Archive for the ‘Musings’ category
April 21, 2014
Today is lovely. The sun is brilliant and the sky a deep blue. It is 53˚. Today is Patriot’s Day in Massachusetts. The day commemorates the first battles of the Revolutionary War in Lexington and Concord. Today is the running of the Boston Marathon. Yesterday was the one year anniversary of the bombings. This year’s race has already started. All of the runners are on their way to Boston. The Red Sox are playing the Orioles, and that game has started. On Patriot’s Day the game starts at the odd hour of eleven. Today the Sox are wearing home jerseys which say Boston, instead of Red Sox to honor the city and the day.
Nothing is on my dance card for the rest of today. When I woke up this morning, I stayed in bed and read for a while. I finally got out of bed, put the coffee on and went out to fill the bird feeders. I was reading the papers when the phone rang. It was my friend waiting for me at the diner. I had totally forgotten our usual Monday breakfast. We rescheduled for tomorrow.
Dinner yesterday was wonderful. We got one of our favorite tables on the porch next to the wall of windows. I could see the small crests of the waves glinting in the sun as they rolled to shore. The water was calm. It was warm beside the window. I was glad for the short sleeve dress I had worn. The waiter told us to keep an eye on the line of scrub bushes on the sand as a mother fox lived there with her kits. We kept watch but didn’t see them. We each ordered a drink and shared truffle fries. We toasted the day and chatted a while before we ordered dinner. The restaurant was filled but not noisy. Men wore jackets and women were dressy. It is that sort of a restaurant. I had a flat iron steak, smashed potatoes and asparagus for dinner. The meal was delicious. I couldn’t eat dessert, but I topped off the dinner with a laced coffee sugared around the rim. When I got home, I let Gracie out, went upstairs to change then decided I really needed a nap. I slept for a couple of hours. It was the deep sleep of the contented.
Categories: Musings
Tags: Easter dinner, friends, marathon Monday, np, Patriots' Day, quiet day, Red Sox, steak and potatoes, the sun, waves
Comments: 10 Comments
April 20, 2014
Happy Easter!
I set my alarm for 7:00 and sneaked down to my neighbor’s yard to decorate the tree by their deck. Just as I was nearly finished, the back door was opened and the dog came out. She wagged her tail and walked over some pats. The door was closed behind her, but I left right then with a few eggs still in the bag hoping I had escaped unseen.
The vet could find nothing wrong with Gracie. All the tests for a stroke were negative. He suggested, as a couple of you did, that she had eaten something in the yard or had something caught in her teeth. I gave her one of her Easter treats this morning: a dog cannoli. She bubbled at the smell, and it disappeared in a heartbeat. She still has another cannoli and a frosted bunny left. Gracie likes Easter.
The day is sunny and bright, a bit chilly but a spring morning chill, the sort which disappears as the day grows older. It’s a quiet morning on my street, the way Sundays used to be. Not even the dogs are barking.
My friends and I will go out to dinner this afternoon to our Easter restaurant. It is a dressy place: men wear suits and most women wear dresses and some even have hats. We wait for a table by the window as the view of the ocean is amazing. The surf hits the rocks and the water spews into the air. Seagulls swoop over the water and we can hear their loud squawks through the glass. The food is delicious and the drinks remarkable.
Sometimes the Easter Bunny left our baskets on the kitchen table. Other times we’d find them on our bureaus. The big chocolate rabbit was always in the middle, in the most prominent spot. I remember some rabbits were hollow while others were pure chocolate inside and out. I liked the jelly beans and black was always my favorite. I loved sticking out my black tongue, an Easter phenomenon, for everyone to see. We never had a big breakfast on Easter morning when we were kids. Mostly it was cocoa or tea and toast. Nobody wanted food. We wanted candy.
I don’t like soft peeps. They have to be so hard they make a noise when tapped on a table. That was how they arrived in Ghana after two months in transit, and I have loved then that way ever since then. My mother used to buy them, open them and let the air make them hard. Right now I have two small packs of opened peeps too soft still for eating.
I wish you all a wonderful day.
Categories: Musings
Tags: chocolate rabbits, dog Easter treats, Easter tree, Eatser baskets, out to dinner, peeps, seagulls, sunny and bright, the ocean
Comments: 16 Comments
April 19, 2014
The day is lovely with a bright sun and a deep blue sky. The wind has disappeared. The temperature at 54˚ is the start of a heat wave. Time to break out the sandals.
I have a few errands today, and I made an appointment for Gracie at the vets. I first thought she had a stroke last night because she was dripping saliva from one side of her face as if she had no control. I checked but there seemed to be no visible difference between one side or the other. She ate her treats and begged for more and chewed on both sides. I wiped her jowls periodically and the dripping finally got less and less. By 2 this morning, she wasn’t dripping at all so we went to bed. Today she is perfectly fine, but I want her checked.
Just as my mother used to on the Saturday night before Easter, I’m going to put out the clothes I’ll be wearing tomorrow. I want to make sure they’re wrinkle free. Nothing is new but everything is so seldom worn they do have a newness about them. My dress material is filled with colorful flowers. It is spring personified.
We used to get excited knowing the Easter Bunny was coming, not so much for him as for his treats. It wasn’t the giddy excitement of Christmas Eve when we knew Santa was coming with a bagful of toys just for us. We really didn’t know all that much about the Easter Bunny. We knew he brought baskets filled with candy and small toys, but we didn’t know who helped. Santa had his elves. Who did the Easter Bunny have? We knew Santa summered at the North Pole. I had no idea where the Easter Bunny lived. I guessed a rabbit hole which must have been enormous, but I never really gave it a thought. We didn’t have to be good, no naughty or nice list. There were no threats. We knew Santa wouldn’t come if we were awake or if we were really bad, but the Easter Bunny came regardless. Instead of new pajamas, we got whole new outfits. We never questioned why a rabbit brought eggs or how he hauled all those baskets from house to house. On an Easter card I once received, the Easter Bunny was pulling a wagon filled with colorful eggs. He wore a small jacket with lots of gold buttons but didn’t wear pants. I just took the whole scene for granted. I believed everything about Santa so believing in the Easter Bunny wasn’t a stretch at all.
Categories: Musings
Tags: bunny cart, colored eggs, Easter basket, Easter Bunny, Easter Buuny clothes, Easter clothes, errands, flowers, pretty day, sunny, vet visit, warmish
Comments: 19 Comments
April 18, 2014
Today is yesterday and the day before: cloudy and cold. When I went to get the papers, I said good morning to the woman taking a brisk walk by my house. She was wearing a winter coat, knitted hat and gloves. “Layered?” I asked. “Definitely!” was her answer. It is that cold this morning.
In my memory drawers the Easters of my childhood were always warm and sunny and filled with color. The traditional picture was on the front steps facing the sun and we all squinted. My straw Easter basket had alternating slats in yellow, green and red. The grass on the bottom was plastic and bright green. It struck to anything half-eaten: the candy tasted then put in the basket and saved for later. Jelly beans were big and all sorts of colors. I used to say the red was my favorite, but I think all the colors really tasted the same. The rabbit was eaten in stages. I was an ears first kid.
Easter dresses had pouffy petticoats underneath and most were in light pastels. The shoes were shiny patent leather each with a single strap across the front. My socks had a frilly, lacy top which folded over. When I was little, I couldn’t wait to get dressed in my new clothes. I’d put on my dress and turn in circles, and my dress would swish and twirl with me. I felt like a princess.
When I got older, Easter lost some of its luster for me. I still ate the rabbit’s ears first but pouff and patent leather were gone. One year I had my mother buy me a blazer, blouse and skirt combo. At my grandparent’s house Easter afternoon, I heard my aunt ask my mother about my outfit. She thought it was plain and hardly Easter. My mother told her it was what I wanted. That was enough.
I remember one Easter when I was in Ghana. It was a special day the way Easter should be. I was in Accra as I had traveled down on Good Friday, the start of school vacation week. A bunch of us went to a beach resort for the afternoon. I remember walking along the shore and then stopping to play coconut. We used a palm tree branch as the bat and a coconut as the ball. The game was fun. The whole day was fun. That night we all went to out to eat at a nice restaurant, not our usual hole-in-the-wall. The restaurant even had potatoes.
Easter still has traditions some dating back to my childhood. I sneak down early in the morning and decorate a tree by my friends’ deck. They give me a basket, and I do baskets for them. I always eat the rabbit’s ears first. We get dressed up and go to a fancy restaurant for dinner. We sit and enjoy the view of the ocean. We have the best time together.
Categories: Musings
Tags: cloudy and cold, Easter baskets, Easter clothes, Easter in Ghana, hat and gloves, patent leather shoes, Peace Corps Ghana, pouffy dresses, wearing layers, winter coat
Comments: 8 Comments
April 17, 2014
The red spawn has me crazed. I run out onto the deck and chase it every time I see it at the feeder. Yesterday I threw a plastic bottle at it from the upstairs window. It ran off as fast as its little feet could move. I’m now thinking a Have-a-Heart trap and relocating the spawn miles away from here but near woods and trees with pinecones. A change of scenery might be just what the spawn needs. I’ll think of it as his summer digs.
Last night was winter cold, in the 20’s. Today is still cold and windy. The sun is intermittent.
When we have a really nice, spring-like day as we did a few days ago, I get hopeful and sit on the deck in the sun. I breathe in air redolent of spring and its first flowers. Off in the distance are the sounds of mowers and grass blowers clearing and cleaning yards, a spring ritual. I am then even more certain winter has taken its final bow but then comes a morning like yesterday’s. A coating of snow-covered the garden and the grass and made walking slippery. The snow had that crunchy frozen sound, and it didn’t melt until later in the day when it got warmer. I love that snow this time of year always has me thinking about my dad. He called it poor man’s fertilizer and now all of us do.
I don’t remember when I started noticing the way the seasons change. I know when I was a kid each season had an identity. Summer was months of no school. It was staying up late, sleeping outside in the backyard and being gone all day on my bike exploring places like the railroad tracks, the farm and the zoo. Fall was school and colored leaves to be preserved in ironed wax paper. It was Halloween and Thanksgiving. Winter was Christmas. It was snow days and sledding down the hill and ice skating at the swamp. Spring of all the seasons has the palest identity. It was shedding the winter layers of clothes, riding my bike to school and it was Easter and the Easter basket, always the best part of the day. I knew they’d be a rabbit with ears prime for eating, a coloring book and crayons and a few more small toys. The grass hid the jelly beans and hard colored candy eggs with white in the middle. I still don’t know if they have a name. New clothes were part of the day but didn’t bring me near as much excitement as that basket.
Now I see the seasons by the changes, not the events. Spring is my favorite season when the world slowly wakes up from winter. I am so excited when I see the first green tips of the flowers in the garden: the crocus, the dafs and the hyacinths. Every day brings more and more flowers to life, and I check the garden every morning so as not to miss a single flower.
Spring comes slowly, and I am still learning to be patient.
Categories: Musings
Tags: chaning seasons, Christmas, fall and school, have-a-heart trap, red spawn of Satan, relocation of the spawn, seasons and identities, snow'poor man's fertilizer, summer, windy and cold
Comments: 26 Comments
April 15, 2014
I saw the eclipse early this morning but not the red moon. I went on the deck, but the tree branches hid the moon so I watched from my upstairs bathroom window. Neither Fern nor Gracie who were sleeping on my bed cared. They just got more comfortable.
It was a rainy grey morning, but the sun is now struggling to come out and the day is brightening. The cold, though, will be back and the next few nights will be in the 30’s. I don’t care as long as it doesn’t snow.
The Boston Marathon bombings were one year ago today. All three local networks are dedicating their programming to the events of that day and the year since then. The most poignant event was earlier this morning when a wreath was hung at the site of the first bomb. Henry and Jane Richard hung the wreath. Their brother Martin died at that spot and Jane, who’s now an eight year old, lost her leg. A police honor guard now stands beside that wreath and another honor guard stands beside the other wreath at the site of the second bombing. Interviews of survivors show their amazing strength and resilience. Many lost limbs. One who did is dancing again. Many runners, some running for the first time, are dedicating next week’s marathon to raising funds in honor of the victims. What continues to amaze me about the event is the total lack of empty rhetoric. People never ranted for vengeance. They spoke of solace and hope, of being united and of putting their grief into something positive. Survivors spoke of their pain and proudly described their progress. I watched a woman who lost both legs run for the first time in rehab on her new running prosthetics. Next Monday just as they always have the runners will start from Hopkinton, they will struggle up heartbreak hill and almost sprint when the finish line comes into view. They will hear the cheering crowds who applaud and encourage every runner. This marathon is special in its sameness.
Categories: Musings
Tags: eclipse, marathon, one year anniversary + Boston marathon, rain, victims
Comments: 12 Comments
April 14, 2014
The wind is whipping not only the top-most branches of the pine trees but also their thin tree trunks which sway back and forth and creak when they move. The sun was here earlier but has since disappeared. When I went to get the papers, I was surprised at how warm it is. The day will be a delight if the sun decides to stay around a while.
I’m in a funk. Nothing much is happening. I have to fill the bird feeders and renew my license, and I might just get to that laundry for want of something to do. I can’t believe how bored I am today, an unusual feeling for me. Maybe I’ll oil the old desk and the butcher block. I am really desperate for something demanding applause, balloons and noise makers.
You didn’t know it, but there was a huge pause between paragraphs. My friend picked me up, and I just got back from getting my driver’s license renewed. The picture could be worse but not much worse. The sun has since returned and looks as if it’s here to stay. The wind, however, is still terrific.
Tonight or rather early tomorrow there will be a total lunar eclipse. It is the first in a tetrad, four total lunar eclipses occurring in the next year and a half. The moon in total eclipse is called a blood-red moon because that’s the color it will look when it passes through the light from sunsets and sunrises glinting off the surface of the Earth. The eclipse will start around two which means I’m taking a nap today so I can see it. I’m hoping for clear skies.
I did some reading and found conspiracy theorists pages. One page suggested a link between the tetrad and a biblical prophecy of the apocalypse, “The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord come.” NASA, however, has assured us that tetrads are fairly common.
My favorite conspiracy page mentioned that the last blood moon occurred in 2004 on the night the Red Sox won the World Series. Given how badly their season has started, perhaps the new blood moon is just what they need to spark up those bats.
Categories: Musings
Tags: blood red moon, boring day, conspiracy theorists, driver's license, Laundry, lunar eclipse, sun, Wind
Comments: 16 Comments
April 13, 2014
The morning is cloudy, but I don’t mind because the sun will appear later. It is chilly but not cold. I love saying that. I think of it as the difference between winter and spring.
The kid down the street rides a four-wheeler. He went from a tricycle to a bike with training wheels. I have no idea how extra wheels train a kid to balance on a two-wheeler. It is one of the mysteries of life. I didn’t have training wheels when I was a kid. I had my mother. She held on to the back of the bike as it wobbled, and I pedaled for all I was worth hoping to stay upright and moving. I remember my mother rode my bike first to show me how easy it is to ride. I was amazed. My mother could cook and clean but I never really thought too much beyond those. That she could ride a bike was a revelation. We were on the side street in front of my house. I was afraid she’d let go, but she didn’t for the longest time. When she finally did, I just kept on moving. I was a bike rider.
Okay, next I’m talking feminine undergarments. If you want to leave now, please do. Just hop on down to the next paragraph. Remember you were warned. I never had training wheels on my bike, but I had a training bra, the purpose of which flummoxes me even now. What was I training them to do? No tricks ever came to mind. Later, when I was much older and out of training, I did think of tassels but that’s a whole different conversation and profession. How long we had to train was arbitrary. Each mother made that decision. I didn’t train for too long. I must have been a quick learner.
My first job was at a Woolworth’s, the summer after high school, and I had to be trained. It was ridiculous. I was shown how to work the cash register and had to prove I could make change. The right way to stock shelves was explained and demonstrated. I was glad for that because I probably would have put the articles upside down or backwards on the shelves except for that in-depth training. I really hated that job, but I lasted the whole summer.
I had to student teach my senior year in college. Nobody called it training though that’s exactly what it was. There I was standing at the front of the room facing an entire class of kids who knew I was inexperienced and suspected I was scared. They were right. My lead teacher watched for a few weeks, gave me pointers and then she let go just as my mother had. I had no trouble staying upright, but I still needed to pedal for all I was worth.
Categories: Musings
Tags: bikes, chilly, cloudy, job training, learning to ride, mothers, student teaching, sunny, training bras, training wheels, Woolworth's
Comments: 12 Comments
April 12, 2014
The daffodils have bloomed. It was an overnight miracle. When I went to get the papers this morning, the first thing I noticed was the bright eye-catching yellow. I had been waiting for them to bloom as I knew they were close. I saw each lovely flower dipping ever so slightly as if in homage to the sun. I stopped for a while to check out the rest of the garden, not wanting to miss a single thing. I noticed one hyacinth has a red flower close to blooming. Other daffodils have buds almost ready to open. Small hyacinths dot the different gardens. White croci have appeared. My garden is alive and filled with spring.
The sun is bright, but the day is chilled by a slight breeze. I was on the deck for a while watching Gracie in the yard and the birds at the feeders, but I got cold so I came inside for coffee and some biscotti, orange-cranberry.
Yesterday I bought flowers, primroses, and a new pot for the front steps. I’ll plant them today. They are hearty flowers which will survive the 40˚ nights. It is still too early for garden flowers, and I’m champing at the bit. I love buying flowers. I also need several new clay pots for the deck, and my small vegetable garden needs the fence fixed. Spring brings lots of garden chores, even for small gardens like mine.
My laundry is sitting in the hall. Today is day one. I brought it down from upstairs this morning. The longest it has sat in the hall is three days before I couldn’t take it anymore. It isn’t as if doing the laundry is anathema. It is just one of those things. When I was a kid, I always thought that making the bed was a waste of time because it got slept in again that night. I figured it was easier leaving it in the morning as it was already cozy from the night before. My logic was generally refuted.
Categories: Musings
Tags: biscotti, blooming flowers, bright yellow, clay pots, daffodils, garden chores, hyacinth, primroses, spring
Comments: 12 Comments
April 11, 2014
What a surprise the morning brought: a cloudy, damp, chilly day. (You know of course that was tongue in cheek!)
I was up early to meet friends for breakfast and did one other errand then came home because my back had started to give me trouble. I still have two more errands on my list so I’ll go out this afternoon. This has been a busy week, the busiest in a long while, and I’m even going to the movies tomorrow to see The Grand Budapest Hotel. On Sunday I will rest. I will out sloth the sloths.
My favorite pie of all is lemon meringue. My mother always made it at Thanksgiving, an odd choice among the pumpkin and squash pies, but a popular choice in my family. My second favorite is blueberry. I never mix ice cream and pie or even ice cream and cake. I find the mixture off-putting.
I learned to tie my shoes when I was young. My first ties were loose but I got better and the ties got tighter. My method was simple and I think is the most common: make a loop with one end, wrap the other end around and pull a loop through the “hole” in the middle. I thought everyone tied their shoes in the same way then a friend did the double loop. She made a loop on each end then tied a knot with them. I was surprised. I tried it a few times but went back to the standard way my mother had taught me.
Buttons were easy. Each one had its own buttonhole though sometimes I’d miss a button and put the next button in the wrong hole. I’d end up with an uneven jacket. My solution was to start buttoning from the bottom.
Zippers were the most difficult of all. Two sides had to be connected exactly the right way, and that was no easy task. My little fingers didn’t work well and one side would zip while the other didn’t because I had missed the connection. Sometimes cloth got caught in the zipper, and that was the worst. I used to zip my jacket before I put it on so I could see what I was doing then I’d slip the jacket over my head and zip it the rest of the way. I don’t know how old I was before I could zip while wearing the jacket. I remember it took a while.
I have only one pair of shoes with laces, sneakers actually. My winter coat, which I seldom wear, has a zipper. My shirts have buttons, but I don’t button them every time. I leave the shirts buttoned up and just slip them over my head. That’s the lazy woman’s way.
Categories: Musings
Tags: blueberry pie, busy day, busy week, buttonholes, buttons, cloudy, damp and chilly, errands, lemon meringue pie, loops, tying shoes, zippers
Comments: 8 Comments
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