Archive for the ‘Musings’ category
September 30, 2013
This morning I knew for certain fall had arrived. On my way to breakfast at nine, the bank’s ATM had no line, the streets were nearly empty and the diner had plenty of open booths. My friend and I even sat and chatted, something we could never do in summer. Back then a line of people stood waiting outside so we never took time just to sit and drink coffee, but the people have gone home and the lines have disappeared.
The day is another glorious fall day with a warm sun; it’s not even cold enough to be sweatshirt weather. Even the nights have been warm: in the high 50’s so my bedroom window is still open, and I’ve left the screen on the front door. It’s a day to sit on the deck with a good book and a lazy attitude.
On my way to breakfast I went by the high school where I used to work. I only gave it a passing glance. Though I spent thirty-three years working there, the nine years of retirement have distanced me. I have a sense of nostalgia as I am also a graduate, but that’s it. I am not at all curious as to how it fares. I have moved elsewhere.
My friends have either already traveled or are packing their bags to leave. I am envious. This is the year of staying home for me, and I don’t like it all that much. Looking forward to a trip is one of the pleasures of life. The anticipation builds, and the days are counted down until the big day: the day to leave. I even have a sense of longing for the smell of the jet when I board. During the flight, I check the progress of the plane and count the hours until it touches-down. I love walking out of the airport and smelling air filled with a sense of the place where I’ve landed. Hearing other languages lets me know I am far from home, but I am delighted in the unfamiliar. I roam the streets without purpose and often happen upon a spot to explore or a restaurant with an aroma that draws me to a table. Sometimes it is a shop window which catches my attention. Sometimes it is simply the wandering down one street or another.
I so love to travel and miss it when I don’t.
Categories: Musings
Tags: anticipation, beautiful day, empty streets, fall has arrived, jet smell, lazy attitude, nostalgia, open booths, staying home, sunny, the unfamiliar, travel, traveling, warm, working spot
Comments: 30 Comments
September 29, 2013
Gracie has spent most of the morning in the yard. She nows the day is too lovely to waste inside the house. Every now and then she comes in to make sure I’m still here, gets petted, wags her tail and goes right back outside. I can hear her on the deck and know she’s sticking her between the railing pieces so she can see over the fence. The birds are both noisy and hungry this morning. They wait for their turns at the feeder. The thistle feeder twirls when a bird or two lands on it. It is the only one they don’t seem to mind sharing.
I didn’t go to bed until 2 this morning because I watched a movie called Gun Crazy made in 1950. It was so good I can’t understand why I haven’t heard of it before. It was based on a short story by McKinlay Kantor who with Millard Kaufman wrote the screenplay but not really. Millard Kaufman’s name was used to hide the actual screenwriter, Dalton Trumbo, who had been blacklisted. I have never heard of either of the two stars: John Dall and Peggy Cummins. Both were good, but she was amazing. Her eyes were often filled with a fury and anger which the camera caught and highlighted. You never had to question her motives. The film was too good not to watch until the end so it was a really late night; consequently, it was one of those get the mirror to see if she’s breathing sort of sleep. I didn’t wake up until late this morning. My mother would have said I must have needed it.
Today I get to watch the Sox play their last regular season game. The playoffs for them begin on Friday so no baseball until then though I’ll check in on the wild card games once the teams are finalized. I can’t believe that a season of 162 games will end today. I reconciled myself to the end of summer, but I can’t seem to grasp that baseball too will soon end.
The Amazing Race begins tonight as does our tradition. My friends and I get together early, eat appetizers and play a few games until the start of the race. Dessert comes during the race as do our discussions about the teams. Tradition also calls for each of us to pick a favorite team. Sometimes we even pick the right one.
Sort of an interesting day with the end of one thing and the start of another.
Categories: Musings
Tags: Amazing Race, beautiful day, bird songs, birds, Gun Crazy, last baseball game, Red Sox, sleeping in, traditions, yard play
Comments: 20 Comments
September 28, 2013
The morning is a delight, warm and sunny. Earlier, I stayed outside with Gracie. It was just too nice to go back into the house. I think today is the day for a ride, maybe a stop at a farm stand or the farmer’s market here in Dennis. It’s a small one, but I managed to spend money last time I was there.
This morning’s movie gem was Creature with the Atomic Brain made in 1955. Dead bodies were stolen from the morgue and then reanimated and controlled by a mad man out for revenge. The movie was unintentionally funny. It had one scene where a man and woman, presumably husband and wife, were sitting in chairs beside each while they were watching a TV newscast. He was smoking. She had a drink. He wore a suit. She wore a dress. Our hero’s wife was making a birthday cake for their daughter. She also wore a dress and had added pearls, the necessary ensemble for any wife in the 50’s. Uncle Dave, the police detective, arrived at our hero’s house but unbeknown to the wife and daughter he had been killed then reanimated. The daughter held his hand and told him it was quite cold. She gave him her doll, Henrietta, to hold and he tore it apart. Something was wrong with Uncle Dave! The hero killed the mad man and destroyed the equipment used to control the reanimated bodies which dropped where they were, including Uncle Dave. The little girl got a new doll for her birthday from, her parents told her, Uncle Dave. She decided to call the doll Dave, despite protestations from her father about the doll getting a boy’s name. The little girl said she’d tell everyone it was a tomboy. The mother and father laughed. End of movie.
After breakfast on Monday, I have an empty dance card until next Saturday. Every day is open. That hasn’t happened in a long while. Good thing I have plenty of books.
Categories: Musings
Tags: 1955 movie, beautiful day, Creature with the Atomic Brain, empty dance card, Henrietta the doll, plenty of books, reanimated dead bodies, sunny, warm
Comments: 12 Comments
September 27, 2013
Looking out the window this morning, I knew the day would be chilly. It is definitely bleak. The trees are silhouetted in the darkness of the day, in the grayness of a sky filled with clouds. The lighter limbs at the tops of the trees are blowing in the breeze. The heavy oak tree limbs barely move. The birds are elsewhere, somewhere sheltered. I will follow their example and stay warm and cozy.
I find myself talking to the television. Luckily I don’t hear it talking back to me so my sanity is not in question. Mostly I correct grammar. I have a friend who says it doesn’t make any difference if the grammar is correct or not. I totally disagree. So many people watch TV that using good grammar is essential just so people can hear it spoken. Him and I is very common. That makes me cringe. My friend is a musician, and he objects to music badly played or songs poorly sung on television. I don’t get it: I don’t get why he believes only music need be done well and grammar can be whatever. I guess I never will. I love the sounds of language well-spoken just as he loves the sounds of music well-played.
Gracie gets to come with me today while we do errands. We have three stops to make, and she gets to come inside the last stop, Agway, with me. She loves all the smells and she greets everyone. It’s a big shopping day for us at Agway: canned and dried dog food, dog biscuits, pine cat litter and canned cat food. I’ll need a loan to pay the bill.
I think I’m going to put out my mouse trap. I haven’t seen any indications they’ve returned, but I figure with the cold they might be looking for winter digs. My bedroom will be first because that’s where the bulk of them lived last winter. I just hope this time the trap remains unoccupied.
Categories: Musings
Tags: Agway, cloudy, cold day, correct grammar, dog food, errands, grammar, language, mice, music, talking to the TV
Comments: 15 Comments
September 26, 2013
My official acknowledgement of autumn was yesterday. The back screen door is now in the cellar and the storm door is in its place. The nights had been too cold to leave the backdoor open so Gracie didn’t have access to her dog door. She would ring the bells to go out, and I’d have to go running to open the door then wait for her. Now Gracie can come and go as she pleases.
The days seem darker to me, the sun less bright. I figure it’s mostly my imaginings at the transition in seasons. The cat still sleeps in the morning sun streaming through the front door so she is content. I am not. Every day seems to bring a change as we rush toward winter. The fall flowers are at their peak. The mums in my garden have all bloomed. The new flowers are planted in the front garden. The deck looks desolate and has pine needles, small twigs and branches and the hulls of sunflower seeds strewn about. Some days I sit in the sun in the afternoon, but I wear a sweatshirt against the chill. The days of short-sleeves have ended. We do have plenty of autumn left so my lament may be early, but the nights are cold. They feel like the first touch of winter.
I’m wearing my slippers and a sweatshirt. The house was cold this morning, colder than when I have the heat going, but I can’t bring myself to start the furnace: it’s the final surrender.
When I go to my old town, I always follow the route I used to walk to school. I notice the changes and remember what used to be there. The house where my friends grew up is gone. It was a pretty white house with red shutters and a trellis by the back door. A house near it was always a favorite of mine. It was an old house, one of the first on the street. It too is gone. In their place is a small brick apartment building, an ugly building with no character, with no homeyness. I am glad I don’t walk that route any more.
Categories: Musings
Tags: brick buildings, cat in the sun, chilly nights, fall blooms, fall flowers, morning sun, mums, old houses, rushing toward winter, Storm door, sweatshirts, walk to school
Comments: 15 Comments
September 24, 2013
The time has come for the storm door. I have been keeping the back door closed because of the cold so Gracie rings her bells to go out. I trudge to the kitchen, open the door and wait so I can close the door when Gracie comes back inside. No question about it, the screen door is done for the season.
The game Sunday was wonderful. It was perfect fall baseball weather with lots of sun and a cooling breeze. My friends and I were not seated together so I made random comments aloud prompted by good fielding and a couple of home runs. The lady beside me was mute: she didn’t choose to chat. The guy on the other side tolerated my blithering. He had driven down from Maine, but it took him less time than it had taken us. The traffic was so slow going off cape it took us nearly an hour to get to the bridge. That game was the last one at home for the regular season. The Sox will be in Colorado for the next two games, and my family, wearing their Red Sox garb, will be cheering them on. I’ll watch on TV.
Today Gracie and I will go to the dump then to the farm stand. I’d like some gourds for the basket on the front steps. A small pumpkin is already there, but I love all the different colors and shapes of the gourds. I have some gourds I brought back from Ghana. Some were used when taking a bucket bath while others are ornamental with wood burned or etched designs. I never saw them growing nor did I see any in the market before the outsides had rotted or been removed. Women fill the gourds with rice then stand and let the rice fall in a cascade from the gourd into a pan. The hope is the small stones in the rice will pop out of the pan and be removed during the process. It is not always successful. Stones in cooked rice are pretty common. Broken teeth are too.
The birds are back in huge numbers. It seems I have been forgiven for my lapse of a day without seed. The thistle feeder had three goldfinches on it; none of them were wearing bright yellow. I think the finches are starting to sport their winter color or rather their lack of color. It is time to start bracing ourselves for the season of drab: one of leafless trees, desolate gardens, early darkness and clothes of muted colors.
The good thing is I have recovered.
Categories: Musings
Tags: cold morniong, drab winter', end of baseball regular season, gourds, home runs, mute woman, ornamenta; gourds, Red Sox game, stones in rice, storm door time, winter colors
Comments: 10 Comments
September 23, 2013
Yesterday was perfect baseball weather, and the Sox won. I got my sausage with peppers and onions for lunch and toward the last few innings I got a Fenway frank. It was a wonderful day; however, the evening wasn’t. It must have been the excitement of the day as I was ill last night. I’m not soliciting sympathy but rather explaining why you’re not reading some little musing about the day and the game. I even forgot my usual Monday morning breakfast with my friend. I was shocked when the phone rang a little after 9 and woke me up. “Where are you?” That was in itself a bit of a silly question, but I apologized for not being there and explained why.
I am taking the day off or at least the morning until I feel a bit better. Please do check back later.
Categories: Musings
Comments: 18 Comments
September 22, 2013
Welcome to autumn! All week we had the most wonderful weather, sunny and warm, but today is a dark day, and it has been raining on and off, and right now it’s pouring. Normally on a rainy Sunday I would hunker down with my coffee and papers and a good movie, but today, of all days, I have a Red Sox ticket. It’s a great Red Sox ticket but even great tickets are no good in the rain. That sun has five hours to get out to dry and warm the day.
Stephen King’s new novel is a sequel to the The Shining. That was one of my favorite books, and redrum will forever stay a part of my vocabulary though I don’t do the finger thing Danny did in the movie when he said it.
Today is one of those nothing on my mind sort of days. I have noticed that vampires are out and the undead are in, a weird trend. Giant monsters are also out, but they’ve been out a long time. Godzilla just wouldn’t make it anymore.
I loved my bike with its pedal back brake and two speeds: fast and slow. Going down a hill was exhilarating. I’d take my feet off the pedals and let the hill do all the work. I was never a fan of up the hill.
I saw a small fox the other day. It was walking on the bike path then headed into a church parking lot. I don’t think the fox was very old. I stopped the car to warn a lady walking her dog. I thought the fox might have gone into the woods, but it didn’t hurt to be careful.
Right now I’m watching a really bad movie: Zone Troopers. It takes place in WWII in Italy when some GI’s discover a space ship and are now inside looking for extraterrestrials. The German are also in the hunt.
I have exhausted my chit-chat for the day, and I have to post my music then go to the bank. I haven’t a cent which just won’t do.
Happy Fall!
Categories: Musings
Comments: 11 Comments
September 21, 2013
Gracie was on the deck and barking so I went out to check to see which critter was within sight. I didn’t see any, but I did see a water spray near the top of the driveway. A bird was having the most wonderful bath in a puddle from my irrigation system. The drops of water were flying in the air as the bird flapped its wings. That bird was having a great time and so was I while watching it.
The morning is a beauty. It is quintessential autumn on Cape Cod. The sun is bright and the day is warm. Fall flowers are in bloom, and my garden is filled with mums, anemones and my favorite of all, autumn clematis. In autumn, I always think Mother Nature gives us her best and final show before winter’s turn in the year.
I need bird seed: sunflower and thistle. Lately, with so many birds, the big feeder empties quickly. I think word of beak must be the reason. Yesterday, after I had filled the feeders with the last of the seeds, a chickadee flew so close by me I swear its wing touched my cheek. I love to stand by the deck rail and watch the birds eat. They are barely an arm’s length away as the feeders hang off the deck. The chickadees are the most fearless. The seeds are what they want, and my being there doesn’t give them pause. The thistle feeder spins each time a goldfinch or chickadee lands on it. The birds just hold on and go with the spin.
I know I won’t be able to stop myself from roaming the flower aisles when I go to buy the bird seed. Perennials are on sale as are the fall flowers. I just happen to have a few spaces in the small round garden where a tree used to stand and some spots in the back of the big front garden. I also want to harvest the rest of my herbs. The rosemary is ready to hang in the house, and its aroma will spread about the kitchen to remind me summer will be back. I just have to be patient.
Categories: Musings
Tags: beautiful morning, bird feeders, bird taking a bath, colors, fall flowers, garden spot, harvesting herbs, herbs, Mother Nature's gift, perrenials, rosemary, sunflower and thistle seed
Comments: 12 Comments
September 20, 2013
I slept in until late this morning then I just took my time reading the papers and doing the crossword puzzles. Before I knew it, the morning was just about gone, and here I am with a list of chores and errands to do. I haven’t even brushed my teeth or gotten dressed. First on the list is the chocolate pie, tonight’s dessert. The chili was made yesterday, but I still have much to do and here I am lollygagging.
The desk got dusted last night. It was one of those chores I needed to get done, and I was determined to finish it before I went to bed. The top of the desk can now be seen, and its glass protector is reflecting all the wind-up toys on the top shelf. I keep looking at it with a bit of surprise at how good the desk looks though it does make me want to move along to dusting the shelves.
My mother never made us to do chores when I was a kid. Many of my friends had to make their beds, clear the table and wash or wipe the dishes, but I never had to do anything. I never questioned that; however, there were some disadvantages. I never learned to cook as a kid. My mother did it all, and I never watched. The washing machine was a mystery when I got to college. I had no idea the buzzing meant an uneven load. When I got an apartment my junior year, my roommate did the cooking. She could make gravy and cook just about everything. I was in awe. She had learned how to cook when she was growing up and had been responsible for cooking dinner at home a couple of days a week. I served Dinty Moore if I had to make dinner, and what did my roommate do? She made dumplings for the top of the stew.
Strangely enough, cooking became one of my favorite things to do. I have made all sorts of dinners including Chinese, Indian, Moroccan, Middle Eastern, Greek and, of course, African. I love the challenge of making something new, something difficult. I even go so far as to match the table decor with the meal. That, I believe, trumps the dumplings.
I have mastered the washing machine to the point where I no longer have uneven loads, and that buzzer never rings. Now that is an accomplishment!!
Categories: Musings
Tags: chores and errands, Cooking, cooking foreign foods, duating, dumplings, kids' chores, lollygagging, sleeping in, table decor, washing
Comments: 14 Comments
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