Archive for the ‘Musings’ category
March 6, 2014
I could see my lawn yesterday morning. It was a touch of green in a grey world then it snowed, and my lawn disappeared. I wanted to scream. I think maybe I should have.
Last night was cold, really cold. On the news at 11, the weatherman said this is the coldest start to March in history. The paper this morning described tomorrow’s weather as becoming mild with temperatures from 37˚to 40˚. Mild? In what world is 37˚ to 40˚ mild?This morning we have sun, but we also have snow showers. I went and filled the bird feeders off the deck. It took fewer than ten minutes. My hands were freezing when I was done.
It struck me as funny, the wording, though the incident isn’t funny at all. A man sawed off his thumb yesterday, but the weather precluded the use of MedFlight. The man and his thumb were taken by ambulance to Boston.
Yesterday I was busy in the kitchen. My friends and I always watch The Amazing Race together but last Sunday I stayed home and watched the Academy Awards instead. We DVR’ed the race so last night was race night. We have a weekly tradition. We take turns making appetizers and desserts and play games before the race. We play Phase 10, a card game, and Sorry, the best game we know. I’ve been playing it since I was a kid, and I introduced it to friends who now love the game or hate it depending upon what happens. It is often cause for cursing, something I never did as a kid but probably wanted to but didn’t dare.
To get the food ready for the games, I spent a good part of the day chopping, slicing and mixing. It was my turn for appetizers. I made pineapple salsa, fried ravioli and quesadillas. They were all delicious, but the salsa with the quesadillas was spectacular, says I the chef. I used a red, yellow and green pepper, onion and some cumin fried together, mixed three different cheeses then used it all to fill the quesadillas which were then baked. I was a chopping maniac for the pineapple salsa. It had fresh pineapple, a tomato, red onion, a jalapeño pepper and chopped parsley. It was worth the effort and the backache.
The salsa and quesadillas are now on the list of foods for summer if it ever comes.
Categories: Musings
Tags: appetizers and dessert, cold, fried ravioli, grass, mild day, Phase 10, pineapple salsa, quesadillas, really cold, sawed thumb, Snow, Sorry
Comments: 16 Comments
March 4, 2014
The sun is intermittent in a cloudy sky. Right now we’re at 27˚. Last night was even colder, in the low teens, but the hope for spring is not yet lost: it may be buried in the snow but a glimmer of it survives. Supposedly Friday and Saturday will be in the 40’s, but I have become skeptical of weather predictions. This one, however, I need to believe for the sake of my psyche. I need a respite from winter. I need a day with the warm sun on my face.
This feels like the longest of winters. The snow falls, covers everything then melts so we can see the grass and the garden then it snows again. The amount of snow doesn’t matter any more. It is the mere act of snowing which has made this an intolerable winter. The 1 and 1/2 inches we got on Sunday aren’t much in the scheme of things, but it covered everything yet again. I have to terms with the cold but not with the snow.
I seem to be wearing an inside the house uniform every day. It is always my slippers with socks, flannel pants and a sweatshirt. Today I switched to my Italia sweatshirt friends brought me from Italy and my Christmas flannel pants covered in wrapped presents. The colors of the presents are bright and I needed some brightness.
All over my house are strands of lights which I plug in most nights. The kitchen has lights inside scallop shells and a swag of red pepper lights hanging from a shelf. The living room has lights in a gourd and around branches in a huge vase. The dining room has a set of lights around a shelf. The bathroom has a snowflake night light which, given my attitude toward snow, is a generous gesture. The den where I spend most of my time just has regular lamps as I need the light. In those other rooms, no lamps are lit. The strings of lights are enough. The rooms feel cozy and the lights reflect on the ceilings. Before I go to bed, I go around and pull out the plugs. It is my last nightly ritual. When Gracie and Fern, the cat, see what I’m doing, they both head to the stairs and wait there for me so we can all go upstairs to bed together.
Categories: Musings
Tags: bright colors, cloudy day, cold nights, flannel pants, lights, slippers, Snow, sweatshirt
Comments: 8 Comments
March 3, 2014
It was a put a mirror under her nose to see if she is breathing sort of morning. I woke up at 8 and decided I didn’t want to get up so I went right back to bed. Around 10:30 I finally got up, had time for one cup of coffee and one newspaper then got dressed as Gracie had her senior dog check-up at noon. She loves going to the vets. She is so active the vet said without the gray around her muzzle she would have guessed Gracie was far younger than eight. Because Gracie gets a little excited, they take her out back for her shots, blood drawing and nail cutting. Strangely enough, she is quiet while everything is being done to her. She weighs exactly the same as she did 6 months ago during her last senior dog physical. The vet said she seems great. Right now she is sleeping on the couch and resting from her ordeal.
When I was a kid, we had a boxer named Duke. He never had yearly check-ups. I think he only got rabies shots, but I can’t attest to that as I don’t remember. I’m just assuming. After Old Yeller I think all the dogs got rabies shots. Duke was a fighter. During one fight, a massive dog tore Duke around the neck. My dad said time would heal it. My mother sneaked Duke to the vets where he got shots and the wound taken care of. In those days my dad was away all week as he had been transferred, and we were waiting for school to end before we moved. He was home only on weekends. When he saw Duke and how well the wound was healing, he made mention of I told you so to anyone who would listen. We had been sworn to secrecy so we just nodded and let him think he had been right.
We lived by the motto that what my father didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him. My mother was usually a co-conspirator. We could tell her anything, and she’d pick and choose what to tell my father. It made life so much easier. We also learned how to look repentant when he yelled. Most times we were just blocking him out and nodding our heads as he yelled at us for whatever, but we always looked sorry and a bit sheepish. The four of us perfected that look. He never figured it out.
Categories: Musings
Tags: dog fight, Duke, fathers, going to the vets, Gracie's physical, nature taking its course, Old Yeller, rabies shot, sleeping in
Comments: 16 Comments
March 2, 2014
It wasn’t as cold as I expected when I went to get the papers this morning. It was 39˚ and felt warm. Today I have good weather news. The snow storm we are expecting has changed direction and is predicted to be only 2-4 inches down from 6 to 8. That is sweeping snow, not shoveling snow.
When I’d visit my parents for the weekend, my Dad would go out and buy the Sunday paper and a dozen donuts. He never remembered my favorite donut, but he bought enough choices so I was content. His favorite was plain. He would always butter the donut before he ate it with his coffee. My dad preferred instant coffee instead of brewed. I never understood that. Sunday was his day to make breakfast. He always used the cast iron skillet and kept a over his shoulder as he cooked to wipe his hands. I can still see him at the stove. This time of year he wore corduroys, long sleeve shirts and brown suede shoes from L.L. Bean. He’d cook the bacon then ask how we wanted our eggs. He was adept at over-easy. Waiting for my breakfast was the best time. My dad and I would talk about all sorts of stuff though politics were never among them. We were polar opposites. After breakfast, we’d play a few games of cribbage. We always played cribbage every time we got together. Sometimes we’d play 5 or 6 games. The number of games depended upon whether he was winning or losing. A higher number of games meant he was losing, and we’d play until his luck changed though he always said he won by strategy while I won by luck. I loved to tease him when I won. Skunking him was the best of all, and it drove him crazy.
Games were so much a part of my growing up. We played them all the time. My parents taught my brother and me whist so they could each have a partner. My aunts and uncles would come up to the house on Friday nights, and they sit around the kitchen table and play cards. My dad was too funny as he always harassed them when he won but all in good fun. The kitchen would be filled with smoke and they’d each have a drink. They were the high ball generation.
Those nights are etched in my memory drawers. I can still hear the laughter and my father’s voice. I can hear my mother laughing along with my dad, and I can hear my aunt demanding the cards be dealt especially if she lost the last hand.
Categories: Musings
Tags: bacon and eggs, Cribbage, donuts, family games, games, my dad, Sunday breakfast, sweping snow
Comments: 10 Comments
March 1, 2014
Snow is coming on Monday. Wow, I’m just so excited. We haven’t had any in at least three days. The weatherman also says it will be cold for most of the week. What a surprise! I was getting so tired of those high 20 degree days.
Today looks washed-out with light but no sun and some blue but mostly gray skies. The breeze is brisk and chilling.
I make all these plans to go places then I decide that being home and warm is the best place to be. Today I haven’t a choice. I have some must do errands. I will, however, award myself in some way for being fearless in the face of frigid cold and winter’s mighty hand.
I am an explorer. Even when I was a kid I explored. On my bicycle I rode all over town. I’d go down roads I hadn’t ever ridden on before. It wasn’t ever to find anything. It was just to see what was there. From high school in Arlington, it was a dime bus ride to Harvard Square down Mass Ave. It was the best of times for Harvard Square. The Orson Wells Theater, the old kiosk and the Wursthaus were still there. Book stores were everywhere. My friends and I explored the square time and time again. We went down one way streets resembling alleys and found hidden places to eat. We walked Harvard Yard. We never tired of spending a dime to get to the Square. We knew we might just find someplace neat, someplace new.
In college, I was no less an explorer but hardly explored. Books and classes took far too much of my time, and each summer I had to work. I was stuck in one place for what seemed like the longest time. I had a few interesting adventures in college and they helped but weren’t quite enough. My need to explore had expanded well beyond my bicycle and Harvard Square. I wanted new places. I wanted to need maps and hear a foreign language. I wanted the chance to be lost.
I am still an explorer, but my boundaries have expanded well beyond what I dreamed when I was ten. I have been lost several times, and I love finding my way. That’s what explorers do.
Categories: Musings
Tags: bike riding, boundaries, breeze, chilling, cold, college, explorers, getting lost, Harvard Square, Snow, summer work, washed out day, Wursthaus, \exploring
Comments: 12 Comments
February 28, 2014
The feeders needed filling so I braved the cold and filled the biggest one hoping that would hold the birds for a couple of days. It didn’t take long for the word to go out about the feeder. The birds were back almost before I got inside the house. It was mighty cold outside, only 19˚, so I was quick with the seed. Tonight it will be around 7˚, a temperature fit for neither man nor beast. Yesterday we had another snow squall. Today we have sun and a blue sky, but the sun is useless. It is light, not heat.
My furnace is cranking endlessly trying to keep the cold at bay. I’m wearing two pairs of socks. Nothing is worse than cold feet. I have an errand or two I can do, but I just don’t want to go out and face the elements. The house is too comfy, and I’m cozy and warm.
I remember walking to school during the coldest of mornings. By the time I’d get there, my face would be bright red. Though the walk wasn’t really all that long, it seemed to go for miles and miles and take hours and hours in the cold or rain. Finally, when I was inside the heated classroom, my face would begin to warm and my cheeks would tingle. I had a classmate who lived two doors down from the school, and I envied her this time of year. She’d hear the bell and run from her house to get in line.
If we went outside for recess, the wind would whip across the school yard. We’d freeze and pray to hear the bell calling us back inside. On the coldest days the nuns had us eat inside at our desks. On those inside days, I remember the nun would put some sort of a cardboard shield around her desk so we couldn’t see her eat. It didn’t seem strange at all. Nuns weren’t like real people.
Categories: Musings
Tags: beet red cheeks, cold feet, cold. cold day, cozy and warm, filling the bird feeders, heat cranking, no recess, nuns eating, red cheeks, sun and blue sky, walking to school
Comments: 6 Comments
February 27, 2014
Winter is still holding on with all its might. Yesterday we got an inch of snow, an almost furious storm which made driving difficult and even treacherous. When I got on the highway, I saw a pickup truck on its side off the road and, from the dents, it looked as if it had rolled. People were checking the cab and the police hadn’t yet arrived so I think the accident had just happened. I’m guessing speed was responsible. I went 35, an unheard of speed for me, the whole way home.
Poor Gracie has been restless all morning and even cheese didn’t entice her. She was just outside for a long while so I got worried and checked and found her eating grass, a sure sign of an upset stomach. I called her in and fed her some spider plant fronds which usually help. I’ll know she feels better when her stomach stops rumbling and the cheese in her bowl disappears.
The first thing I do when I wake up is look out the window, the one I can see from my bed. I have a view of the sky and the tops of the pine trees. Today I saw sun and blue sky, but I wasn’t fooled. It looked cold, and it is. We are in the grip of another cold spell and will be for the next couple of weeks. It gets to the 20’s during the day then down to the teens at night, and that’s without figuring in the wind chill. I will most decidedly continue to be a gas hog.
My house is quiet in the mornings. The only sound comes from my typing. All three animals are napping in three different places, all comfy, cozy places. Gracie is always where I am. She is the best of company, a good listener and always agreeable. More people should be like Gracie.
Categories: Musings
Tags: accident, agreeable dog, cold spell, gas hog, quiet house, restless dog, Snow, spider plants, sun and blue sky, upset stomach, winter
Comments: 17 Comments
February 25, 2014
The cold weather is back and snow may be on the way tomorrow, but I, however, am finally resigned to winter now that it is nearly over. There is no sense complaining. It just makes me grouchy and serves no purpose. Over the weekend it was 50˚, and I got to thinking ahead to barbecue and beach weather. Spring will eventually come. It always does.
My life has a routine. It has always had a routine, but the routine has changed as I have changed and grown older. The longest routine was during the thirty-three years I worked in the high school. I got up the same time every day, came home around the same time and spent my evenings in the same way as I had the day before and the day before that. I never thought of my routine as a rut. I liked my job though for all those years 5 o’clock always struck me as a barbaric time for waking up and getting out of bed. I don’t do that any more. This summer I will celebrate ten years of retirement. The only time I set my clock now is on Mondays for breakfast with my friend at nine. It’s a wonderful thing that I have to set the alarm to get out of bed by eight. I like the routine I find myself living now.
This morning the paper had pictures of purple croci ( I had four years of Latin in high school so I’m going with first declension masculine plural on this one). They are a hopeful sign as are the green shoots in my front garden. I saw a few more this morning which had been hidden under the snow. They made me smile and forget for a moment that it’s cold and a bit raw today.
The world continues to amaze me. Sometimes I am stopped in my tracks. There we are, Gracie and I, just riding along when all of a sudden I am struck by the beauty of the marsh or the colors of the sunset. I’m usually moved to talk out loud and use words like wow or oh my God. It doesn’t matter how many times I have seen the sheer beauty of the ocean or the glory of a sunny day or a sky lit with stars. I can’t help but be overwhelmed. I think it a wonderful thing that we can live years and years and still be moved by the every day.
Categories: Musings
Tags: Alarm clock, cold, come on spring, croci, glory, green shoots, raw day, retirement, routine, stars, sunsets, the beauty of the day, the ocean
Comments: 15 Comments
February 24, 2014
Today is a good day. It’s cold and will get colder, but I don’t mine. I haven’t anywhere I need to go or anything I need to do. The ceiling stains were painted this morning, and I arranged for the whole ceiling to be done in the spring. The stacks of assorted stuff sitting in the living room until the stains were gone are now in their rightful spots in the den. After the spray painting, I had to dust or polish everything near where the stain was, but it didn’t take long, and it is so bright in here I think I need sunglasses. The toilet no longer needs a jiggle to stop running. I put the rock back, and it works perfectly. Peapod is coming this afternoon. It seems all is right with my world.
I was not the doll type of girl for very long, but I do remember a few from when I was really little. My favorite was a Ginny doll who had a wardrobe filled with clothes and a pink bed which was the same color as the wardrobe. I also had a tall stuffed doll wearing a dress who had elastics on her feet. You put the elastics around your shoes and danced with the doll. The last doll was small with yellow hair made from yarn and woven into pig tails. She wore a shirt and red overalls with patches. My mother, for some reason, had saved that last doll, and she gave it to me when I first moved into my house. She also gave me a small chair I had been given when I was three, yellow egg cups we always used which looked like chickens and my books, lots of books including The Bobbsey Twins and Nancy Drew.
When I first moved into my house, I had a desk, a TV and a studio couch, and my mother added memories. She gave me connections to my childhood and made an empty house my home.
Categories: Musings
Tags: cleaned, connections to childhood, dancing doll, dolls, Dusting, Ginny Doll, good day, memories, Nancy Drew, spray paint, The Bobbsey Twins, toilet jiggle
Comments: 8 Comments
February 23, 2014
The sun is elsewhere, but it is warm, winter warm. Only very small snow piles are left here and there. Earlier I gave Gracie a special biscuit which she then buried in the yard. I know that because Gracie came in with her face and jowls covered in dirt. I ran to clean her, but she shook off most of the dirt onto my cabinets and floor. I did manage to clean what was left off her face then I cleaned the floor. I’ve watched Gracie bury her prizes. First she digs a hole, drops in the biscuit then uses her nose to push the dirt back over the hole. Later she’ll bring in the most disgusting, dirty biscuit and eat it on my rug.
I’m getting itchy. This will be the second year I haven’t traveled because my bank account is almost non-existent so my austerity campaign has begun. A pair of pants I bought for my first trip to Ghana wore out at the crease on the leg so I used duct tape and you can’t even tell. My slippers have a hole in the toe so I put on socks. I figure I can save enough money to go back to Ghana in 2015. Besides, there isn’t really too much I need except maybe a new pair of pants come warmer weather. The duct tape gets sticky.
I am most decidedly bored today which is a good thing. No leaks, no car scrapes, no broken bones as of yet, but the week is young. Given my mood, I think it’s time to start playing Pollyanna’s happy game.
When I was growing up, I was content with a quiet Sunday. It was most decidedly a day of rest. Nobody did outside chores, the stores were all closed, and we were expected to stay around for dinner. The day started with mass then home and the paper though in those days I only read the funnies. I’d watch some TV or read until my mother called us to the table. Mashed potatoes were part of the meal every Sunday, and there was always gravy. I’d make a well in my potatoes and try not to let the gravy spill over the edge. It was my weekly challenge on every quiet Sunday
Categories: Musings
Tags: digging in the yard, dirty dog face, duct tape, gravy, Happy Game, holes in my slippers, mashed potatoes, no money, no travel, warm day
Comments: 14 Comments
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