Keep the Coffee Comimg

We have been gifted with another lovely morning. It is wear your sunglasses bright with a little breeze from the south keeping the air cool. It is in the low 70’s. The dogs just settled down to take their morning naps. I am getting my second cup of coffee and a couple of pieces of toast. All is well.

My days are pretty much the same, but I delight in each day. I wake up whenever. I get the paper and start reading while the coffee brews. The coffee is always delicious. The toast is perfectly browned and covered with fig jam. I usually finish all three of the word games and puzzles in the paper. I read the comics then start to write Coffee. It takes a while. My muse is not always available, and sometimes I can’t find the right music. This morning the cable went off for a while, but I didn’t even grouse. I just made more coffee. I could wait. I had all day. It came back on after a bit so here I am again.

I loved the sound of the roosters greeting the morning in Ghana. It was the perfect way to start another day in Africa. Goats and sheep wandered freely. At night they slept in the middle of the road. This time of year it rained every day. The fields were green. The millet was high. The market tables were filled with onions, tomatoes and tuber yams, piles of oranges, mangoes, bananas and pineapples. The aunties, the vegetable and fruit sellers, called out to me as I walked by them, but I had my favorite vegetable lady where I always stopped. I went to the egg market. The men sold eggs. They always held the eggs to the light so I could choose the fresh ones. I would smile and buy the eggs, but, in truth, I never saw the shadow of the fresh eggs, but they knew I would never return if the eggs were bad. I wandered up and down the lines of hens looking for a plumb one for dinner. I went to the meat market. I had become inured to the smells, to the dirty aprons of the sellers and to meat just sitting there. I checked out the piles of cloth looking for material for a new dress. I wandered all over. I was a familiar sight, the white lady who taught at the school.

I have a concert tonight.

The weather has shifted the last few days from the heat of last week to cooler days and nights, but that will probably change as August still has a way to go before it gives way to September. Last night was perfect for sleeping at 70° despite two big dogs who don’t respect personal space beside me on the bed.

The morning is quiet and still. It is also quite lovely with a breeze and dappled sunlight shining on the leaves of the oak trees. It is only 73°. I’m in the den, my everything room. It is dark here. The sun moves around the house from front to back. The den is in the back.

Today I need to vacuum the tumbleweeds from the hall and living room. They jump and whirl in the air when I walk by them. They are composed of Henry fur. When I scratch him, white fur piles on his back. I’d brush him, but he is Henry who has a quirky personality, and I know he’d find brushing a personal offense.

When I was a kid, summer seemed endless. I was up and out early. I didn’t want to waste any part of the day. I’d be at the playground for most of the day or exploring on my bike. I remember one ride had me ending up on a main road two towns over. It was a new spot, but I had a sense of where I needed to go to get home. The obstacle was the traffic. I had to move my bike across two lanes of cars so I grabbed the handlebars and ran. I was greeted by not so friendly horns. I think I held my breath until I reached the sidewalk on the other side. When I got home, my mother asked about my day. I didn’t tell her about the traffic and the horns. I told her I had just ridden around which was enough of the truth.

My mother taught me how to tie my sneakers. I remember she was sitting on the living room chair, and I was kneeling beside the arm of the chair. She held the sneaker and slowly showed me how to manipulate the laces to make the bow. I watched a couple of times then she had me try. My first few attempts were unsuccessful. I couldn’t get the looping around and through to make the second part of the bow. I got frustrated and wanted to send my sneaker airborne, but my mother patiently showed me again even slower than before. I finally got it, but I had created the loosest bow known to the civilized world. After a while I did get better at tighter bows. My sneakers eventually stayed on my feet.

My dance card has a concert tonight from 7-9 on Main Street in Hyannis and another tomorrow from 6:30-7:30 in Sandwich. The weather should be perfect.