The morning is already warm, but an every now and then wind is helping cool the air. From out my den window, I can watch the tallest branches on the tallest oak trees in the backyard swinging back and forth in the wind, but then the wind dies and everything is still, and the air feels hot in the sun. But the wind, above all else, is persistent. When it reappears, everything moves, everything sways and everything swings.

Of late, I have been tired. First was the leg and foot, 5 weeks ago, and even now the top of my foot still hurts at night but only in the smallest spot. The cold popped in next. I had sloth days of napping and resting on the couch. That worked. The only remaining cold symptom is the cough which periodically rears its ugly head. I want a sign I can carry which says I have tested three times-no Covid. It is only a cough. That almost sounds like the title for a country song.

One of Egypt’s plagues has been visited upon me, the fourth plague. When I opened the car door on Wednesday morning, flies flew out the door. More flies were in the backseat and in the trunk when I opened it to check. This morning I opened the car door again and a swarm flew out, still part of that fourth plague. I left all the windows open hoping the flies will leave for sunnier climes, but I’m not that optimistic. I watched a fly this morning walk under one window then another without finding the route to freedom. Maybe I’ll make signs.

Today is a delight. It is a wonderful 75˚ with a cooling breeze which, at times, fancies itself a wind. I’m going out. I have a few errands today. I’m glad for that.

My coffee this morning is delicious. It is my first taste of Nicaraguan coffee. The bag came in the mail yesterday. I remember when coffee used to come in one pound bags. Even now I say I have to pick up a pound of coffee. It sounds better than I have to pick up 12 ounces of coffee.

I don’t remember when I started drinking coffee. I know I drank it every morning in college. I used to meet my friends in the canteen every day. We’d read the paper then do the crossword puzzle in a highly competitive competition. Usually there were three or four of us with our papers spread out on the table in front of us. I think we usually finished the puzzle. There were enough of us working on it.

In Ghana, I drank NESCAFÉ Classic instant coffee. It came in a tin with a brown label. I used evaporated milk in my coffee. It also came in a tin. That one had a red and white label. Ghana had no fresh milk back then. At first, I wasn’t a fan of morning coffee in Ghana. I drank a cup or two out of habit or maybe need, and during training I ate or drank whatever they served. When I got to my own house, I still drank the instant coffee because that’s all they had, but by then, after three months in Ghana, I had stopped noticing the taste. It was just coffee to me, morning coffee, my usual two cups, with a bit of milk from a can.

My father was the coffee drinker. My mother didn’t usually have a hot beverage in the morning unless she had biscotti and needed coffee for dunking. When she visited, I always had biscotti for her. One of my sisters drinks tea, the other coffee. We are an eclectic bunch.