Today is another delight. It will be hot, Cape Cod hot, at a high of 81˚. I have yard work I didn’t finish yesterday which includes trash picking the yard. I’m missing a container of nails. It was on the deck then it wasn’t. I need to water the flowers on the deck, put the screen in the back door, wash the big table, bring out more chairs and sand and paint the small red table. I figure when I’m done I’ll deck it for the rest of the day.

I’ve never believed in ghosts. I think aliens are more likely though I doubt them too. Most aliens are quite unfriendly according to the plots of the black and white movies I’ve see, and they want our planet. I used to watch The Invaders where aliens disguised themselves as humans, but the aliens were easy for David Vincent to find. They had a weird finger. After that, I used to look at peoples’ hands. I never caught an alien.

When I was a kid, Saturday was chore day for my dad. He brought his shirts to the Chinese laundry, got a trim at the barber’s just up the street from the laundry, cleaned the yard and mowed the lawn.

Sometimes we went to the drive-in on Saturday nights. When I was younger, I wore my pajamas as did most kids. If we were early, my brother and I would go to the playground in front of the concession building. Sometimes we would sit on one of the benches and watch the movie from there. I’ve mentioned before how my father wanted to beat the line of cars leaving so he’d leave before the end of the move. I hated that. One time, when I was really young, I went to the bathroom by myself and, afterwards, couldn’t find the car. I walked up and down lines of cars getting more and more panicky. I somehow ended up in the concession building. They announced over the car speakers, “Would the parents of Kathleen Ryan please come to the concession stand.” It wasn’t my finest moment.

The early morning was cool, in the 60’s. Now it is 72˚ and getting warmer. The sky is partly cloudy. The light breeze is cooling. Today is a deck day, not for lolling but for decorating. I want to finish putting all my pictures and doo-dads on the back shingles. I also need to clean the yard, and I think I have to fill in a couple of holes. Nala has dirt on her face, not a good sign.

When I was a kid, my dog Duke followed us everywhere. He also used to roam far and wide, sometimes with his son Sam. Duke was a smaller boxer, a brindle, while Sam was a fawn and far bigger than Duke. He was also not as smart, but he had the best grin. My mother used to get phone calls about the dogs. One time the dogs wouldn’t leave a yard so the lady called complaining she couldn’t leave her house because of the two dogs. She was afraid they’d attack her. Come to find out her dog was in heat, and both dogs were hoping. My father went and got them.

When I was growing up, I had favorite places. The field below my house was one of them. I remember one year when the whole neighborhood had an Easter egg hunt in and around the field. I got the big prize. I found the golden egg. I loved running through the field when the grass was high. I chased the grasshoppers jumping in front of me. They were all brown. Paths in the field led to the swamp, the blueberry patch and the water tower. I always ate the blueberries. The swamp was a stop where I checked the water, watched the tadpoles and later watched after they had become frogs. If I kept walking passed the swamp, I’d be on the street where the cemetery was. Later my parents moved close to the cemetery, and they could see the cemetery’s metal fence down the short hilly street in front of their house. My father used to tell us when he died we were to roll him down the hill and bury him.

My dance card is empty until Monday. This was a full week, and I was busy, out of the house busy, from Monday to Thursday. Today is stay at home busy. I like it. I get to stay in my cozies.