The morning is lovely. It is also cold but not outrageously. The sky is as blue as any sky can be. I don’t see a single cloud. The air is mostly still. It is a pretty winter’s day.

Yesterday was busy. I made it to the dump, finally. My trunk was filled with trash bags. My back seat had the cans and papers and such. It was an overdue chore. My tree is empty, ready to go outside. My living room is back to pre-Christmas. It makes me sad. I love all the Christmas colors and decorations. Taking them down has made my world a bit drab.

When I was a kid, my grandparents lived in the city. We used to visit them often, on Sundays. I loved the city. My grandparent’s house was in the middle of the block. At one end of the block was a small corner store. That’s where I’d spend the dimes my grandfather would give us. The dimes were bribes. He wanted peace and quiet. The other end of the block had a house which opened its front window to sell Italian ice. I found that amazing. I ate cold, square Italian bakery pizza for the first time during one visit. I loved it.

I remember playing stickball on the street in front of my grandparents’ house. We used a broomstick and a half pink rubber ball. I was mostly the gofer. We also played stoop ball. The ball, an intact red rubber ball, was thrown at the front stoop by the batter. Fielders were spread out in the street. The batter hoped for distance off the stoop to get a high score. The fielders hoped for fly balls off the stoop. There were no real rules, and the scoring was often contentious. These were city games. We never played them at home.

My dance card actually has some entries for this week, all uke. I have been home most of the last two weeks. I have really missed people. The dogs are the worst conversationalists. They tend to spend their days eating and sleeping with an occasional trip to the backyard. The dump was actually exciting. I saw people, even said hello to a couple. They said hello back. I was thrilled.

I have designated today as finish the damn chores day. The hall is almost impassable because of the boxes and bags of Christmas waiting to be hauled downstairs. When I went to get the paper, I had to clean up trash pulled from the bags of the trash I had put by my car as part of my dump prep. I knew I was tempting fate as the bags were the perfect targets for the creatures of the night. They had a party! I definitely need to go to the dump.

I will finish here today and then add a picture. I just have to get Christmas put away which means hauling boxes, lots of boxes, up and down the cellar stairs, and I need to go to the dump. I’ll thwart those creatures of the night.

Until tomorrow!

The weather hasn’t changed. We tend to stay around the low 30’s, today we’re 30° exactly. We have a slight breeze. It spins the hanging brown leaves on the oaks. I still have trash. I also still have a bit of Christmas piled on the table. I need to bring more bins upstairs. I should finish today though I’ve said that every day for the last few days. I think I have a severe form of winter lethargy.

My high school graduation was outside, the first ever at my school. The girls wore white, the boys green. The boys sat on one side, the girls on the other. I could see my father and mother from my seat. During the ceremony, the scholarships were given out. I got a couple, but it is the first one I remember. After I got back to my seat, envelope in hand, I looked to my parents expecting applause or a way to go, girl. I got neither. Instead, there was my father asking, “How much? How Much?” I ignored him.

The first time I heard a rooster crowing was in Ghana, on a very early morning. It became a significant event. When I returned to Ghana, a rooster crowed outside my window on my first morning. I thought of it as a welcome.

In Ghana I learned to operate a motorcycle. It was a Honda 90, which was what I could afford, barely afford, from my living allowance. I bought it in Tamale, a little over 100 miles away from Bolga, learned how to operate it from the dealer then left for home. One road was all I took. It was straight up from Tamale to Bolga. I stopped a couple of times for water and to stretch my legs. It was a long ride and on the left. It was a significant event. I rode over a 100 miles, my first ever trip on a motorcycle.