Last night it rained, and I missed it. I am a lover of rain. A metal barrel holding the birdseed is outside my den window. The rain taps the top of the barrel. It plinks in a small rain but sounds like drums or thunder in a heavy rain. My house in Ghana had a metal roof. During the rainy season a soft rain sounded like small pebbles hitting the roof. A heavy rain was tremendous, loud and overwhelming. I’d sit in my living room and just listen to the music of the rain.

When I was a kid, I always got wet walking to school in the rain, mostly my shoes and my hair got soaked. My coat, not a raincoat but a long coat, covered the rest of me. My shoes sometimes bubbled at the toes. My hair dried faster. I loved school on a rainy day. The classroom was lit by hanging pendant lights but was still shadowy, dark in places. I liked to watch the rain hit the tall windows, windows so tall only a hook on a long stick could reach to open or close them. When the windows were closed, the rain drops would roll down from the top until they disappeared. I watched covertly.

A spawn of Satan has pushed one of my clay pots to the deck where it broke. It is a grey spawn who dines al fresco at a long feeder. He eats upside down. I always wish I had a slingshot. To think, when I was a kid, I loved feeding the squirrels in the Public Garden. They came right up to us to get the peanuts we had bought. We squealed in delight. I was young, naive.

Many of the appliances in my house have reached the pinnacles of their lives. My washing machine was the first to go to its proverbial heavenly reward. I started leaving my clothes at the laundromat to be washed and dried. The other day I decided to hand wash some clothes as the bags of dirty clothes were filled and towering. I brought the clean clothes to the dryer. I checked in a while. They were still wet. It took three long cycles before they dried. My dryer is dying. My fridge too needs help. It doesn’t stay cold enough. These appliances are old. I just wished they had staggered the ends of their lives.

My dance card for the week is uke filled. I had a concert yesterday and have a few more this week: today, Wednesday and Friday. I also have practice and a lesson. I never imagined my life would revolve around a musical instrument with four strings.