Archive for the ‘Musings’ category
October 19, 2015
Today is cold, in the mid 40’s. The sun is back to playing peek-a-boo. Outside isn’t all that inviting so I guess I’ll hunker down for another day or two. I’m not completely rid of the plague as I still have a voice better suited for an obscene phone call than a regular conversation. My cough didn’t wake me up last night, but it is still hanging in there. My friend is bringing me bread, cookies and a lemon donut from Dunkin’ Donuts. I’m a happy woman, albeit sick but still happy.
When I was a kid, I don’t remember missing much school. I don’t think I was really sick enough all that often. A cold was nothing. It meant bundling a bit better with a new layer or two. We walked to school on even the coldest days. I remember my cheeks turned red and raw from the wind. We’d walk backwards away from the wind when it was the strongest and the coldest. School was a refuge where we could defrost and de-layer. I don’t think we really ever complained much. That was just the way it was. We all walked to school back then despite the weather.
I used to like soup on a cold day. My mother would fill the thermos from my lunch box, add some saltines, and maybe a half of a sandwich and some dessert. Usually it was tomato soup because I could drink it instead of needing a spoon. Bologna was the most popular meat for sandwiches. We always had tuna fish on Fridays when we couldn’t eat meat. My mother added mayonnaise, chopped celery and lettuce so the tuna fish wasn’t half bad. It was always on white bread. We never had any other kind of bread. I think I was a teenager before I found out bread came in many colors and flavors.
Back when we were kids our dinners were meat, potatoes, usually mashed, and a vegetable. We had bland palates. We were seldom introduced to any foreign foods though we did count spaghetti as Italian. My friends and I now eat all sorts of foods from a variety of countries. I know it was Ghana which first introduced me to really foreign foods like African, Indian and Middle Eastern. They opened the flood gates. Now I’m willing to try almost anything though I balk at insects, household pets and rodents.
Categories: Musings
Tags: bologna, cold, Cookies, obscene phone call, plague, soup in a thermos, staying home from school, sun playing peek-e-boo, tuna fish, white bread
Comments: 10 Comments
October 18, 2015
I can’t put my finger on which one but my wheezing reminds me of sound effects from a movie. They are a bit like metal scraping metal. I’m thinking this cold and being by myself for so long are affecting my brain. Sound effects from Wheezing?
Things are getting better. The cold’s grip is weakening. I only woke up twice last night and managed to sleep 11 interrupted hours. It looks like I have to go out sometime today. I haven’t any bread or soup or anything which tantalizes my taste buds. Sweets keep coming to mind. I’m thinking chocolate chip cookies are a possible remedy. I suspect, though, I’ll probably stay home. It takes far too much energy to get up and out even for chocolate chip cookies. Besides, I think I need a nap.
The day is cold. The sun pops in and out but is merely decorative when it appears. It isn’t warmth. I turned on my heat for one cycle this morning. My bed and comforter are sounding more and more appealing.
Not being around enough people is the reason I’m sick. When I worked, I was around kids with their various ills and ailments. I developed an immunity. I don’t even remember when last I had a cold though this may be a whole different strain of something. I think I caught it during my reunion last weekend. With all those people in one room, someone must have had a germ or two and shared. How kind!
I’m combing the TV for classic horror movies. I’m thinking the Holy Trinity of Frankenstein, Dracula and The Mummy. I’m not including The Wolf Man as I always feel really sad for Larry Talbot. He didn’t deserve his fate.
I watch NCIS even though Abby and her pre-adolescent prattle drive me crazy. Just a while ago I happened on the last 5 minutes of The Brady Bunch and left it on as I wanted to watch what followed it. During those 5 minutes I had an epiphany. Abby based her character on Cindy Brady. They have the same child-like voice, intonations and the same childish indignations. Trust me on this one. The only NCIS mystery left is why the prop guy doesn’t realize we hear the echo of the empty coffee cup when Gibbs puts his coffee on the desk.
Categories: Musings
Tags: Bread, chilly, Chocolate, cold, heat, scraping metal, sick, wheezing
Comments: 11 Comments
October 17, 2015
I’m here, but I won’t be for long. Even after 12 hours sleep last night, I’m still in the throes of this pestilence. I’m wondering if this is one of the plagues of Egypt somehow left off the list. My sister said this is something going around. Not that I’m happy for other people’s suffering but I’m glad not to suffer alone.
I continue to dose myself with a variety of medicines. The cough is still the main target. If I were outside coughing, people would run in terror at fear of catching this. I’m thinking Stephen King and the Stand and Captain Tripps.
The day is lovely, autumn warm and sunny. More and more leaves are falling and the ground is red and yellow. Flowers still brighten the gardens especially the mums in so many warm colors. Pumpkins are on front door steps and I’ve seen a few scarecrows. Cape Cod is always beautiful this time of year.
I’ll drink plenty of liquids and continue to dose myself. I’m also going back to bed. Hard to believe I know, but I’m already tired.
Categories: Musings
Tags: Captain Tripp, pestilence, plagues of Egypt, The Stand
Comments: 10 Comments
October 16, 2015
I am alive though well would be a stretch. Last night won’t go down in the annals as one of my better. I woke up at 2:30 unable to catch my breath. I was about to hop into my car to go to the emergency room when the coughing slowed down. I returned to bed, propped up with pillows behind me and finally fall asleep. This morning I found my inhaler and that has made a world of difference. I have to chuckle though as my table looks like the side table of some old lady’s bedroom filled as it is with bottles, kleenex boxes and used kleenex. I should be wearing a quilted bed jacket and a lacy cap.
I just woke up from a nap, a three-hour nap. Now I’m singing the theme from Gilligan. Yikes, I’m sicker than I thought.
All my body functions and parts are failing in tandem. First was my eye-hand coordination. Last night I tipped over a full glass of sticky orange juice on my table which is filled with books. Though I cleaned it up, my fingers still stick in places I missed. When I get up, I feel a bit dizzy and do pirouettes, ungracefully I might add. I am getting quite tired of blowing my nose.
My mother was the best when I was sick. I’d lie in bed and she’d bring something to nosh like juice and crackers, sometimes Saltines or Pilot Crackers, spread with butter. Lunch was usually soup and maybe a half sandwich: tomato soup and grilled cheese was the favorite of the sick room crowd. Dunking the sandwich into the soup was rather tasty.
I loved the attention from my mother. Every other day I had to share her but not when I was sick. Sometimes being sick, but not all that sick, was worth it.
My friend Clare brought me whoopie pies and apple cider donuts yesterday. She left them on the steps put off by the quarantine signs in the windows.
Categories: Musings
Tags: bed hat, bed jacket, blowing my nose, bottles, dizzy, grilled cheese., inhaler, nap, nosh, old lady's table, orange juice, pills, still sick, tomato soup.
Comments: 17 Comments
October 15, 2015
Today is the mass in honor of my mother who passed away ten years ago. I am not there; instead, I am home coughing, sniffling and complaining though no one is here to listen. I do not get colds so this threw me for a loop. My guess is I caught it at the reunion where someone, a Typhoid Mary type, was passing the germ amid all the hugs and kisses. I am not happy.
This will be a short post. I’m going back to bed after dousing myself with a variety of cold medicines. My voice is so deep I could sing bass or make obscene phone calls. When I cough, Gracie lives the room. The cats don’t even notice. They sleep right through my hacking.
I’d like one of those talking dolls they sold when I was a kid. They had a string you pulled to make them talk, and they said things like “I love you,” but I want mine to say things like “You poor baby” or “How about some nice hot chicken soup?” I remember The Twilight Zone episode when the talking doll was evil. “My name is Talky Tina, and I’m going to kill you.” I’ll pass on that one.
The common cold has no cure and you just have to let it runs its course. I sleep and take medicine to dull the symptoms for a while. The only hope I have is pneumonia. That they can cure.
Categories: Musings
Tags: bass, bed, cold, cold medicines, Cough, obscene phone calls, pneumonia, sick, talking dolls, Talky Tina, Twilight Zone, Typhoid Mary
Comments: 10 Comments
October 13, 2015
My mornings rarely start early, but today the alarm jarred me awake at the God awful hour of 7:30. I had a library board meeting at nine and I wanted time for coffee and some of the paper. After the meeting I did my three errands. This has been a most industrious morning for me.
It started raining last night and was still raining when I woke up. Mother Nature must have looked kindly on me because the rain stopped for the few minutes it took me to get the papers then it started pouring when I got inside. The sun came out around 10 for a while then the clouds came back, but it must be a peek-a-boo day as the sun is back.
The day is warm. The morning was filled with the sounds of birds, and the rain brought a sweetness to the air. It is supposed to get really cold by the end of the week so I will savor today.
My father was a football and hockey fan. He thought baseball was boring and just didn’t enjoy basketball. We were poles apart. Basketball and baseball were always my favorites, and I never did like hockey. I abided football but didn’t understand much of it. Baseball has always been my top favorite sport. The cellar dwellers, the Sox, were a cheap Saturday afternoon in the bleachers when I was a kid. Now they are still cellar dwellers but even the bleachers are expensive. I usually try to go once each year but mostly I watch them on TV. I haven’t been to a Celtics’ game in a long while because I seemed to have lost interest. Filling the gap has been football. My dad would have loved to have someone watch with him, and he’d be thrilled at the success of the Pats. He watched them in their early days, their struggling years. He yelled a lot at the TV. I watch every Pats game, and I now understand the general rules of the game, most infractions and even some strategy. I’m hazy about some positions and their responsibilities, but that doesn’t deter me from enjoying the game. I yell at the TV. My dad would be proud!
Categories: Musings
Tags: Baseball, basketball, errands, football, hockey, morning meeting, Mother Nature, peek-a-boo day, rain, strategy, sun
Comments: 10 Comments
October 12, 2015
Today is the best sort of a fall day. The sun is shining, it’s warm and the clear blue sky goes on forever. The leaves have started changing, and with the help of the wind, some have already fallen. My front lawn has touches of red lying on the grass blown from the trees along the driveway. Clumps of pine needles with chewed ends are strewn on the grass and the driveway. The spawns chew the clumps off the branches, drink the sap then toss the leftovers. I don’t ever remember seeing as many clumps.
Columbus Day meant the day off from school, but it was always the 12th, never a convenient Monday. Today is just happenstance. Schools, banks, town and federal offices including the post office are all closed.
I don’t know how to celebrate Columbus Day. All the other holidays are easy, each has a token, a symbol. Some even have traditional foods. I suppose we could eat Italian food in honor of Columbus having been a citizen of Genoa or considering he never really made it to the New World, we could eat Caribbean food, the closest he got. We could wear one of those silly hats he’s always pictured wearing. As for decorations, miniature ships with crosses on their sails could be on the Columbus Day table. That’s all I’ve got.
Now we come to the controversy as to whether or not we should celebrate Columbus, by most accounts a slaver guilty of genocide. He wiped out entire populations of indigenous people. He didn’t even find America, his one claim to fame. Protests against Chris are held every Columbus Day. In some places the day has been renamed Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Only 23 states still have the day as a holiday from work.
I used to like a day off in October. In truth, I didn’t care the reason.
I agree that Chris doesn’t deserve a whole day in his name. He really didn’t do anything worth recognition. Quite the opposite is true so I think it’s time to stop honoring him. We need to rethink the day.
Categories: Musings
Tags: blue sky, Caribbean food, columbus day, falling leaves, genocide, gorgeous day, Indigenous Peoples' Day., Italian food, miniature ships, red leaves, slavery, warm day
Comments: 12 Comments
October 11, 2015
Where have I been? I’ve been right here at my computer tearing out my hair and cursing. I upgraded my Mac to El Capitan, the newest operating system. Everything went just fine until this morning when I found my computer running in a gentle lope across cyberspace. I checked and the computer had jumped to the xfinitywifi so I clicked MissKat, my wifi. It wouldn’t connect so I jumped right back on xfinity to do some sleuthing. It seems that El Capitan and Linksys haven’t yet to meet each other so my MAC wouldn’t recognize my wifi. I went hunting to find a solution and didn’t find one. I then tried to connect with the Linksys set-up, but it was taking so long I had time to go downstairs and put my laundry in to wash. It never did connect. I’m now thinking I’ll go back to Yosemite where my Linksys was quite happy and comfortable and felt right at home.
Last night was the dinner, the last reunion event. It was wonderful. I loved it when the cheese, dip and all else hand food lady told me she expected the elderly when she heard it was a 50th reunion. She told me we didn’t look old at all. I’m thinking it was a compliment but maybe it was in comparison to her mental images of what we should look like. The food was delicious and the venue was perfect. It is an old bank, the same one where my parents had had their mortgage. It has been renovated into the Yarmouth Social Center which hosts a variety of events like music, art shows and one I loved, costumes from movies. More people were there last night than at the cocktail party so I got to see more of my classmates. One, whose brother was also in our class, connected with him in FaceTime. He is at the Mayo Clinic. She went from table to table so we could all say hello.
The evening ended early, but every minute of it was filled to the brim with remembered friendships and memories. I think that is best part of any reunion.
Categories: Musings
Tags: bad language, dinner, El Capitan, end of the reunion, facetime, frustration, good food, Good Friends, laughs, Linksys, Mac, more reunions
Comments: 9 Comments
October 10, 2015
The big reunion weekend began last night at the cocktail hour. Good thing we had name tags though some people were easy to recognize as they hadn’t changed much, just gotten older. The biggest shock was a classmate who was the all-American boy in high school with button-down collar shirts and chinos of different colors. Now he has long hair and a beard. I didn’t recognize him.
I had a wonderful evening last night with lots of hugs, memories and laughs. This morning was coffee and pastries then a school tour. I went anyway figuring more time to socialize. Tonight is the dinner, the final event. I expect classmates who haven’t gone to anything else will be at the dinner. I have my name tag ready.
Last night it poured. This morning was sunny but clouds have taken over for the mean time. The sky gets dark then the sun comes back then the clouds reappear. I’m thinking the sun is losing the battle.
It is in the 50’s. This three-day weekend is the last hurrah for the Cape. Many places will close after Monday. Traffic will be lighter, lines shorter and people far less stressed. I can use main roads again.
I have my 8th grade picture. We are sitting or standing in rows in front of a statue on the convent lawn. Father Sexton, the pastor, is sitting in the middle of the first row. The picture is a long one so it is easy to see faces. Some kids I remember. We started in the first grade together, maybe went to Arlington Catholic for high school or marched together in the drill team. We haven’t ever had a reunion. Eighth grades don’t do that. The drill team has had a few small reunions, just my friends at someone’s house, and one large one for anyone who marched. I always go.
My classmates and I have only high school as a common experience. Some classmates I’ve seen here and there while others I haven’t seen since graduation. That didn’t matter last night. The room was filled with people enjoying and catching up with one another. All those years apart dissolved.
Categories: Musings
Tags: 3 day weekend, 50th class reunion, 8th grade, class picture, cocktail hour, dinner, high school, last hurrah, rain, school tour
Comments: 8 Comments
October 9, 2015
The morning was cloudy and cold when I woke up around eight. I decided the day was uninviting so I stayed in bed another hour. Since then the sun has appeared and warmed the day. Gracie and I have a dump run later. I haven’t told her. It’s a surprise.
This weekend is my fiftieth high school reunion. Tonight is a cocktail party, tomorrow morning coffee and pastries then a tour of the school and finally dinner tomorrow night. I don’t know quite what to think. Fifty years since high school, a whole half-century ago, seems like such a long time if you think of it by itself, in years, but I never gave thought to the year by year passing of time. My life has been measured by events.
There was the fall when I started college. I remember wearing the ugly blue beanie and being asked questions by the upper classmen. That was a breakout year. I was on my own. I don’t remember much, but I do remember the first college dance and the first party, but that last one is a bit hazy. I remember the junior prom at Wentworth by the Sea. We all had imbibed as the class advisor told the management we were of age. The funniest incident was when my friend Andy, as in Andrea, who had imbibed a bit too much, missed the choosing of the prom queen. She was so mad she wanted it declared invalid as she believed she would have been chosen, and we had to restrain her for a bit. My senior year brought the most memories. We had student teaching, and that’s when I knew I was destined to teach high school. We had our Friday get-togethers at the bar every week, a prom at the Marblehead yacht club where I remember toasting, drinking then throwing my glass overboard and then there was graduation. I remember standing in line in the hall. I remember getting my diploma. That was four years gone.
I remember flying to Philadelphia for staging then flying to Ghana, training there and living in Bolga for two years. I can describe everything. My time there lives in vibrant colors in my memory banks. I remember leaving and silently crying the whole flight from Tamale to Accra.
I remember getting my teaching job and teaching English and loving it. I remember the interview for administrator, and I remember when they chose me. I remember the first kid I had to suspend. He had a cast on his arm, and I hated calling his mother. I remember realizing I could retire in three years when I turned 57. That was like a jolt to my psyche. All I’d done for what would be 35 years would end.
I have been retired for 11 years and have alternated between being busy and being totally idle, sloth-like. I have spent entire summers on my deck. I finally made it back to Ghana, not once but twice. I remember walking out of the plane and smiling. Ghana had changed but it still felt like home to me.
In four paragraphs I have just described the last fifty years. Tonight I’ll celebrate those years.
Categories: Musings
Tags: college, dump run, fiftieth class reunion, half a century, life measured by events, Peace Corps Ghana, staging, sunny day
Comments: 16 Comments
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