Today’s weather is yesterday and the days before yesterday. It is warm, in the high 40’s, and rain has started and stopped and is predicted to start again. The air is still, not even the dead leaves are moving.

I found more hope of spring in the front garden. The croci leaves are poking out of the ground. The dafs are taller and their buds are getting more pronounced.

Even though the sloth in me is strong the dust is driving me crazy. I did get one room cleaned yesterday and will do another today. My dance card for the week is pretty empty, just uke practice, my uke lesson and a doctor’s appointment, a regular check up. I do have a Wednesday dump run scheduled.

Henry has been brave. Yesterday, he was on the side of the couch where he never is. The last few nights he has been sleeping beside me at the top of the bed. Nala has been sleeping in Henry’s regular spot at the foot of the bed. Henry tore open a trash bag yesterday. Only Nala has been notorious for doing that. He also chewed a few paper plates. Nala watched the clean-up. I’m thinking they’re perfect for a role reversal Disney sort of cartoon.

Being a kid was easy for me. I had all the kid stuff like a bike, roller skates and ice skates. I had lots of board games and books. Other than school, I had no responsibilities. I had lots of time to do what I wanted. I roamed. My bike gave me freedom to ride to far flung places like other towns and once to East Boston. I became a traveler.

I was so excited when I voted for the first time. It was for the 1968 presidential election between Humphrey and Nixon. I voted for Humphrey. Nothing would have enticed me to vote for Nixon. My candidate lost. I was disappointed. When I was in the Peace Corps, I voted by mail. The ballots came late, but I voted anyway. For today’s primary I also voted by mail. I’ve been doing that since the pandemic. I am still excited to vote.

If this were Ghana, I’d think we were in the middle of the rainy season. The sun hasn’t been around in a while. The air stays damp and the sky stays cloudy. Rain is predicted starting on Wednesday.

I was six when I learned to tie my shoes. My very patient mother taught me before I started school because other than my winter boots, all my shoes were tie shoes. I was learning an essential task. Tying the bow was easy. Tightening the loops was not.

I learned to tell time when I was seven. My first watch was a Cinderella watch my aunt gave me for my First Communion. Cinderella was wearing her blue gown.

I knew the value of a penny, and it had value when I was a kid, and I knew nickels and dimes. A dollar seemed like immense wealth. I learned to count money in the first grade. We had arithmetic work sheets with pictures of coins. We had to add and subtract the coins. I learned things like two dimes and a nickel equal a quarter.

I never saw a bike with training wheels. We all got two wheelers with backpedal brakes. Learning to balance was the key. On my first attempts, my bike would lean to one side or the other, but my mother was there to keep it and me from falling. She’d hold the bike and keep it straight. She’d tell me to pedal and keep pedaling. She didn’t let go until she was sure I’d gotten the whole balance thing. I remember how excited I was that I had learned to ride a bike.

When I was young, my mother or father cut my meat. I tried, but I couldn’t quite figure out the right way to hold the knife. The fork part was easy. My first few solo attempts resulted in shredded meat, but it still tasted the same, finely cut or shredded.

I think I learned to roller skate first before learning to ice skate. Four wheels were far easier than a single blade.

Being a kid was filled with learning new things, but learning doesn’t really ever stop. I still love to try new things. Look at me and my uke.