Today is a wonderful fall day. The sun is shining and highlighting the blue sky behind it. It is 56°, but it will get warmer as the day passes. The dogs love this weather. They stay outside playing and chasing each other coming in only to wag tails and hope for treats. They usually get one.

When I woke up this morning, the day felt right. The weather is perfect. I enjoyed an everything English muffin with cream cheese, and I drank delicious coffee from Honduras. My usual two cups became three. I am wearing my best cozies: a red hoodie, warm socks and flannel pants, actually Christmas pants with lobsters, whales and crabs celebrating the occasion. The crabs are wearing Santa hats. The lobsters are decorating with lights. The whales have candy canes. The pants are wonderfully warm.

My sister told about her dream last night. She and I were in Boston in what was a sketchy part of town where the old Trailway’s bus terminal used to be. We parked our cars and went into a subway station right there, a station which existed only in her dream. We didn’t take the subway train for an unknown reason so we decided to go back to our cars. I was wearing an expensive red coat which attracted two 20 something guys who started to follow me. My sister tried to warn me but couldn’t get it out of her mouth. That was when two guys started following her. She woke up then and was still trying to scream.

We both remembered that terminal. I used to to go there to get busses home to the cape from school. A great magic shop was around the corner. There was a western bar near it. I remember a wagon wheel. The terminal was a bit gross and often some homeless guy was sleeping on a chair. There was a restaurant and a newspaper kiosk inside the station. I told my sister a memory about that station which has always stayed with me. I was sitting inside smoking my cigarette when they called my bus. I put the butt in the sand of an ashtray and started to grab my stuff when a guy, a gross guy, came over. He took the butt out of the ashtray and lit it. What was worse was he must have been watching me. I grabbed my stuff and ran to the bus.

Hooray!! The pins are gone. I saw the surgeon at the ungodly hour of eight this morning when he pulled out the pins and checked my finger. Even though the finger is still swollen at the knuckle, and the stitches have yet to disappear he was pleased and said it looked better than he had expected. He was surprised I hadn’t started therapy yet so I expect that will happen next week. Road to recovery here I come!

My dance is empty for most of the week. I only need to take Henry to the vet’s. That will be the only day I wear outside clothes.

My grandmothers wore old lady clothes, the same as all other old ladies. They wore flowered dresses with buttons and fronts which showed little neck. Their shoes were heels, thick, short heels. Stockings were a part of every ensemble. On rainy days one of my grandmothers wore a plastic rain bonnet and covered her shoes in plastic boots with a button across the fronts to close them. In the house aprons covered their dresses, aprons with bibs. My mother never wore old lady clothes though when I was young she sometimes wore a house dress. I don’t remember when it happened, but only lady clothes went out of fashion. Now, old ladies wear whatever they want. I swear high tops and sweatshirts.

On the way home this morning I stopped to buy an apple and a blueberry pastry. I had the apple with coffee and was kind enough to share with the dogs. The crumbled paper was on the table after we had finished. Nala gave me a look then stole the paper and ran into the yard. I didn’t bother to chase the brazen dog. I’ll just do a yard clean-up later. Speaking of Nala, she had her well dog vet visit yesterday. Miss Nala now weighs in at 61 pounds. The vet thought she looked great, in perfect condition. She had a couple of shots and a blood draw. Her nails were also trimmed. The tech who brought her back to me said she is sweet, and I am lucky they gave her back to me. Henry goes next week.

When I was a kid, I always thought life was easy. I liked school. I didn’t like church but only once a week was bearable, and it was more bearable if I sneaked in a book to read. Saturday was my favorite day. I could pick from so many things to do. I loved the matinee at the movie theater uptown. I got not only a movie but also cartoons and a candy bar. In the winter I could ice skate until my feet hurt. In the summer I could go swimming at the pool for only a dime. My bike was always at the ready. Most times I skated and swam with friends, but I was usually by myself when I went bike riding. I liked it that way. I could wherever I wanted.