Today is cold, no surprise there. The high will be 26°. Where did I put that sunscreen says I playfully? The low will be in the teens. Sunny was the forecast, but the sun has yet to make an appearance. Days like this get tiresome, energy sapping.

Yesterday I was feeling nostalgic. I went through what we call the mug book, a booklet given to us by Peace Corp. It was an introduction to my training group with a picture of each of us and a brief bio. I counted how many of us there were. I know one person accepted the invitation to Ghana later so he missed the book, but I counted him. That made it at least 130 trainees. I read the bios yesterday. The oldest of us was 35, the youngest 19, but most of us were 21 or 22. Many had worked on farms during the summers. Science majors outnumbered the English, social studies and humanity majors. We all came from a variety of states. Some graduated from big time colleges but more of us went to small schools, mostly unknown schools. I remembered many but a few I swear I never saw. I remember one trainee leaving after the first two weeks. One volunteer died during our second year in a motorcycle accident. He was on my bus, standing in the back, on the way to the airport to leave for Ghana. I don’t know about most of the volunteers I had served with. I wish we all had stayed in touch.

This is a slow week for me. I have no events and no meet-ups, just the usual, uke practice and a lesson. I have started taking Christmas down and have two rooms worth of decorations on the kitchen counter. I need to haul boxes. I need incentive, maybe a Snickers bar as a reward. That would get me moving.

We’re in the throes of winter. The high today will be 30°. The morning is cloudy, dark and cold, another uninviting day. The backyard oaks and pines are stark silhouettes framed by the sky. I have to go out to do some errands, three stops worth of errands. I wish I could just stay home, warm and cozy, but alas….

Henry seems a bit better. He still tilts his head, but he also wags his tail and looks for treats. This morning I managed to give him two of his pills. He spit out the third one even though it was hidden in a piece of sausage, good Italian made in store sausage. I’ll try later.

When I was a kid, I was mostly happy with my lot in life. I had every necessary kid thing, a sled, roller skates, ice skates and a bike. My bike was my favorite. It took me everywhere. It was blue and had been a Christmas present. It had a basket in the front, big tires and back brakes on the pedals. I remember hitting the brakes in sand on purpose to leave an arc. I have so many memories, filled drawers worth of memories, of my travels and adventures on that bike. What I don’t remember is what happened to it. I suspect it had reached the end, done in by use and time. I didn’t get another bike until years later. It is in the cellar waiting for another adventure.

All our sleds were both wooden and metal. They had metal rails and metal across the top which held the wooden steering piece. You could steer the sled right or left. I seldom did. It was a straight away down the hill. We all had the same sled technique. We’d stand behind our sleds at the top of the hill then jump on, stomach to the sled, hands on the steering bar, knees bent and feet straight up in the air. We went fast down the hill, the wind whipping our faces, the sled’s runners slicing through the snow and shooting shards of ice into the air. It was exhilarating.

People are kind. When I have heavy bags of groceries or trash bags in the trunk to dump, people always offer to help. I used to say no thinking I can do it myself. That’s the conundrum. In my head, I am young, the same me I have always been, but my body is older, old. I just can’t lift things anymore. I drag things like dry dog food or push the heavies with my foot or carry things a few at a time into the house. I need a housekeeper.