This is quite the busy week for me. I even had to buy gas. In the next three days I have four uke concerts, a practice and a lesson. Last night’s concert went well. Across the green was a nice breeze so the sun wasn’t deadly. Tonight’s practice music is the Beatles.

When I was a kid, I didn’t know anyone who played a musical instrument. My grandparents had a piano, but it was more of a status symbol as no one in the family played. It stood in their living room with its pearly keys unplayed but dusted every day.

The same grandparents had a dining room. The furniture was bulky and dark. The table with eight chairs, a hutch on one wall and a side board on the other filled the room. I remember eating there when I was young but not when I was older. The kitchen had a hidden ironing board and a small table crammed into a space between cabinets. If you sat against the wall, you were sort of stuck at the table. I remember tall cabinets to the ceiling. The kitchen had a closet which is where my grandmother stashed the bottles of root beer.

We didn’t usually go to visit those grandparents, my father’s parents, even though they lived in the same town. My father by himself would visit. I didn’t mind as being there was always boring.

When I was growing up, my family played games together: board games and card games. I learned to play whist when I was probably ten or eleven. My parents had built-in partners, my brother and me. It was always girls against the boys, and the girls usually won. I remember playing Po-Ke-No for pennies. My mother kept a penny jar in the kitchen just for that game. We always put the pennies back when the game was over.

I am lazy when it comes to meals. Mostly I look for easy. I hard-boil a few eggs for snacking. I fry a couple of hot dogs for dinner. A banana is usually breakfast though once in a while I have toast. I always have cheese. Bread is supposed to be the staff of life, but I’m thinking it needs cheese to be complete.