The morning is chilly. My house is chilly. I’ve turned on the heat for a while and put on a flannel cover. Earlier I woke up and noticed Henry was not on the bed. I got worried so I jumped out of bed and started to go downstairs. Henry followed. He was probably wondering why the hurry. He been on the rug on the other side of my bed.

Today is Saturday, the best of all days when I was a kid. I had the whole day to do whatever I wanted. Most of the year that meant hauling my bike out of the cellar and taking off to explore. I was usually by myself. My closest neighborhood friend seldom rode her bike. We were walking buddies. My bike was blue. It had been a Christmas present. It had no bells or whistles, but it had a wire basket on the front. Sometimes, though, if I went over a bump, whatever was in the basket flew out to the ground. I remember library books bouncing in the basket and me trying to hold on to them. I had favorite places and favorite routes. I went all over town and sometimes into the next towns. Even though I was gone all day, and my mother didn’t know where I was, she didn’t worry. It was a safe world.

Lately I have been a sloth. My to do lists never get shorter. I just keep adding to them. The only chore I generally complete is the easiest, the simplest chore. Yesterday it was the bird feeders. Today I have to check my little library. My summer clothes are still in the closest. I have great intentions but no follow through. I don’t feel guilty. I’ll just use longer paper.

My bedroom in Ghana had a wall of louvered windows with smoked glass so you couldn’t see through the windows. They opened inward. There was also a screen. You could see through the screen. I never saw anyone look, but I decided to add curtains anyway despite my total lack of sewing skills. I bought yards of brown Ghanaian fabric. I bought heavy twine. I put the twine across the cut edge of the fabric and folded that edge over the twine. I then used a running stitch and sewed all the way across the edge. Voila! I had a curtain. I was a seamstress and an interior decorator.

Today looks like a lovely day.