Archive for the ‘Musings’ category
October 4, 2014
The sun is still among the missing. Posters have been put up asking people to keep an eye out in case it should appear. The misty rain comes and goes. Gracie has left wet paw prints all over the kitchen floor. The cats are sleeping; of course, they are.
It is getting closer and closer to the end of deck time. Soon all the furniture will be covered and all the flower pots emptied. It makes me sad to know that Saturday night movies are over, they’ll no more reading outside and no more sitting by candlelight at night listening to the wonderful sounds of summer. The leaves are slowly turning, but the deck has debris from the rain: sticks, leaves and acorns. It already looks deserted.
English grammar has clear rules. Like math or even music, there is a right answer or a right tune. People hop all over singers out of tune. They complain about the stupidity of cashiers who need cash registers to tell them the amount of change because they can’t figure it out themselves. Correcting English, though, isn’t acceptable. The reason for this I’m told is communication. It is people understanding each other no matter how they say it. I accept that popular usage has changed a few of the rules like the one where hopefully used to be an adverb, but objects of prepositions haven’t changed at all. On the news the other night I heard the reporter say something like the witness told he and I. That mistake was okayed by the writer, the editor and the reporter who probably shouldn’t be blamed as she just read the news handed to her. Is it too much to ask that we speak our mother tongue correctly? Obviously it is, but don’t you dare sing out of tune or you’ll be excoriated in the newspapers and, worst of all, in social media.
Categories: Musings
Tags: damp, end of deck time, English grammar, out of tune, prepositions and their objects, rainy day, rules of grammar
Comments: 20 Comments
October 3, 2014
This morning was one of those put a mirror under her nose to see if she is still breathing mornings. I didn’t wake up until ten. My guess is it was all the errands from yesterday, the hauling in of the packages, the loads of wash with the accompanying up and down two flights of stairs and the changing of my bed. My back is no longer fit for days like yesterday. On my dance card today is switching out the screens and storm doors.
The day is dreary. It may even rain again later. I turned on the heat this morning for a short while to get rid of the dampness. The house is cozy now. The animals are in here with me while they take their morning naps. All three are quite comfortable: two are on the couch and one is on the afghan. I should live their lives.
Earlier I sprayed the red spawn. He didn’t hear me coming so he took the full brunt of the spray. He was shocked and immediately leapt, still dripping I suspect, from the deck rail to one tree then another until he alit on the big pine branch and began castigating me. He was chirping and chattering and waving his tail in indignation all the while looking right at me. He has to go. He best be packing his little bag for the move.
When I was a kid, I seldom had plans for the weekends. If the movie was good, I’d head to the matinee. If not, I might ride my bike or roller skate or just walk the tracks. Life was filled with spontaneity. Sunday was church and the family dinner but the rest of the day was mine. Sometimes the weather determined what we did. Rain in the summer was never a deterrent to playing outside, but in the winter it was far too cold to get wet. I always thought winter rain was a waste of water. It should always have been snow.
I don’t make too many weekend plans. I watch the Amazing Race with my friends, one of our traditions, and that’s it. I am back to spontaneity and maybe a bit of inertia. I’m liking my life.
Categories: Musings
Tags: bad back, errands, freary day, red spawn, sleeping in, spraying the spawn, storm doors, the life of a pet, too many errands, weekends
Comments: 18 Comments
October 2, 2014
The rain started Tuesday and continued throughout Wednesday until well into the night. The dog’s outside water bowl was filled with rainwater. We’re talking inches of rain here. The ground is still soaked. With the rain came cooler temperatures. It is only 57˚ and with the dampness it feels even colder. The wind has picked up and the trees are being blown. More rain is predicted for later.
I’d vote for October as my favorite month. The weather is lovely, fall flowers are in bloom, pumpkins adorn front steps and fill wagons at farm stands, leaves are in such an array of colors even the most boring road is ablaze in yellows and reds and the best of all is that October finishes on its very last day with Halloween. Christmas has Santa and elves and flying reindeer, but I love even more the witches and ghosts and monsters of Halloween. There are no scary Santa movies except maybe Santa Claus Conquers the Martians which is frightfully bad. Nope, hands down, Halloween has the best scary movies. I love them all especially the classics. I’m not talking blood and gore movies. I want to be scared by subtlety. We never see Dracula bite into Mina’s neck. He uses his cloak to hide it, but we know what’s going on. Our imaginations fill in the void. One of my all time favorite movie scenes is in Frankenstein. It is when the villagers hunt the monster. They are sent off to, “…search every ravine, every crevice. The fiend must be found.” The black and white of the movie enhances the scary scene. Wide-eyed women huddle and hide. The dogs who lead the pack of crazed villagers are barking and pulling at their leashes. The men wend their way down a hill their torches bright in the darkness. Their garbled shouts echo in the night. We sense their fear. It touches us and scares us. That’s the best part of Halloween.
Categories: Musings
Tags: black and white film, Dracula, fall flowers, Frankenstein, ghosts, Halloween movies, leaves changing color, October, pumpkins, scary, villagers and their torches, witches
Comments: 8 Comments
September 30, 2014
Today is a bit chilly and rainy, and I love it. The house is dark and cozy and I feel as if I’m in a cocoon, safe and happy. The two cats and the dog are sleeping, each in her usual spot. Fern is behind me lying on the afghan on the back of the couch. Maddie is sleeping in the warm light from the lamp, and Gracie is in her crate with her head on her dog pillow. I slept in this morning because I was awake until well after three. I just couldn’t get to sleep. I finished my book, watched a couple of documentaries on my iPad, got up and changed the two litter boxes and washed the cat food mat in the upstairs bathroom. By about three I was thinking I might just get up and find something to do, like clean that cabinet which has been driving me crazy because I have no idea what’s in the back of it. I’m guessing a few old mice nests as that’s where some lived before they were relocated by Grace and me. Mostly I want to find my apple peeler/corer and my old double loaf pan. I know they’re in that cabinet probably way in the back. I’m hoping to find a few surprises as well.
I’m having one of my distraction days. Nothing gets done straight through. I feel a little bored with what I’m doing and stop to do something else. Earlier, between the two papers, I decided to look through the two small wooden boxes on my table. It was like finding treasure chests filled with memories. The first small box had all the commemorative pins I got from working the Boston Marathon. It also had a Peace Corps cloth badge and a returned volunteer pin. Two nails were on the bottom. They are the size I usually want for something but can never find in my tool drawer. I love the red bead bracelet I found. It came from Ghana. Several coins were on the bottom. A couple were from Iceland but most were from Ghana. They are coins which are no longer used. My favorite was the twenty pesewa coin. That was the cost of a taxi ride anywhere in the city of Accra. I thought of all the arguments I had with taxi drivers who wanted to charge more. One even said he hated Peace Corps, a guess as to who I was on his part, because they always knew the right price.
The other box is filled with addresses, a few boxes of wooden matches, an old Winston lighter, an eyeglass kit and a few odd items in a small plastic bag. I bought them just because I liked them and figured I’ll find a way to use them.
The last is a cigar box, and I’ve saved that one for later, for my next distraction.
Categories: Musings
Tags: awake till three, Boston Marathon pins, boxes, cleaning cabinets, distraction day, Ghanaian money, mice nests, Peace Corps pins, rainy and cool, sleeping animals, sleeping until after 9, twenty pesewas
Comments: 10 Comments
September 29, 2014
This morning has been a delight. I had to drive to Bourne to have my car serviced, but they didn’t charge me though the two years of free maintenance has passed. It didn’t take very long. I decided to go down cape to do a bit of shopping, and while I was on the highway, my car hit the 10,000 mark. I wished I had a few balloons and some champagne. I took Route 151 to Mashpee Commons to do my shopping. I don’t often get on that side of the cape so I figured I’d take full advantage. Yellow and red leaves filled the trees along the roadside. Houses had pumpkins and Halloween decorations in the fronts of their houses. It was a fun ride.
To continue my good luck, I found a parking space right across from the store, Williams Sonoma, where I wanted to shop. We always thank the God of Parking when we find the perfect space so I did. That spot was a good thing as the filled shopping bag was a bit heavy. I had planned on that being my only stop, but I decided to stop at the Organic Market as I needed bread. I should know by now that I never just buy a single thing. I bought bagels, green salsa, chicken, bananas, palm oil, coconut peanut butter, two kinds of rice and a half dozen eggs, two of which broke on the way home, my only bad luck of the day. I loaded up the car and went home a different way: Route 149 off of 28. It is a small road, one lane on each side, houses back off the road, old cemeteries and towering trees, now filled with color. I was a bit sorry when I finally reached the highway.
I have a lead foot when it comes to highway driving. Today I was going 70 when someone came up behind me so I pulled over into the inside lane and slowed down to keep pace with the traffic. I looked in my rear view mirror and saw blinking blue lights, a state trooper’s car in obvious pursuit. I thought I was doomed. I kept looking and then I saw a car about three behind me pull over followed by the police car right behind him. I had escaped.
Today is cloudy but warm. The sun looks as if it is ready to make an appearance. I have had a great morning, and I didn’t need the sun.
Categories: Musings
Tags: car maintenance, Organic Market, red and yellow leaves, route 149, shoppig, Shopping, state trooper, Williams Sonoma
Comments: 14 Comments
September 28, 2014
Summer has stayed another day. The birds are flying in and out of the feeders, the red spawn has been soaked by the hose a couple of times, kids are riding their bikes up and down the street and the insects are singing. It is a wonderful day.
When I was a kid, my street was visited by so many people doing so many different things. There was the milkman whose bottles clanged in his metal holder as he walked to the back door, the sharpener man who rode a bike with a pedal driven honing wheel and who stopped to sharpen knives and scissors, the trash men who came once a week who carried their barrels behind their backs with one hand, the garbage man who also came once a week, the summer ice cream man who came every day, the junk man who shouted for rags and newspapers from his horse-drawn wagon and the mailman who knew everybody and always stopped to talk. The only name we kids knew was Johnny the ice cream man.
My favorite was the sharpener man. I loved to watch him sharpen knives as the wheel whirled. He pedaled fast and turned the knife from side to side then checked sharpness using his finger across the blade. He never cut himself. That amazed me.
Only the mailman is left, and he uses a truck. I take my own trash to the dump and the newspapers get recycled. My knives are quite dull, but I just bought a new sharpener so I’m hoping for the best. I’m also hoping I don’t cut myself prone as I am to self-inflicted injuries. There used to be an ice cream truck with bells playing a tune, but I haven’t heard or seen one on a while.
My neighborhood is a good one with lots of kids, friendly neighbors and dear friends, but I bemoan the loss of these men from our childhood. They provided services but most of all they provided color, smells and sounds to our lives. I still remember the sound of the wheel and the knife, the clop of the horse on the street and Johnny’s bell, that last one most of all.
Categories: Musings
Tags: bikes, birds, dump, insects, junk man, mailman, milkman, sharpener man, summer, trash, trash men
Comments: 8 Comments
September 27, 2014
Yippee! It is a deck day, warm and lovely. Summer just isn’t ready to leave yet, and I’m glad. Both doors are open and the air smells like cut grass. Early this morning it smelled like the ocean.
When I went to get the papers this morning, I noticed yellow leaves on the bush across the street and red leaves on my burning bush by the driveway. It seems fall is making its presence known a bit at a time.
The best part of being a kid was taking delight in so many things. I mostly remember being happy. Many adults see the world through darker glasses and have learned to be cynical and sometimes distrustful. A kid is wide-eyed. Snow is a joy not an inconvenience. Rain means puddles to run through. Grass is soft and cool and lying on it gives the best view of the summer’s night sky. A bicycle takes us away. A nickel is a king’s ransom, a treasure. Finding a bottle is another nickel, another treasure.
Being a teenager was a lot of work. I had to endure those horrific rollers in my hair, sometimes even overnight. The right clothes and shoes were a necessity. Boys got important. I seldom noticed the weather except for rain. It ruined my hair. School meant hours of homework. I did have fun with my friends and I was out most weekends, but the future was always looming.
College was work but it was fun. We partied a lot. Some weekends passed in a daze. I was far too busy with classes and weekends to notice much about the world. I had choices to make my senior year. I chose the Peace Corps, and I am forever thankful for that. All of a sudden it was a new world and I was wide-eyed again. I stopped and looked and slept outside under a billion stars. I was a little kid again.
I still stop and notice. Once relearned, it isn’t ever forgotten.
Categories: Musings
Tags: a bit of summer, being a kid, Burning bush, college, cut grass, high school, Peace Corps, rollers, smell of the ocean, teenagers, the joys of life, warm day, wide-eyed
Comments: 8 Comments
September 26, 2014
The rain fell for most of the night, but it wasn’t nearly enough to wash away the drought. The sky is still cloudy and the day is dark though the sun is supposed to make an entrance later, hang around for a while and give tomorrow some summer warmth. I’m thinking it may be warm enough for the last movie on the deck night.
When I was a kid, I was not a girly girl. My sisters were. They played with dolls, wore dresses with pouffy slips underneath and loved hats and patent leather shoes. I didn’t. I wore skirts and blouses when I was forced to get dressed-up and had to wear them to school and church. Slacks and sometimes sweaters were my weekends and after school ensembles. I went through the wearing the cardigan backwards fashion craze. I suppose that made me a bit stylish or at least current. I remember stretch slacks with the loops on the bottoms for your feet. They were popular for a while, and I got a pair for Christmas one year. I also got a pink fuzzy sweater the same year. They too were popular. I loved that outfit and wore it until the fuzz disappeared.
I don’t get dressed up much any more. I wear nice pants and blouses or shirts when I go out. If it is somewhere special, I pull out one of my three dresses. Because my entire professional career was spent in dresses or skirts, I figure I’m entitled to wear what I want. I do make sure everything complements each other so I’m never messy or odd, just comfortable.
I think there is magic age where you can mix and match whatever you want. That black and white striped shirt is just fine with the yellow plaid capri pants, the blue ankle socks and the white sneakers with velcro. You just have to be old enough to pull it off.
Categories: Musings
Tags: backwards cardigans, cloudy, comfortable, dark, deck movie, Dresses, fuzzy sweaters, looped pants, patent rather shoes, pouffy slips, rain, skirts, sun, warm day
Comments: 8 Comments
September 25, 2014
I am back to myself again. The only aches and pains come from age.
The morning is dark, almost ominous. Everything is still. The house was cold when I woke up, down to 64˚. I broke my no heat vow. The house is now comfortable, and I am in my winter garb including slippers and a sweatshirt. I’m thinking it might be time to replace the back door screen with glass. That’s where Gracie’s dog door is, and when it’s cold, I have to keep the inside door shut, and Gracie can’t come and go at will. I’ve added that to my to do list for today. I’m also going to put a blanket on the bed. I was cold last night, and I know Gracie was too because she was leaning against me. It wasn’t comfortable.
Duke, the boxer I grew up with, was not allowed on furniture, including beds, but he always figured that only held true when we could see him. At night he’d sleep on the couch. We could hear him getting off when we walked down the stairs in the morning. When we went somewhere and Duke was home alone, the bedspreads would miraculously get circles in the middle, the sort a dog makes when turning around and around. We never did catch him at it. He was one smart dog.
Yesterday was computer day from hell. My Mac screen stayed black. The keyboard lit and the cursor worked, but the screen would die just after the apple appeared. I went crazy. I got my iPad and went hunting. One site told me to hold the shift key so it would open in safe mode. That didn’t work. I’d read my book for a while, but I kept stopping to stare at the computer. I hate computer problems, and I have this overwhelming need to solve them. I’d put my book down and try something else suggested by some poor computer illiterate with the same problem. I went from forum to forum. I felt like Diogenes wandering with my lamp looking not for an honest man but for a solution. I actually found one. It was five steps, and the woman who posted it had gotten the solution from Apple. The comments after the steps were from people thanking her which gave me encouragement and also let me know the problem was not the machine. It was a glitch from an Apple system automatic update that never quite got past the login screen. When my desktop appeared, I was Rocky running up the stairs of the art museum in triumph: computer 0, me 1.
Categories: Musings
Tags: animals on the bed, dark day, Dog, furnace, heat, off the bed, rain, Storm door
Comments: 12 Comments
September 23, 2014
Today is Bruce Springsteen’s birthday. He is 65. How did we all get so much older?
I have decided to take a break today as I have a headache to beat all headaches and my back is hurting in sympathy with my head. I have a couple of must do errands then I’ll come home and swoon on the couch.
I’ll be back on Thursday!
Categories: Musings
Comments: 24 Comments
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