Archive for the ‘Musings’ category
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
February 22, 2014
Usually Gracie is having her morning nap around this time but not today. The weather is beautiful, bright and warm. Gracie has been running in the yard almost since we both woke up. She comes in to look out the front door then goes back outside. She is one smart dog who knows to take advantage of a good thing when she sees it. Like Gracie, it is a day for me to be out somewhere, and I don’t think it matters where. I’ll lower the window and breathe in all the fresh air I can. I want to smell spring in the air.
Last night we had a spectacular rainstorm with thunder and lightning. I was in bed reading when it started. I loved it. Gracie, however, didn’t stir, didn’t even notice. Storms mean nothing to her.
The deck is now almost totally cleared of snow as is the backyard. Plow piles are still on corners but they are smaller and look the worse for the rain and the dirt from the road. I always wonder why the plows put those piles on the corners when right beside the corners might work just as well. If they do it so we can’t see oncoming cars, they succeed masterfully.
Today is bike riding weather. I would maneuver mine out of the cellar, up the steep stairs, ride down the sacred grass hill and take off down the street. Maybe I’d be lucky and have a dime in my pocket, plenty of money for a couple of candy bars or lots of penny candy. I’d wear a jacket instead of a winter coat and hope not to be noticed by my mother who would demand a warmer coat, hat and mittens. One warm day does not spring make according to the Mother’s Creed to which they all adhered. I would have headed toward the field close to my house to check out the horses or to the farm at the other end of town to see the dairy cows. My town also had a barn behind the town hall where horses were kept. It had and still has a zoo. Next to the zoo was a barn filled with stalls and MDC police horses. I’d ride most of the day. There was so much to see. Finally I’d get hungry and cold and ready to go home. The bike went back into the cellar until the next warm day when I could resume my world travels.
Categories: Musings
Tags: beautiful day, bike riding, horses, it feels like spring, penny candy, sunny, thunder and lightning, warm, zoo
Comments: 15 Comments
February 21, 2014
Today is the warmest day in weeks, but it’s still damp and dark from the earlier morning rain. The snow is ugly and pocked with holes from the raindrops. Some lawns are visible again as the snow is disappearing. Usually today is a stay under the covers and read sort of day, but I have to go out and pick up a few things. Gracie will be my co-pilot.
The laundry basket is sitting in the hall. I’m thinking it can sit a while longer. Books and CDs are stacked on the carpet in the living room. They came from under the leak or rather from under the former leak. I cleaned all the books and dusted everything else. They’ll stay there in the living room until the ceiling is painted. It’s an old popcorn ceiling so it just needs to be sprayed where the water marks are. My toilet no longer runs so no jiggle of the handle is necessary. My plumber told me where to put the rock he had used to fix the toilet the last time. No plumbing leak and no toilet running-it’s a wonderful world.
In the morning when I wake up I have to figure which day of the week it is. This time of year the days all run together, nothing distinguishing one from the other. I don’t even have a dance card. I seem to be living in a cocoon. I’m back to an upstairs and a downstairs book. The Redbreast is upstairs and Doctor Sleep is down. Neither one is cheery but both of them are good reads.
Despite the weather, the occasional leaks, the dirty laundry, the empty dance card and the dusty books, I am still hopeful. Spring is coming. Red Sox news is back on the sports pages. That makes me glad.
Categories: Musings
Tags: cocooning, dark and rainy, Doctor Sleep, Dusting, dusty books, empty dance card, errands, plumbing problems, Red Sox, spring, The Redbreast, toilet running
Comments: 24 Comments
February 20, 2014
The leak has stopped which got me thinking it might just be from the overhang outside. When the roof snow melted, it dripped to the overhang. Now the snow is gone and both the outside and inside dripping have stopped. My plumber too thinks it must be from outside or why else would it stop. I am to keep an ear on it and call him if it leaks again. The ceiling, though, is a mess and will need to be painted when it dries.
This morning I nailed the red spawn with a snowball. It was jumping up at the feeder and taking seeds so I took soft snow, fashioned it into a hard, round snowball and let it go. The snowball sailed true and hit the spawn who disappeared off the deck. It was like a carnival game. The cheeky rodent, though, came back so I nailed it again. It hasn’t returned. I have to go out and fill the feeders later as all of them are close to being empty so I’ll keep a snowball handy just in case. I wonder what prize I’ll pick.
Today is beautiful, sunny and warm. The sky is a magnificent blue and there are no clouds. It is a day to be outside. Gracie too will enjoy the ride. I’ll even open her window.
The syfy channel is adding salt to our wounds. All of its programming today revolves around ice and snow. A monster made of ice just froze too many people to count. One stab to the body and the victims turned to ice and fell apart into cubes. A new movie is starting and more snow monsters will be found in the Arctic. The movie is Rage of the Yeti, and the first one appeared three minutes into the film. It looked like a crazed polar bear. When it reappeared three minutes later, it dragged away its first victim, for dinner I suspect. “We need to get out of here,” is some of the sharp dialogue. Considering a Yeti just took down a plane and grabbed another victim, I’d call that a wise decision. “It’s going to be a long night,” was the comment after a Yeti bit the dust. I’m not even sure this qualifies as a B movie. I’m thinking far lower in the alphabet. It will be fun.
Categories: Musings
Tags: B-movie, crazed polar bear, ice and snow monsters, red spawn of Satan, roof leak, snowballs, Syfy channel, Yeti
Comments: 27 Comments
February 18, 2014
Another cold, grey day dawned this morning. I trudged through snow on the deck and filled the feeders. The branches from the big tree have dropped some snow so they no longer rest on the deck. The palm tree will need replacing, but I’ll wait for warm weather, could be July as we have more snow coming today.
When I came downstairs, I could hear a drop and another drop, a series of drops. I found the spot. It wasn’t all that difficult to find. The ceiling has water marks so something in the upstairs bathroom leaked during the night and is still leaking. My plumber wasn’t there, but I did leave a message. The last time something like this happened he had to open the ceiling to get at the pipes. I figure he’ll do the same thing only it will be a bigger hole. Problems like this make me feel helpless as I can do nothing except move stuff from under the leak and put down rags. I get the same helpless feeling with electrical problems. A stain on a shirt? I’m a whiz. A mark on a table? I can make it magically disappear, but a leak, a drip, sends me reeling. I just noticed the spots together look a bit like a shark. It’s probably symbolic.
My house has a fairly new furnace and hot water burner, a six-year-old roof, double paned windows, siding on the front and new shingles on the other three sides. I know some of you call them shakes, but they aren’t. They’re shingles. I told someone that, and he asked if I didn’t mean shakes. I thought they were the same, but they’re not. I looked up the difference and found shingles are milled more precisely than shakes which tend to be irregular and don’t lay as flat when installed. This creates gaps which can be penetrated by wind-blown snow or rain. When I say shingles and someone tries to correct me and asks if I don’t mean shakes. I’ll tell them no. My house has shingles. So there!
I believe the plumbing problem has had an effect on my mood and not for the better.
Categories: Musings
Tags: bird feeders, dead palm tree, grey day, plumbing leak, ruined ceiling, shark outline, water marks
Comments: 22 Comments
February 17, 2014
The world on Cape Cod is a winter wonderland. I took the long way to my breakfast spot this morning and saw limbs split and broken from the weight of the snow, tree branches laden with heavy, icy snow and bent to the ground, fronts of houses hidden behind walls of snow turned to ice and side roads still covered in snow and ice, including mine. The sun is blinding. The temperature is 18˚.
Today is Washington’s Birthday or President’s Day: which one you celebrate depends on where you live. The fact that Washington was not born on this day does not affect in any way the cake and candles. It became a Monday so people can have a three-day weekend. Lincoln still has his own day in some states but mostly he is just throw into the President’s Day mix.
I knew lots of facts about some Presidents which gave them a bit of nobility far beyond those of mortal men. Those facts, however, later proved to be folk tales, myths. Washington never did cut down that cherry tree and for all I know he lied through his teeth which were not wooden even though they taught me that in school. Lincoln was Honest Abe because he walked a mile to return a customer’s change. He was also an educational inspiration. I had pencils and paper. He had coal and the back of a shovel. As for the Gettysburg Address, it wasn’t written on the back of an envelope.
Nicknames in those days were flattering. Washington was the Father of His Country and Lincoln was the Great Emancipator. I think it was President Nixon’s Tricky Dick which reversed the trend.
Many Presidents don’t deserve mention, but they still get a piece of the day. Lumping them all together is a good idea because I suspect none of us would celebrate Hoover Day unless we were talking about a really good vacuum cleaning or Gerald Ford Day because there isn’t a reason for him to have singular recognition. Besides, I’m still mad at him for pardoning Nixon though I did feel bad when he fell down those plane steps. Jimmy Carter got attacked by a rabbit which is another event we don’t celebrate, and he saw a UFO though I like that about him. One slang word for a certain male body part is a johnson. LBJ called his Jumbo. That’s a fact!
Categories: Musings
Tags: Carter, cherry tree, downed limbs, Father of His Country, Great Emancipator, ice and snow, LBJ, President's Day, Tricky Dick, Washington's Birthday, winter wonderland, wooden teeth
Comments: 24 Comments
February 16, 2014
It was quite a shock when I looked out the back door last night and saw branches from the pine tree hanging over the deck and scraping against the house and door. The snow was heavy and wet, and though there was a forty mile an hour wind, the branches barely moved loaded down as they were with piles of snow. I got worried about the huge branches near the door and went out with my broom and started whacking the closest branches with the metal part of the broom. The snow was knocked off the branches onto my head and down the neck of my sweatshirt. Of course it was. The branches were right over my head. I have no idea why that shocked me. It was inevitable. As I was whacking, I nearly fell a couple of times because the snow on the deck was so slippery. I did the best I could and then went inside. Twenty minutes later I looked and the branches were again drooping on the deck so out I went with the broom and whacked the branches yet again, and I got wet, again. I was Sisyphus with snow and a broom instead of a rock.
We got about 8″ of heavy, icy snow. I walked across what used to be a lawn to get my papers though walking doesn’t quite describe the trek. Plodding and tiring do as the snow had drifted and was just a bit below my knees. I had to slam the snow top with my feet to make a path. On the way back I walked in the same steps I had made and thought of Danny in the maze in The Shining doing it to hide from his crazed father. When I got into the house, I couldn’t see. The sun on the snow is so bright I was blinded for a bit. I called Skip and warned him about the branch resting on my deck. He didn’t sound enthused.
Only half of my street is plowed, that would be the other half, the one not near my house.
Categories: Musings
Tags: heavy, low branches, pine branches hitting the deck, plodding in the snow, Sisyphus, slipping, wet snow, whacking the branches
Comments: 37 Comments
February 15, 2014
Batten down the hatches! A storm is a comin’, and the Cape is going to get walloped, all the weathermen agree. They just can’t agree on how much snow. The estimates range from 8″ to a foot or more. It is supposed to start this afternoon which gives me time for storm prep. I filled the feeders earlier then made a shopping list. After I finish here, Gracie and I will head to the dump on a most non-traditional day then on to the grocery store. I need bread, one of those must get before the storm comes items, but such of the rest of the list is good for the soul, not so much the body. Chocolate is on the list as is coconut ice cream. If I can’t be in the tropics, I can taste the tropics and imagine palm trees and soft breezes.
The morning was sunny and warm. Since then, the sky has become that funny whitish grey color I always associate with a storm. It’s a still day. The dead leaves on the branches just hang without even a flutter. Even the birds have disappeared, probably somewhere sheltered jockeying for space. Snow, even yet to fall snow, makes the day quiet.
My house is clean, and I have no laundry to do. I can spend my day reading or watching movies or baking. That’s right. I said baking. I am a good cook and I am not being boastful, only truthful. I used to have dinner parties all the time and serve elaborate meals. Choosing a theme was first. Mostly we visited other countries, and my table decorating matched our destinations. I even made papier mâché buildings which I painted true to color. My onion domed Russian churches were the stuff of legends. The piñatas were colorful and covered in layers of tissue paper. For every meal I made a flow chart and followed it religiously. It began with the recipes I’d chosen and the ingredients listed aisle by aisle in the supermarket. Then came the two-day preparation. I started most of the dishes and stopped at a step which I would continue the day of the dinner. The last list on the flow chart was what cooked at which temperature for how long. Today, though, I will not be as ambitious. I’m thinking plain old cupcakes without fanfare.
Spring training begins today for pitchers and catchers. There will be a summer. I have hope.
Categories: Musings
Tags: a foot of snow, Bread, coconut ice cream, Cooking, cupcakes, dump, flow chart, papier mâché, Shopping, Snow, spring training, themes dinners
Comments: 18 Comments
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