Today is the fourth or fifth day of clouds or rain or both. I went out yesterday for the first time in over a week. Last week I clocked 3.5 miles. Yesterday I went over 16. Yikes! No wonder I was exhausted and needed a nap. Yesterday, the big adventures were my uke lesson then Ring’s. Either one would have lured me out, but both them, nope, no resistance from me. I got to learn a new book at uke, and I bought some goodies, blueberry turnovers, risotto and a Snickers, from Ring’s. It was a glorious day.

This morning was still and so is now the afternoon. I woke up close to noontime. I had gone to bed close to four. It is a weird pattern of sleep, new in the last couple of weeks. I don’t like it.

I have been on a YouTube binge of late. I like watching tours of little towns and old highways. I have been all over Europe, and now I’m traveling through the Southern United States. I have only been to a city here or there in the Southern United States so the tours are interesting for me.

When I was a kid, I used to make travel scrapbooks of places I’d been. I used to cut out letters then glue those letters, the names of places now, to the front covers of the albums. I don’t know why, but I remember the red leather cover, okay the faux red leather cover, of an album I got one Christmas. I had the best time for weeks putting together my travels in my new album. I remember cutting up brochures of rooms and hotels, adding pictures of planes filled with people, well-dressed people, eating, taking tours of cities. Chronicling my whole trip, but the thing was I had never been to any of them, never slept in any, never flew on any plane and seldom ate out, especially to a fancy place. I had put together a pretend album of my vacation. I think I was around nine, maybe nearing ten. We used to sneak to Logan Airport, my brother, my uncle and I, where I loaded up on brochures which I hid so I wouldn’t get caught having been to Logan. I’d pull them out at home. Nobody gave them a second thought.

Anyway, where am I heading you might be wondering. I think my story, which is real, is about imagination, story telling, given life by wishing. I even wanted to travel before my vow and my Barrett’s disease, still a year in the future. It seems it was brewing early. In each pretend vacation album, I wrote descriptions under every picture as if I had been there. I especially remember the tulips in Holland, the pictures of the fields of so many colors of tulips in rows and rows. What is remarkable is I had never been to any of those places. I had made up the whole trip, including that wonderful description of the tulips!

I saw that field in real life. I stood where the picture I had cut from the brochure when I was a kid had been taken. I recognized the field and the sense of glee, of amazement. I’m in the exact same place. I knew it.

I had saved that one picture from all the pictures. I had cut it out then pasted it in my red album, the album I got that Christmas. I think it was a gift, that field filled with tulips. It reached across years from one memory to another. It was a wish then it was real. It was always amazing.

Today is sunny and in the low 40’s, but it still feels raw and cold. I fell asleep on the couch last night. Both dogs joined me and were still with me when I woke up this morning. All the lamps were lit and the back door was open. It was 11:20. I jumped up, went and brushed my teeth, got dressed and left right away for PT at noon in Orleans. I was early.

Nala has been coming in from the yard with dog food cans in her mouth. So far the number is 4. The yard also has all sorts of paper trash strew about the area nearest the deck. On my to do list is to grab the prisoner stick and clean the backyard before the villagers attack. I’m envisioning screaming neighbors carrying lit bundles of sticks standing in front of the house yelling, “Clean that yard. Clean that yard.”

Last night I went out on the deck. It was slushy and getting icy. Given my track record, I held on to the railings. I was on the hunt for one of my new Christmas pillows which had gone missing from the storage bag. From my vantage point, I saw it among the backyard trees and decided to get it. Nala saw me move and ran back toward where she had dropped it, but I distracted her and beat her to the pillow. It was a bit dirty but cleaned well. I’m putting it and all the other Christmas pillows down cellar today. I just hope this pillow is the last of Nala’s Christmas victims.

I get in the mood for certain foods when my larder is mostly empty so I think about ordering delivery. Three weeks ago I had an Italian sub, and it was exactly what I wanted. I knew that at the first bite. The other day I ordered Chinese food. It was perfect that day but less perfect the next one when I had leftovers. Today I’m thinking something hot for supper, maybe even soup. I think about holding a warm bowl of soup with steam escaping from the middle. I think about hands warned by the soup hot bowl. I also think about Saltines.