the second big event. I never mind days like today. I figure most of my life before retirement was spent being busy every day so I have earned idle time. I have come to love an empty dance card.
All my animals, the two cats and the dog, are considered elderly by the vets. I’m thinking I might just be in the same category. Fern takes four medicines a day and the dog takes one. Maddie would also take one if she weren’t so feisty. I take more than all of them.
I don’t see many people, but my friends and I keep in touch by calling each other. The other day it was my friend Maria who called. She and I have been friends for almost sixty years. I saw her three or four months ago for the first time in a long time, but our connection has stayed so strong it is always as if we had been together a day or two before. We have so many stories starring each other, and we laugh every time we tell them. They never get old. When I taught, I used to spend just about every summer traveling, usually in Europe. I’d be gone four to six weeks. Those summers always went by in a flash. Traveling does that: makes the days short and quick.
My next trip is back to Ghana for my third visit. The two and a half weeks will be gone in the blink of an eye, but I’ll hold close everyone I see and every place I go. Ghana is also home for me.
Categories: Musings
Tags: Ghana, growing old, laughs, medicine, old friends, Peace Corps, pets, potting plants, productive day, Shower, still, stories, sunny, sweaty, warm
Comments: 10 Comments
July 11, 2016
I am beginning to think I am an extra in the movie Groundhog Day. I wake up to the same weather every day: overcast, chilly and damp. The rain sneaks in, just spitting rain my mother would have called it.
The week ahead is a quiet one for me with nothing planned, an empty dance card. We have yet to have a movie night as the nights have been quite chilly, down to the low 60’s. I’m hoping as the days gets warmer toward the middle of the week the nights too will be warm.
Yesterday I spend over an hour scrubbing the chairs and the table on the deck. They had been scrubbed once already, but it doesn’t long for the caterpillars to leave their frass all over the deck wood and the furniture. What is frass you ask? It is caterpillar poop. There’s a new word to add to your vocabulary. Think of ways you can pepper your conversation with the word frass.
When I was kid, we used to capture caterpillars so they could walk all over our fingers and go from one hand to another. We thought they were fun to watch. I flicked a caterpillar off my deck the other day. I’ve had to spray some plants which have holes from munching caterpillars. They are eating machines who eat and poop and eat and poop.
When I was young, I was far more fascinated by bugs and snakes than I was afraid. The grasshoppers were great to watch as they jumped in front of us while we walked through the field. They were brown and not very big. They also weren’t all that fast as we could catch them with our hands. We always let them go. It was the fun of the chase we loved.
We didn’t often see snakes but the ones we did see were garter snakes. We’d find them in flower beds. I loved the way they moved. We’d stand and watch. We had no need to catch them unless it was to scare someone afraid of snakes. We’d hold the snake and run after the ‘fraidy cats and tell them the snake was going to bite them. We knew it wouldn’t but they didn’t.
The other night I went outside for a bit. My yard was aglow with fireflies. They were blinking in and out of the trees and along the fence. I stayed and watched for the longest time. I didn’t want to go in and miss them. They have always seemed magical to me though I know the mechanics of the glow. Science has its place and so does magic!
Categories: Musings
Tags: 'fraidy cats, bugs, caterpillar poop, caterpillars frass, cleaning the deck, cold, damp and cloudy, fields, garter snakes, snakes
Comments: 4 Comments
July 10, 2016
Today is yesterday continued. It is cloudy, damp and still a bit chilly. The one difference is the sky looks a tad lighter so maybe there is hope for a better afternoon. Today I will finally pot those plants. I drag the soil bag from my car to the front walk then I nursed my back all last night. Such effort must not go to waste.
This morning my breakfast hardened back to my childhood. I had a bowl of Rice Krispies to which I added a cut banana. That cereal still snaps, crackles and pops. I remember putting my ear close to the bowl so I could hear the sound.
When I was a kid, there were so many different sounds I don’t hear much anymore. The pop of the toaster is one I remember well. Our toaster was noisy. It was also usually covered with crumbs. Two slots meant only two pieces of toast at a time. There were four of us so two of us had to practice patience. We didn’t do well with that.
The slamming of screen doors all summer long drove my mother crazy. She’d yell at us not to slam the door. We always did anyway. It was the quickest way to get out of the house. Screen doors now shut on their own.
My neighborhood was filled with kids. We all lived in a sea of duplexes. The ones at the top of the hill had their back doors facing our back doors at the bottom of the hill. Mothers always yelled out the back doors at lunch time and at dinner time. They always yelled names so the kids playing in the yards would know who had to go inside. By supper time the yards were empty, the kids all gone inside. My neighborhood here has a lot of kids: nine of them. They stay close to home so no yelling is necessary. I never hear a screen door slamming or a mother yelling.
Roller skates on sidewalks made a distinctive sound, a clacking sound. Those were the four wheel skates that fit over my shoes. They had a leather strap across the top of my foot and a front grip I tightened to my shoes using a key. Many times the skate fell off but only the front part. Losing the key was the worst of all. There wasn’t any way to tighten the skates. I just had to hope someone else’s key worked.
So many other sounds are gone mostly without us noticing. Our world is quieter now. The phone makes little noise, no more dialing. The fridge hums. No snow appears on the TV. I can’t remember the last time I heard baseball cards attached to the spokes of bicycle wheels. How about olly olly oxen free? Where did that go?
Categories: Musings
Tags: Banana, chilly, cloudy, crackle and pop, crumps, damp, duplexes, effort, kids, Rice Krispies, slamming screen doors, snap, Toaster, yelling out the back doors
Comments: 19 Comments
July 9, 2016
Today is another cold, damp, overcast day. I have shut all my windows, and I’m about to go get my sweatshirt. Rain is predicted for the afternoon. This is the sort of day which makes an afternoon nap sound inviting. I’m already tired thinking about it.
Peapod came this morning. I was told the delivery would arrive between 7:30 and 9:30. He knocked on my door just before 7:30. Luckily I was awake. The larder is full again.
Last night I saw a wonderful production of The Music Man at the Cape Playhouse which is starting its 90th year of continuous entertainment. I have been going there at least 35 years. I remember when every play was sold out. That’s not the case anymore. I’m thinking that live productions don’t appeal to the Netflix, Amazon Streaming, YouTube generation as I see so few of them at the Playhouse, but for the first time in a while there were several kids last night. I was glad they were being introduced to a live performance. None of the ones near me looked bored. That’s a good sign.
The library in my town had records you could borrow. I remember bringing home Camelot and playing it so many times I memorized most of the songs. A live version of Peter Pan with Mary Martin played on television when I was a kid. It was wonderful. My mother bought the records of the musical for us. They were 45’s. We’d load them on the middle piece you put on the hifi so we could pile three or four 45’s at once. I still remember most of the words to all the songs. My sister took my niece when she was young to a revival of Peter Pan. She loved it as much as we had only she was lucky to see it in person. She got to watch Peter fly. I never thought it strange that Peter Pan was always played by a woman when it was staged. My niece saw Cathy Rigby, but for me, Peter Pan is always Mary Martin.
I have flowers needing to be planted in pots and the dead flowers on my front step need to be replaced. Today seems the perfect day to do outside work, but I’m going to have to force myself to be motivated. Being cozy and warm inside is just so appealing.
Categories: Musings
Tags: Camelot, Cape Playhouse, cold day, damp, library, Mary Martin, nap, overcast, Peapod, Peter Pan, rain, records, The Music Man
Comments: 10 Comments
July 8, 2016
I have emerged. The windows and doors are open. Today is much cooler and the AC is unnecessary. Earlier it sprinkled for a bit and the rain has left a chilly dampness. The day is dark, another leftover from the rain.
My usual quiet is disturbed as my bushes are getting trimmed. I guess my neighbor noticed I have been bending down the branches of the wild roses so I can get to my car without the thorns attacking me.
Yesterday I was organizing my little library when I saw a piece of paper on the lawn right near the library. I picked it up thinking it was trash. It wasn’t. It was a check for landscaping and was close to $1700.00. I looked up the company and gave the owner a call. He just called and is on his way over to pick up the check. Come to find out my neighbor across the street found another of his checks. It was in the amount of $1200.00. How does that happen?
When I was a kid, people did their own landscaping. Mowing was a Saturday event. All the fathers in the neighborhood were out with their push mowers. I remember all the clicks from those mowers. My father mowed his lawn in a certain pattern which was why he never trusted us to mow. We were just fine with that. He mowed every Saturday unless it rained. He made it a ritual.
When I was growing up, some things were always men things while other things belonged only to women. Men never cooked in the kitchen, but they were the only ones who barbecued. I figure outside cooking harkened back to caveman times when the hunters rotisseried their game over an open flame. Women cleaned up. Men never did.
Once when my mother was away and my father was left to his own devices he had to a wash. He had no idea how the washing machine worked. He used the sink to wash his clothes, and because he also did not know how the dryer worked, he put the wet clothes on a line he strung in the kitchen.
Later on in life my father would help clean up in the kitchen. He was happy to help. He’d fill the dishwasher and scrub the pans. After he was finished and had gone in to watch TV, we’d rewash the pans. He always left residue he never noticed. We never told him.
In the summer, whenever I visited my parents for the weekend, I was certain of three things about my father. He would take me outside to admire his lawn, he would barbecue on Saturday night and he’d always cook Sunday breakfast. He’d even take orders on the eggs.
Categories: Musings
Tags: chillier day, dark day, landscaping company, lawn mowing, lost check, men things, mowing, noisy day, outside cooking, push mowers, Saturday barbecue, sprinkled rain, Sunday breakfast, women things
Comments: 12 Comments
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