Rain is likely tonight, but now it is only cloudy and 47°. Despite the weather, I have to go out for dog and cat food. Those pets of mine demand they be fed every day! What nerves!!

This is a bit of a throwback Saturday. I am watching old science fiction movies, mostly black and white. I even ate my breakfast in front of the TV but not close enough to go blind. I did pass on one movie, Battle Dogs, in which a virus turns people into ravenous wolves. That is even too far fetched for me. I love giant creature movies and the early Godzilla and Rodan movies. I do wonder about aliens. If they come to this planet, they’re called aliens, but, in most alien movies, if we go to their planet they are the aliens. I don’t get it.

I prefer dubbed creature movies from Japan. With subtitles I am forced to watch the movie instead of being able just to listen while I do something else. I know the movement of lips seldom matches the words in English, but I’m okay with that. 

I don’t remember when I started loving science fiction. I was young. I’m thinking maybe all those black and white sci-fi movies in the 50’s piqued my interest. I watched Creature Double Feature. I have favorite movies I still watch like THEM, Invasion from Mars, The Blob, The Thing, The Monolith Monsters and so many more. I’m also big on disaster movies. Lately I’ve been watching floods and twister wreak havoc on the world.

Saturdays have always been sacrosanct. When I was a kid, Saturday was my day to what I wanted. What I did to entertain myself depended on the weather. My favorite adventures were always when I was riding my bike. I loved riding by myself as I could go anywhere I wanted, as far as I wanted. I’d meander all over town and into the next towns. I’d collect golf balls near the courses. They were the errant balls which flew across the street. I’d find  them on front lawns and in gutters. I had a collection. Sometimes I’d pick up pine cones. I just figured they’d come in handy. I used to stop at the zoo. It was free. I’d ride all day into late afternoon. 

I am sometimes asked what I do now that I am retired. I tell people every day is a Saturday. 

The sun was shining earlier, but now it is just light behind the clouds, but the day, at 51°, is already warmer than it has been. The small branches are blowing in the wind. It is a spring day.

When I was a kid, days like today made me want to skip, even run, for the joy of it. My winter coat was already in the closet to stay. I wore my jacket with a sweater underneath though sometimes I didn’t need the sweater. My mother was the wardrobe arbiter. I think she just stuck her head out the door before she decided what I’d wear. 

I always had the best lunches. My mother knew what to pack and what not to pack in my lunchbox. I never had peanut butter and jelly, and I only had tuna on Fridays, the meatless day. I ate so many tuna sandwiches between my first and eighth grades I haven’t eaten tuna in years, decades. I am also not a fan of egg salad. My mother used to keep cookies hidden so they’d be enough for lunches. Sometimes she would surprise me with something Hostess. Ring Dings and Sno Balls, pink Sno Balls, were my favorites. I especially loved the coconut in the pink frosting. I also liked Hostess cupcakes. Sometimes I could pull off the frosting on the cupcakes in one piece. I’d save it for last. I’d buy milk at school. It was delivered to my classroom just before lunch. I was never good at opening milk cartons. 

In high school I bought my lunch. Later, I earned my lunch by cleaning trays. I did it to to keep my lunch money, my play money, my ice cream money at Brigham’s after school. The women in the cafeteria always had the radio playing. I remember I was cleaning trays when the radio announced the president had been shot. I ran to my classroom and turned on the TV. Sister Ernestina came in and wanted to know who had turned on the TV. I did I told her, and I told her why. She watched with us. The trays are a part of my memories of that day.

Today the furnace guy is coming back to put in a new furnace filter. The furnace was an easy fix this time. He did say that there is rust, and the furnace will need to be replaced. That made me cringe.