I have a concert today and I have trash. That means first the dump then the mall where we are playing. I got up early but not early enough so today Coffee is taking a small break!

Much earlier this morning I was hurrying to finish my coffee. I had already set out my St.Patrick’s Day parade ensemble, a shamrock vest and matching turtleneck, green high tops, shamrock socks, my shamrock fascinator and some green beads. My music was ready, all three songs to be repeated along the route, then I got the call. No parade for us. It is raining. The good part of this is I have a concert tomorrow, inside, so I’ll just leave everything ready.

I got up so early I went back to bed and had no problem falling asleep, neither did the dogs. It is raining even more than it had been.

I remember marching in the Memorial Day parade when I was a kid. I marched with the brownies. The scout contingent, including girl, cub and boy scouts, marched almost at the end of the parade. Behind us were the little league teams and a couple of fire trucks. We all wore our uniforms. The spectators clapped. I waved. I felt so proud. Later I told my parents, “Everyone was out of step except me.”

Winter rainy days are cold regardless of the temperature. I wear a sweatshirt and socks with fluffy insides. The dogs curl up on a blanket while Jack stays warm on the bed cover.

I just made some cocoa. I had milk. When I was a kid, I drank cocoa every morning before school. I remember it had bubbles on the top the way my mother made it. The cocoa came in a cardboard container and was made by Nestle. The metal top had a slot for coins. It became a bank when the cocoa was gone.

I like cereal. Usually I buy the package with little boxes of a variety of cereals. My mother used to buy the same packages. My favorite was always Rice Krispies. My favorite is now Cinnamon Crunch. I’ve never liked regular Cheerios. I do have one complaint. The boxes when I was a kid had perforations on the front. When you opened the cereal, you poured milk into the box and ate your cereal from the box. I lately tried it figuring the boxes hadn’t really changed, only the perforations were gone. It was a little messy.

Today is a day for chores. I have plants to water, a bed to change and some laundry to do. I already had my nap.

Right now it is 42° and partly cloudy though I do prefer to call it partly sunny. It will be in the mid 40’s today, a gift I suspect as tomorrow will be either rainy or snowy. Tomorrow is the St. Patrick’s Day parade, rainy or sunny but the rain will keep us away. If that happens, I’ll go watch the parade from my car.

My house is crowded. Yesterday I bought more Mrs.Meyer’s dish detergent in lavender. She joined my Dr. Bonner toothpaste, anise flavored. Under the sink is Mr. Clean. I don’t like Dr. Pepper though I haven’t met him personally. When I was a kid, I ate Chef Boyardee spaghetti. I wouldn’t touch it now. I’ve been on a first name basis with Ben and Jerry for a while. Orville Redenbacher and his popcorn are a movie night staple. I am not a fan of Bush’s baked beans. I did like his dog.

When I was a kid, we always had St. Patrick’s Day off from school because I went to St. Patrick’s School. It was a perk. March 17th is also Evacuation Day, a bit of a holiday in parts of the state. It celebrates the day in 1776 when the British forces left the city of Boston. We take our history seriously around here.

My mother sent Tropical Life Savers when I was in Ghana. They became a game we called Guess the Flavor. We were good at that though the cantaloupe was iffy and was more of a stab based on color. My favorite was coconut.

At the dentist yesterday, an x-ray was taken of one tooth. It had a shadow. The dentist looked and said it was tooth resorption which he explained. It sounded like the plot of a Stephen King novel.

Today is my only free day, an empty day on my dance card. When I was a kid, I bemoaned days like today. I could curl up with a book or work on going blind in front of the TV, but I preferred busy. My definition of busy was simple, out of the house.

Last night I got off the couch and noticed something on the cushion beside me. I checked it out. It was a dead mouse worse for the wear. Once upon a time I would have gagged. Last night I just grabbed a paper towel, scooped the deceased and threw it ignominiously over the back fence. I suspect it was a gift from Nala.

The sun was here a while back but has since gone elsewhere though it is supposed to return. It is one of those partially cloudy days. It is cold, in the 30’s, and won’t get any warmer. The wind is still around. I heard a noise earlier and found Miss Nala trying to get a box through the dog door. It stayed in the kitchen, but I noticed another box was missing. I went into the yard and found the box and wrappers from stolen foods. I did a quick cleanup. Most of the wrappers were old. I have been successful of late in keeping the food safe from felonious Nala.

When I was a kid, winter fun was dependent upon the weather. If it was really cold, we could go ice skating on the swamp. If it was snowy, we could go sledding down the hill. I remember we also built forts in the snow piles left by the plows. One year the snow was so high we built a tall fort with rooms. We used water to make the walls icy hard. The first room was the biggest. That was where we mostly hung out. We’d sit inside and eat lunch. From there a small, narrow passageway led to the next room and another passageway led to the last room. That fort with its icy walls lasted through the winter and was the last pile of snow to melt.

The only chain store in my town when I was a kid was the First National grocery store. The other shops and stores were unique. We had a Chinese restaurant, The China Moon, a McDonald’s sort called Carrolls, Santoro’s Sub Shop and the Stoneham Spa. Hank’s was the best bakery. I used to stand outside by the picture window where I could smell the aroma of bread baking. Grant’s and Woolworth’s were on the same block. I always thought Woolworth’s was the shopping spot for kids, not Grant’s. We had three drug stores, two of them right up-town. Both of those had a fountain. The movie theater was smack dab in the middle of the square. I remember the first time I went to a night movie. It was a fund raiser for my girl scout troop. I wore my uniform and greeted people at the doors. I felt almost famous.

Today is one of those springlike days March sometimes teases us with while keeping winter in the wings. It will be warmish, in the high 40’s or low 50’s. The sun has been a stranger lately but is back today in all its glory. Not a cloud can be seen. A bit of a cool wind strong enough to blow the chimes hanging on a backyard tree comes and goes. I heard the tinkling of the chimes when I went to check on Nala and what she was eating. I’m always suspicious with that dog. This time she was sort of innocent. She was chewing on an orange handle from a garden tool. I don’t know where the rest of the tool went. She ran. I didn’t give chase; instead, I sat down on the backyard stairs for a bit to listen to the chimes, to their sweet sounds.

When I was a kid, I would have begged my mother to let me ride my bike to school on a day like today when I could feel spring in the air. I’d try to get away with wearing a light spring jacket, but my mother usually caught me and nixed that; however, she did relent on the mittens and the hat. There I was on my bike no longer dressed for the depths of winter. I felt a sort of freedom.

After lunch, we’d have recess. That was when the nuns went across the street to the convent and had their lunches. I figured we weren’t supposed to see nuns eat. I always thought that was a bit strange given Sister Hildegarde hid candy bars in her desk drawer and surreptitiously put the candy in her mouth. The chewing always gave her away. Then there was the time she spit nuts on my paper when I brought it to her desk.

My dance card is filled, mostly with uke. I have practice tomorrow and a lesson Wednesday. On Saturday we are in the St. Patrick’s day parade riding a flat bed truck and playing Irish music. It is supposed to be an ugly day, maybe even a rainy day. On Sunday we are playing at the mall.

My dafs have bulbs, and I can see the start of the day lilies, small tips of green poking out of the dirt in the front yard. I like to check on them every morning. The green, growing taller, is a hopeful sign.

Kat is not posting today. I am taking a short break. I didn’t sleep a whole lot last night, and I’m ready for a nap.

The sun was here earlier but has since disappeared. it is 41° and rain is predicted. That sounds like that a perfect day to do nothing, to sleep away the afternoon.

I’ll be back tomorrow, well rested!!

I went to get the paper this morning, but it wasn’t in the front yard. I cursed then I noticed it in my neighbor’s yard. It had been blown by the wind, the mighty wind. All the trees are bending. We have a wind advisory. It is raining.

This morning I flashed back to Saturdays when I was a kid. I found a YouTube channel with black and white science fiction movies from the 50’s. I am watching Invasion of the Saucer Men, little green aliens who arrived in a flash of light in a flying saucer. It has screaming teenage girls, unbelieving police and a moving hand with deadly nails dripping poison. I had Rice Krispies for breakfast, the same breakfast I ate as a kid. The only difference is I am on the couch, not on the floor in front of the TV. I’d never get up again.

When I lived in Ghana, I traveled most school holidays. Usually I went to Accra and from there to Togo, a small country to the west. Before I could leave Ghana, I needed a re-entry permit even though I had a resident’s visa. I also needed a visa from the Togo embassy. On one of my previous visits to the embassy I learned the man giving visas had once lived in Boston. I played on that. Sometimes the man chose not to give visas. He wasn’t in the mood. Volunteers I knew would come out of the office shaking their heads. When I went in, we’d chat. I always mentioned the weather in Boston and what was happening there. I always got a visa. I’d walk out of the office with my passport opened to the visa. The next visit before I left the country was to the government office to get my reentry permit. I always got one there too. The man had pictures on his desk of his family, and on a previous visit I had asked about them. I knew all their names so I’d ask the guy how his family was doing using their names. I always got my re-entry permit.

I wrote an aerogram to one of my friends not long before my end of service. I’m going to quote from that letter.

“Lately I’ve been thinking about going home. Sometimes I worry about being very dissatisfied with what I’ll find. Going into Peace Corps was the best thing I could have done. I’ve learned a lot about Africa, the states and myself. I’ve realized how lucky I have been. This experience has been mind blowing. All of a sudden I’ve been awakened to sounds, colors, sights and feelings that I didn’t know existed before. it is an experience I will never forget because I’ve tried to absorb every part of my life here so memories can be brought back, so my memories will never dim.”

This week I did errands. Today it was four. I am happy to be home at last. The dogs greeted me with exuberance. Henry jumped into the air. Nala wiggled her butt and tried to jump on me. It is a wonderful thing to be welcomed home.

The capital of Ghana is Accra. It is quite a distance from where I lived. The ride down country included a ferry ride from Yeji which is on the shore of the Volta Lake. We used to buy water in bottles while we waited for the ferry. We’d hold the bottles up to the sun and buy the ones with the fewest floaties which is what we call the debris floating in the bottle. Sometimes we’d buy the fish which was cooked over the fire, barbecued I guess. I don’t know what kind of fish they were. Most times we never asked what we were eating on the road.

Accra was Nirvana. There were movie theaters, restaurants and shops. The movie theaters were all outside. If it rained, we just moved our chairs under the overhangs. The movies were old, but we didn’t care. Our favorite restaurant was Talal’s near Peace Corps. It was Lebanese. I first ate tabouleh and hummus there.

We stayed in Adabraca at the Peace Corps hostel, 50 pesewas a night (about 50¢) which included breakfast. It was always a reunion of sorts there. I’d see friends with whom I’d trained but hadn’t seen sometimes since swearing in. We went out to eat together and roamed around the city. I did some shopping for stuff to bring home. The supermarket had an escalator. Ghanaians used to go for the ride.

I remember walking at night in the city. It was quiet back then. Sometimes I’d see some men sitting on wooden chairs on the sidewalks. I could hear them quietly talking in Twi as I walked by.

I had a friend visit me in Ghana. We stayed in Accra a couple of days. We took a taxi to the hostel. I gave the driver 20 pesewas, the going rate for anywhere in the city. He said 30 pesewas. I said he was cheating me. We went back and forth a couple of times. My friend waned to know why. I told him the driver wanted 10 pesewas too many. My friend said just pay him, but I told him it was a matter of principal. I told the driver take 20 or nothing. He took the 20 and said, ” I hate you Peace Corps. You always know the right price.” My friend got it.

The ride up country took forever. We had to wait hours at Yeji for a VIP. Finally we took off, but when we got to the terminal in Tamale, 100 miles south of Bolga, they told us no busses until the next day. The Ghanaians were not happy. They complained vociferously. The company gave us a bus to Bolga. It was really late when we got there. The driver told us to come back in the morning for our bags. I didn’t want to leave my bag. I pretended to climb the ladder to the bus roof. The driver stopped me and said he’d get my luggage. Bolga had one taxi at night. We rode it to the school. The driver told me it was 60 pesewas. I told him no. It was 40. He said I had been out of town when the price went up. I laughed. He took the 40.