Archive for the ‘Musings’ category
May 23, 2016
Last night I tossed and turned until sometime after 3:30, my last time check. It got me to thinking about not falling asleep. I decided I didn’t really toss. I mostly turned. I didn’t fluff my pillow. I folded it several times. I wanted the cold side. I don’t remember falling asleep. It was late when I woke up. It was after 10. Fern and Gracie were with me in bed. My room was freezing because I had left the window open all night, a cold night. It made me want to stay in bed, but I dragged myself downstairs instead. I still think I didn’t make the better choice.
Today will be a limited Coffee day. My Mac is stuck on the grey screen with the Apple logo and an incomplete upload. I’m using my iPad and am being driven crazy by the keyboard. Adult human fingers are too big. I touch multiple keys and produce nonsense words and syllables. My iPad is nice enough to offer suggestions for the words it seems to see, but none of them are real words. I am like the monkeys tapping keyboards who happen over time to type a Shakesperian play.
If I able to figure out my MAC, I will back.
Categories: Musings
Tags: c led pillow, lftnonsense, Toss and turn
Comments: 13 Comments
May 22, 2016
The rain came during the night. It started around midnight. I could hear the drops on the air conditioner. I listened a short while then fell asleep. When I let Gracie out this morning, the driveway was still wet so I figured it rained for a while. The day is dreary, dark and damp. The breeze is strong. It blows the flags in the front yard so they flutter back and forth. Even the oak trees bend.
Yesterday I complained about having little to say then filled the page with small memories, the day to day stuff. I forget sometimes that something memorable doesn’t have to be big. I have these odd pictures hanging around my memory drawers. They relate to pieces of my life but aren’t important in themselves. They are part of the whole, but for some reason, they stand alone.
High school graduation was huge. It was my biggest step forward. The whole ceremony is somewhere in my head, but I have a few small, bright pictures of that day. One is of my dad in the audience. I had just received a scholarship, and he was mouthing to me, “How much is it?” My mother made lasagna for the party afterward graduation. I’m sure there was plenty of food, but that is all I remember.
College left several images up front. My friends and I sat at the same table in the canteen every morning. We drank lots of coffee and each of us did the crossword puzzle in the paper. It was a race to see who would finish first. I remember Fridays in my cosmology class. Three or four of us sat in the back against the wall. It was for support because between our 8:30 class and cosmology at 1:30 we went drinking. Vodka and orange juice was our drink of choice. It was, after all, still morning. I remember standing in my cap and gown downstairs from the auditorium. One of my professors who was from the history department came by to wish us well. I had had her for two classes, two of my favorite classes. She was stopping to chat with soon to be graduates she knew. I was one of them. She asked us all what we were doing after graduation. When I told her Peace Corps, she seemed thrilled and offered to send books or whatever else my school might need. I remember her well.
The flight to Ghana has three singular memories. One was flying over the cape, and I watched with my face to the window until it was out of sight. Another was my stuck seat belt. It got caught between the seat and the wall, and I couldn’t use it. That was after a fuel stop. The stewardesses, as they were called in those days, were going up the aisle checking the seat belts. I just held the one side of mine, and she kept walking. The third picture was flying over the Sahara. The sand seemed to go on forever. I could see ripples. I could see Africa for the first time.
Categories: Musings
Tags: breezy day, cloudy and damp, dark day, dreary, flying to Ghana, Graduation, high school graduation, lasagna, newspaper puzzles, oak trees, Sahara, singular memories, small memories, small pictures
Comments: 6 Comments
May 21, 2016
Such a beautiful day it is today. We have sun, a breeze and some white clouds hiding the blue. Rain is predicted, but I can’t remember when.
I have a mystery. Every day at different times I find the corner of the living room rug turned up. Nothing is on or under the rug so I don’t understand why, and I certainly don’t know who, but Gracie is tops on my list of suspects. I’m thinking it’s a Gaslight thing.
Today I have little to say. The week was a busy one but it was mostly because of medical appointments for me and Fern. Nothing much to report except Fern needs more potassium. It’s coming in the mail.
Lawnmowers are disturbing the quiet of my neighborhood. Even my lawn is getting mowed though it hardly seemed tall enough to merit the cutting. I understand the attraction of gas powered mowers, but I miss the click clack of hand mowers, another sound from my childhood which has disappeared.
Snow on the TV is long gone. I remember my father adjusting the rabbit ears to get rid of the static sound of the snow. The ears were wrapped in aluminum foil to give the antenna greater reach. Lots of houses had antennas on the roof.
I remember when I was in Morocco and sitting at a table on the top floor of a restaurant in the old city. It seemed every house had a dish attached to its roof or to the side of the roof. Even the calls to prayer were computerized. I remember being in Bawku, Ghana living with a family for three weeks as part of my Peace Corps training. My room was close to the small mosque on the street below my bedroom so I could hear the call to prayer. The one around 3:30 always woke me up, but after a bit, I knew when it would end so I could go back to sleep. The call became part of my night. The singing of the prayer was beautiful.
I am not a Luddite. I have all sorts of machines, mostly in the kitchen, which make my life easier; however, I am saddened at the disappearance of so many things and so many sounds. The click clack always brought my father to mind. He never bought a power mower. I miss the bells on Sunday mornings. I miss the clinking of milk bottles, and I miss the milkman. I could go on and on. It is just one of those days. It all started with the sound of lawnmowers.
Categories: Musings
Tags: Bawku Ghana, beautiful day, book genres, breezy, call to prayer, click clack, Gaslight, lawnmowers, Luddite, mysteries, mystery, Peace Corps training, Snow, sun, TV antenna
Comments: 14 Comments
May 20, 2016
Today is a perfect spring day on Cape Cod. It is a bit chilly but a long-sleeve shirt should do, the sun is sharing the sky with a few clouds and there is a slight breeze rippling the young leaves of the oak tree outside my window. It is a good day for a walk.
Monday is plant day, one of my favorite of all days. I bring my list and wander the aisles pushing my cart. I buy herbs for the small garden close to the house especially lots of basil for pesto. I buy perennials for the front gardens. This year my list includes native flowers like the butterfly milkweed, the common boneset and the spotted geranium. When I get into the garden shop, I have trouble controlling myself. I so love to shop for plants.
When I was a kid, it never occurred to me that every day was the same. I’d have cocoa and toast, sometimes an egg, for breakfast and then leave for school. The walk wasn’t long. We crossed railroad tracks, went by the junior high school, an old brick building which used to be the high school, crossed a sometimes busy road and walked just a bit more to the school. The convent was across the street, the rectory was beside the old school and the church was beside the rectory. We’d head for the school yard and talk or play until the bell rang. It was a hand bell which the nun would ring three or four times. I liked the sound of a hand bell, and sometimes I’d watch the nun stand by the door to ring the bell. She’d raise the bell high above her head and swing it down as far as her arm could reach. We all knew it was time to get into our lines. I remember watching Little House on the Prairie. The teacher pulled the rope connected to the hand bell. It was the same sound.
Categories: Musings
Tags: brick building, every day the same, nuns, railroad tracks, ringing the bell, school bell, school grounds, spring day, still air, sunny, walk to school
Comments: 8 Comments
May 19, 2016
Yesterday my irrigation guy came to turn on the lawn water and the outdoor shower. He told me I wouldn’t be taking a shower for a while. I was curious. He told me there was a giant nest in the shower and tons of pine cone pieces. A spawn of Satan daring to build a nest to reproduce was my first thought. I went this morning to check. It is a giant pile, but I didn’t see an opening indicating it might be a nest but I forgot to check the backside in case the spawn chewed through to make a door. I’ll do that later. If it is empty-the pile will be a memory. If there are spawn babies, I’ll wait.
I am announcing it is spring. I know it’s chilly during the day, but the nights only get as low as the 40’s. I even had my window opened all night.
Lately I have had a feeling of anticipation, a sense of something coming. I haven’t ordered anything, am not expecting visitors and no parade is being organized for my street. I’m at a loss so I’ll just have to be patient, not a strong point of mine.
The May procession was around this time. It was on a Sunday, and the whole school took part. The second graders wore their white first communion outfits. The rest of the boys had to wear white shirts and a tie. The colors of their pants didn’t matter. The girls had to wear dresses. The route was a square, not a circle. We started at the school and ended up at the grotto beside the church. The outside of the grotto was stone. A statue of Mary was in a high niche in the front. All the students stood circling the grotto and sang the songs we’d been practicing for weeks. “Mary, we greet thee with flowers today, Queen of the angels, Queen of the May.”I was in eight May processions so I still remember snatches of all the songs. Parents lined the streets to see the procession. Many of them had cameras, Brownie cameras. The pictures were in black and white. Somewhere in the house I have a few of the photos my parents took the year I crowned Mary. I had to walk up a ladder holding the crown of flowers and then placed the crown on the head of the statue. It was quite an honor. The only things I remember are stopping for photos on the route and having Father Smith help me up the ladder because I was wearing an old wedding gown which came to my ankles, and he was afraid I’d trip. That was the highlight of my elementary school years.
The sun is shining. There isn’t a breeze. It is a good day.
Categories: Musings
Tags: anticipation, black and white pictures, Brownie cameras, crowning Mary, grotto, May procession, spawn of satan, spring
Comments: 8 Comments
May 17, 2016
Today is a bit chilly somewhere between a sweatshirt and a long sleeved-shirt. The sky is cloudy though the sun is close enough behind the clouds that the day is bright and the sun sometimes shows itself. Many flowers are starting to pop up or bloom in my front garden. Now I know where the bare spots are, and I’m excited to buy new flowers to fill in the blanks (sort of blanks). I know I need some tall ones. Before I shop, I’ll do a bit of searching on line to find different flowers than I have.
This is a busy medical week. Fern goes to the vets today to see if the medicine has helped her kidney remain stable without any further deterioration. I have two appointments of my own. My house is beginning to resemble a pharmacy. All of us are on some sort of medication.
Spring is a noisy season. The birds start singing early, a bit before dawn. The kids are outside in the morning screaming and playing while they wait for the bus. I can hear lawn mowers most mornings and today I heard hammering. Generally I prefer the quiet, but this time of year I’m happy for the noise. It means people are coming out of hibernation. They are no longer hunkered down in their warm houses but are outside in their gardens or just walking the neighborhood. People are especially friendly this time of year. We all survived the winter together so a wave or a hello is a reconnection.
Riding in the car this time of year has its danger. My eyes are attracted to colors, and I can’t help but look: along the sides of the roads. I have to be careful to take quick peeks as a couple of times I found myself heading toward the sidewalks-no people but plenty of trees.
I haven’t taken pictures in a long while, but my camera has plenty of pictures needing to be uploaded and posted. Most are from last year. I’ve got to put the camera on my to do list.
Right now the sun is out. It is quiet. The only sound is Gracie’s deep breathing while she sleeps. A bit of a breeze has appeared and the tops of the pine trees are swaying. It is a lovely day.
Categories: Musings
Tags: a bit chilly, colors, medications, noisy spring, singing birds, sunny
Comments: 6 Comments
May 16, 2016
Home! Gracie and I got home late yesterday afternoon. It had been a wonderful visit for both of us. Gracie had Bill who walked her every day and Peg who fed her goodies. Peg and I went to the glass blowing shop where I bought some Christmas presents and to a wonderful craft fair where I bought more presents and some stocking stuffers. I also bought myself a few things, that seemed only right. All the area around Mont Vernon where Bill and Peg live is lovely. There are dairy farms, lots of wooded areas and old houses, big old houses. A few miles from their house is a wonderful view from the top of a hill. Stretched out before me were hills, small hills, tall hills and some hills tall enough to be called small mountains. The hills were different color greens and looked like a landscape painted on canvas. The sky was blue and the clouds had the most wonderful shapes. I stopped for a few minutes at the top of the hill to take in that wonderful view.
We laughed a lot, Bill, Peg and I. We share so many memories and have made a few more. Bill said he always wondered how they knew I was coming to visit them in Tafo, in Ghana. I always wondered the same thing. We figured it must have by mail, and in Ghana it was truly snail mail. I used to visit them on my way home from somewhere, usually Togo. I always took the train. They moved to my school for our second year. That’s when we had so many adventures.
The trees near Boston and on the South Shore are filled with leaves. I could see them rippling and turning when the wind blew, but as I continued toward the cape, the trees got barer. By the time I crossed the bridge, I was seeing trees with buds and tiny new leaves. Spring is slow to come to Cape Cod.
A dump run is coming up, and I have a wash to do. Everything is as it was.
Categories: Musings
Tags: Christmas presents, craft fair, dump run, glass blowing, leaves, New Hampshire, scenery, spring, stocking stuffers, trees
Comments: 13 Comments
May 12, 2016
I’ve had three days of bliss thanks to warm weather, a bright sun and the stirrings of spring. The days have been in the mid 60’s while the nights are still warmish in the mid-40’s. I had my windows opened yesterday and left my bedroom window open all night. The air smelled new and chased away the winter. I left my sweatshirt at home when I did my errands yesterday.
Today will be a short entry. Gracie and I are heading north to New Hampshire to see my friends Bill and Peg. They date back to Peace Corps days, and we were neighbors our second year in Ghana. We had all sorts of adventures and traveled together on school holidays. I knew they were kindred spirits the first day we met. They were also fellow truants when we started to skip lectures to see Philadelphia.
They come down here in the fall, but this year will be different as the three of us are going back to Ghana together. Their Cape visit will have to be either earlier or later than usual. I play the tour guide when they come down. Bill had never been to Cape Cod before his visit to me.
Gracie will be with me. She loves visiting them. Bill takes her on long walks and Peg feeds her. The dog makes herself at home climbing and sleeping on the couch near Peg.
I won’t be writing again until Monday except for an update or two. Enjoy the spring weather!
Categories: Musings
Tags: cape cod, New Hampshire, springlike, warm
Comments: 21 Comments
May 10, 2016
Today is a gift. I’m thinking Mother Nature has decided to stop teasing us with winter and has embraced spring. Not a branch moves in the stillness of the morning. The sun is bright and is framed by a blue sky. The birds are singing, and I hear several different songs. My feeders are getting a lot of traffic. It is in the mid 50’s but will get warmer as the day grows older. Tonight will be in the mid 40’s. It is a Cape Cod spring day.
This is the time of year when I’d ride my bike to school. I remember speeding down the hills and feeling chilly from the wind. My jacket would fill with air. The ride was short, probably about ten minutes, all downhill going and uphill returning. It should have been the opposite.
The bike rack was old and wooden. It was under branches from the tree in a yard next to the school fence. It was painted a dark green and had layers of paint. You could see them all when the paint chipped. I never had a lock for my bike. I don’t think anyone did. The bikes weren’t fancy. They had the back pedal brakes. Most had wire baskets. The best part of riding my bike was getting home fast and having more time to play in the afternoon.
The streets all had sand from winter when the sand trucks would come by and spew their sand on the snow to give cars better traction, but this time of year it was the street cleaning trucks which would come by. They had brushes low to the ground and would sweep the sand to the curbside. A couple of times I skidded in the sand. Sometimes we did what came to be called wheelies. Our bikes would leave circular skid marks. Braking at the right time and place was the key.
The day hasn’t started well. I had an early morning meeting and nearly fell out of bed when the alarm went off. On the way to the bathroom I stepped in cat throw up. I have to go out but not for anything fun. I have to some x-rays done of my back. I’ve decided I deserve a good lunch, my favorite sandwich and a whoopie pie for dessert. I definitely earned it this morning.
Categories: Musings
Tags: bike rack, bike riding, bird feeders, birds, blue sky, cat vomit, morning meeting, no bike lock, pedal brakes, sand, spring, stillness, sunny, wheelies
Comments: 8 Comments
May 9, 2016
Run for your lives! Find a place to hide! Shield your eyes or you’ll go blind. Okay, I admit to a bit of exaggeration here, especially the going blind part, but I was raised on B science fiction movies and the warnings just came naturally because we have sun today for the first time in months, okay another exaggeration, but it has been a week or more since it was last here, and every day in that week it rained. This is my Noah I think I see a bird moment. I can see blue sky and the sun though it does pop in and out of the clouds, but I’ll take it anyway it comes. Today is warm. All the chilly dampness is gone. I am so stoked about going outside and not getting wet. The bird feeders are empty and need my attention. Any water in pots and on furniture covers has to be dumped so the deck can dry. I know I have sunglasses somewhere.
I have seen cartoons of me, not really me, but a perfect representation of me. I don’t have a pill box. I have a pill suitcase. With the number of containers you’d think I was a pharmaceutical rep, but no, they’re all mine. Most are preventative, but it doesn’t matter. The containers number in the teens. Now I need a cane or a walker to complete the picture. I can see myself wearing a chenille robe while bending over to use a walker to move a few inches at a time. That sound is my slippers making a scuffing noise as I walk.
I am in a whimsical mood brought about, I believe, by the return visit of the sun. I feel light and airy, a bit like Scrooge on Christmas morning when he found out the spirits had done it all in one night. I had become glum from all that rain, but the darkness has disappeared. I’m going into the light!
Categories: Musings
Tags: blue sky, run for your lives, spring day, sun, warm day
Comments: 10 Comments
