Keep the Coffee Comimg

Today is cold, downright chilly, but for the first time in a while, the sun is shining though the sky is still a bit cloudy. The high today will be 30°. It seems so wrong to call 30° a high.

The dogs are out back barking. Well, mostly Henry is out back barking. Nala just goes along for the ride, so to speak. She follows him out then follows him back inside to the front door where he barks at nothing.

Yesterday I found the dogs’ nail cutter. I had hidden it from Nala as she has taken it outside a couple of times. The handle is chewed. I trimmed Nala’s nails yesterday. Henry had one look and took off running. He is not a fan of nail cutting, at least by me, but he definitely needs his nails trimmed. The last time I tried I managed to trim only a couple of nails on one paw before he got away. I will be persistent rather than pay to have them done.

Last night I was overcome with nostalgia. I watched the first Zorro episode, the Disney Zorro, and the first Spin and Marty. I was ten when Zorro started. Even then I always wondered why nobody knew Don Diego was Zorro, just like I wondered about Superman and Clark Kent. Even Don Diego’s father didn’t recognize him behind the mask despite the same mustache and a familiar voice.

When I was a kid, my mother always made her cakes and brownies from scratch. Her brownies had chocolate frosting and jimmies, sprinkles to those of you not from here. No other brownies come close. Hers still define chocolate for me. She also never bought biscuits for her strawberry shortcake. She made cream of tartar biscuits, my father’s favorite. That’s how I serve my strawberry shortcake. They are the tastes of my childhood.

The field and swamp near my house were bleak in winter. The grassy field was brown. The swamp usually turned to ice early on because it was shallow. We skated there. The swamp was a straight walk through the fields from my house, but if I turned right beyond the field, there was a small hill with a water tower at the top. I always wanted to climb that tower, but there was no way up, probably a good thing.

I saw a cooking video the other day. The cook had mealy flour. He explained that you could sift the flour to get rid of the bugs or pick them out. He went on the say that leaving the bugs in gave the food more protein. I immediately called my friends. In Ghana, our flour came in huge bags and flour weevils moved right in. We never bothered with them. We used to say they were added protein. That cook must’ve heard us.

Today is ugly. The wind is strong. The sky is cloudy. It is only 35°. We didn’t get any snow last night, but a snow shower with big, wet flakes has just started. It will amount to little or nothing.

Today I have a dentist appointment for just a cleaning. Tomorrow night is my uke practice, my first time back to the scene of the fall. Wednesday morning is my lesson. That’s it for the entire week.

My house needs to be cleaned. Between the fall and the plague, it has been a while. The other day I did manage to clean one bathroom and water the plants, big accomplishments for a sloth.

When I was a kid, my favorite vacation was to Islesboro, Maine, an island. I was around ten or eleven. I remember it was the summer of the hat. I wore a visor the whole summer, before and after the vacation. It was the only time I ever wore one. We took a ferry to the island and stopped in town first. I remember the buildings were all white. My mother bought a few groceries.

We stayed in a house down a dirt road. It stood at the top of a small hill. No other houses were close. Below the hill was the ocean. There was a small dock and a rowboat. I have scattered memories of that week. I remember my father buying lobsters for him and my mother. They put one on the kitchen floor to see what Duke, our boxer, would do. He barked and pushed it a couple of times. The kitchen had a radio, and I remember listening to serials. Sergeant Preston of the Yukon comes to mind. My father used to row us to a small beach you could see from the dock. He made two trips to get us all there, including Duke. We’d have a picnic and do a bit of swimming in the cold Maine water. I remember a scavenger hunt. We followed the clues and found the prizes down the road, the Hershey Bars. One day it rained, and I went to the car to read. The rain hit the roof and window. That was the only sound. That is my most vivid memory.