“The sky is falling. The sky is falling.”
Posted January 22, 2026 by katryCategories: Musings
Tags: books, family, fiction, life, writing
Today is a gift from Mother Nature. She is feeling guilty about the snow storm coming on Sunday. The last update predicted 9 inches of snow. I’m going to move my car to the drive-way. I’ll back the car in so the plowed snow pile will be in front of the car, not surrounding it. I was able to clear the windshield of ice in time for the snow to cover it again. I’m living in a winter loop.
It is 46°. The snow and ice are melting. I can hear the drops. The sun is behind clouds but bright enough to light the sky. It’s a pretty day, clouds and all.
When I was a kid, I loved to read. It all started when my mother read me Golden Books. She told me she used to ask me the names of all the animals and people around the back cover, and I knew them all. I knew some words in the book only because of repetition, the number of times I had my mother read me my favorite Golden Book, Henny Penny, I used to sit beside her on the couch following every word. I still have a copy of the Golden Book, a newer one. It was in my stocking. My mother remembered.
I read the Henny Penny. It had been years. I love all the rhyming names of the animals. When I was little, I used to giggle when my mother would recite them to me. Even now I smile at Goosey Loosey, Turkey Lurkey and the rest. I admit to being a bit horrified at the ending. I have a great memory. When I was eleven, I found it sort of lurking in my head. I remembered pieces of pages and book facts though hardly trying. I did well in school. Most of all, I learned how to save memories. I filled memory drawers with so many pictures. They still often pop into my head and send me a memory. Where am I going, you might ask. Well, I had no memory of the ending of Henny Penny, aka Chicken Little. I knew the beginning and the middle, but I had blacked out the ending. Then I read it. Foxy Loxy (Spoiler here: if you haven’t read the story, do that first) ate them all. My mouth dropped. That was totally new to me I thought. I had no memory of their fates. I just figured they made it to the king. I was horrified. I really had enjoyed those characters. Now I wonder why it was popular. Is there some sort of moral I am missing? Is the fox just the fox? I’m just gobsmacked.
(Remember the day of the) Old Schoolyard: Cat Stevens
Posted January 20, 2026 by katryCategories: Video
“Ten minutes is short if it’s a recess and long if it’s a punishment.”
Posted January 20, 2026 by katryCategories: Musings
It is really cold. We’re at 26°, the high for the day. Yesterday, the snow melted then, last night, it froze. In places it looks like waves, ice waves cresting on the lawn. The rest of the grass is covered in frozen snow. My feet made crunchy sounds when I got the paper. I was most careful walking across the yard. Everything is slippery. The dogs and I have had enough of out so we are snuggling together on the couch. Every now and then Henry sighs.
When I was a kid, January was the most boring month. We had no holidays off from school, and, I swear, every day was bone chillingly cold, well below freezing. It always took a while to get warm once I arrived at school. My cheeks stayed red and my feet stayed cold. I remember my classroom and all of the winter sounds, the hissing radiators below the windows, the gurgle of water through the pipes, the scratching of pencils on paper, creaking chairs and pages turning. I remember hoping, maybe even praying, that we wouldn’t have outside recess.
A long while back, I passed a schoolyard where the kids were at recess. I paused to look, prompting memories of my own. Every recess, we stood in the divided geographically by sex and tradition school yard, the girls on one side, the boys on the other. The girls had their groups and games and the boys had theirs. Girls jump roped, mostly the younger girls, or played clapping games. The older girls stood in groups and boy watched and maybe gossiped a little. The boys played basketball at both hoops in the school yard. I don’t remember jump roping.
I do have one recess story. I remember standing in a group of girls talking, laughing when I was in the fifth grade then I noticed my friend. She hadn’t made it to the safety of the group and was being bullied by a boy saying horrible things to her and making her cry. I told him to stop. He didn’t. How silly! I punched him in the face. He stopped. I ended up in the principal’s office. Once she found out the story, she told me not to do it again and to find a peaceful way to protect my friend. She let the bully have it. I really wanted to applaud.
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