A cloud follows me everywhere. It is right over my head. Sometimes I get wet. All the time I live in the shade. Okay, I’ve not fallen off the deep end here. I am spreading my wings, merely waxing poetic. I have moved beyond screaming into a far different realm where my words rhyme.

We have no sun. We never have sun. We have 49˚ with clouds. We had fog but it has dissipated as they say on the weather. It will get cold tonight. Snow is predicted for tomorrow, an inch or a bit more. I guess we’re easing into winter, real winter one inch at a time. Meanwhile, my sister in Colorado is living with snow, inches of snow, and single degree temperatures. She stays hunkered.

I had some groceries delivered today. I needed light cream for my coffee. It was the first item on my list. It was also missing, the only item they did not substitute. I don’t dare leave my house today, something about karma. I’m humming Clouds in My Coffee.

Henry came in the dog door twice today, but he is right now banging the door cover alerting me he wants to come in again, and I should open the door. I don’t get it.

When I was a kid, Sunday was a lost day. We were stuck with church in the morning. Most times I walked there by myself, but sometimes I went to early mass with my father. I was never a fan of early mass, but it had perks. I got a dime for the basket and a donut of my choice after mass as my father always brought home a dozen. His donut choices were boring, and he never remembered what I liked. He bought plain donuts, called old-fashioned at Dunkin’, in cruller and round shapes, glazed donuts and jelly donuts. His favorite was the plain. He used to spread butter across the top of the donut. His butter had texture with hills and valleys. I think he bought all those plain donuts as he knew they would be the last to go. I swear it was the same half donut left in the box every week in a sort of haunting. I never buy a dozen donuts.

Happy New Year!

I slept late this morning. I woke up to clouds and rain. I woke up and remembered it was a new year still filled with hope as are all new years. I jumped out of bed, ran downstairs, let the dogs out, put on the coffee, ran back upstairs, gave Gwen her shot and both cats their food, some scratches and pats, ran back downstairs, let Henry inside then went to the front yard to get today’s paper. I got rained on.

When I was a kid, we used to watch the Rose Parade every New Year’s Day. That the parade was in black and white was no nevermind. That’s all we knew. We’d eat our cereal sitting on the floor in front of the TV as close to the screen as my mother would let us sit. She didn’t want us to go blind. We all loved parades.

That New Year’s Day was the last day of Christmas vacation didn’t escape us, but we were ready to go back to school. It was easy to run out of stuff to do when you’re stuck inside because of the cold or the rain, and that always happened during Christmas vacation.

I prefer mittens to gloves. They keep my hands warmer, but I do have a pair or two of gloves anyway. I keep one pair in the car, as sort of part of an emergency kit. Actually, I think it’s the only item in my winter emergency kit or any emergency kit for that matter. Anyway, inside the house, under the coat rack AKA the clothes tree, I have a Bolga basket filled with mittens, one pair of gloves and two short scarves. My long new scarf is drying off from having been dragged into the rain onto the deck. The perp is known but will not be identified.

Ketchup on hot dogs and eggs is just wrong. In a bit of a stretch, I can see but not condone ketchup on a hot dog as it is a condiment related in function to mustard and or relish and maybe some chopped onions, the proper toppings.

People don’t put ketchup on fried eggs or eggs Benedict, poached eggs or eggs on toast as called them when I was a kid, or on egg salad, which I find a bit gross in appearance anyway, or on soft boiled eggs which we used to eat from chicken looking egg cups. People mostly put ketchup on scrambled eggs. What is it about scrambled eggs that invites ketchup? Why not on the other eggs? I use salt and pepper, mostly pepper.

Why do people put paper towels in only one direction with no arguments as to which direction? Toilet paper direction, on the other hand, is cause for war. Why one and not the other? The answer may be the key to solving all the mysteries of the universe.