Keep the Coffee Comimg

Today has yet to make up its mind. When I woke up, it was sunny. Now it is cloudy. Earlier it was still. Now it is breezy. The only constant has been the temperature, 71°. I have no plans. I have no need to leave the house. I don’t even have to get dressed.

I heat coffee in the microwave. When the buzz goes off, I get the coffee. The cup’s handle is always facing away from the door. It is an odd phenomenon.

Henry barks if someone or something passes my house. He barks until they are out of sight. The amount of barking sometimes drives me crazy, but I hate to have him stop. My father always told me to let the dog bark. He is keeping me safe. When I was in the hospital, friends came to tend to the dogs and cat. Henry did not bark. I wasn’t home. I didn’t need protection.

Toast always falls on the buttered side. I learned why. As toast falls off the table, the toast rotates, but the spin rate is too slow to bring the buttered side up. I think I prefer it to be a mystery.

Cats throw up. Even though Jack gets hair ball treatment, he still throws up hair balls. He also sometimes tosses his dinner. Jack is an ace that leaving his rejections right where I walk in his room. At night, I have to get to the table to turn on the night. That is usually too late. I walk right in what Jack left. Sometimes I am barefoot. I won’t get into specifics. It has to do with my toes and is gross.

I learned to tie my shoes when I was five. My mother taught me. Because, at first, my bows were loose, I had to stop often to tie my shoes, but I got better at bows and didn’t have to stop. Kids today learn later. They have velcro. Kids today tell time digitally. Though they learn what the numbers mean, all the time telling is done for them. I was in the second grade when I learned to tell time, analog time. I still have only analog watches. Cursive writing is not taught anymore. Why bother? People don’t write letters. They e-mail letters. The only cursive anyone needs to know is how to write your name. I get that times change and the old ways disappear, replaced by newer, more efficient ways to do things, but though I can do the new ways, I still hang on to the old. After all, by the numbers, I am old. It is quarter past one.

The air is so thick with humidity nothing is moving. The house is dark. Rain is predicted for this evening. Yesterday the rain was torrential. The dogs wouldn’t go out. Nala poked her head out the dog door then walked backwards into the kitchen. Her head was soaked. They did go out before the three of us went to bed. They had no choice.

I went to the dump yesterday during the lightest part of the rain storm. I also got a few groceries, mostly pet food. Today I have nothing planned.

When I was a kid, I used to eat sardines, those gross headless fish packed tightly in oil in an oval can. I ate them on Saltines. To open the can you had to detach a metal key stuck to the bottom of the can. The key had a hole in the top. The can had a tab you put through the hole then you rolled off the top. I was a bad roller. Most times I never managed to remove the whole top. I’d have to use a fork to get at the fish under the top. Now, I find the whole idea disgusting, gag producing.

We played the best outside games in the street in front of my house. Hide and Seek was the first game we learned. You didn’t want to be it. I always wondered if Stephen King’s It started when he played hide and seek. Red Rover was another game. Picking was the key. The strongest got picked first. You always hated to be among the last picked because you knew you’d be the target, the place to break the hold of the human chain held together with hands. Red light, Green light was also called statues. A kid was chosen to yell out the commands. He’d yell green light, and we’d all run toward him hoping to be the first to get to him. He’d then yell red light and try to catch kids still moving who’d be out. Simon Says was fun. The player who was Simon had to be clever to catch players who did what was asked without hearing Simon Says. We had so many kids in my neighborhood there were always plenty of games and plenty of players.

It didn’t matter the season. We always had the best times. My bike was used all year except in the snow. I loved being able to ride it to school and on Saturdays when I biked all over, including towns around where I lived. We roamed the woods around my house. We played Hopscotch. We sometimes played board games inside on the cold or rainy days, but if I was by myself, I’d spend the inside days reading. I’d get so engrossed in my book, I’d lose the world. That was the best part.