I missed this morning. It was after noon when I woke up. I had gotten up earlier and let the dogs out then I waited for Henry so I could let him in. While I was waiting, I decided it was too early to be stirring so Henry and I went back to bed. Nala joined us later.

I’m going to defend my late morning or my early afternoon. Given the particulars, I’m leaning toward late morning. It was close to four AM when I went upstairs to the cats. I cleaned their bowls, filled their bowls, cleaned the litter boxes and combed both of them. Jack purred. Gwen want back to her dish. Gwen is always the first at the water and the food. Meanwhile, for the entire time, the two dogs stood right outside the gate which protects the cat room from Nala’s incursions. They wanted treats. They got treats.

Yesterday I was out for close to three hours. I had four errands including the dump. I was going to delay the dump until the weekend, but my errands were right by the dump road so I went. My last stop of the day was at the Harwich Farmer’s Market. We performed a uke concert for an hour. I shopped after and bought scones, macrons and lemon cucumbers.

I dreaded getting home yesterday. I figured Nala probably got bored and found stuff to keep her busy. She did. In the hall were the remnants of this week’s TV Guide and the front and back pages of next week’s. I found pieces of wood in three different rooms. The wood pieces had small black lines I recognized as part of my ruler, the one which has been on the table for months and months. I also found the bottom half of my new pen. The top half is still missing.

Today I am staying inside. I have no reason to be out and about, and I do need to do a few inside chores. I have to vacuum the hall, the kitchen and the living room. I also need to wash the kitchen floor, the one with all the dog prints. I had delayed washing the floor figuring rain had been predicted, but it didn’t rain. I have delayed even more figuring it may rain next week so why wash the floor today. That excuse go on for months except the dirty floor is driving me crazy. It will be washed later.

Yesterday I made myself a fluffernutter for lunch. I was just in the mood for one. I had nice soft Hawaiian bread, and soft bread is an essential ingredient to the perfect fluffernutter. I spread the gooey goodness across each slice of bread from corner to corner, peanut butter on the left slice and Marshmallow Fluff on the right (arbitrary choice I know). I put the sandwich together, out it on a small plate and took it to the den table. Henry wanted in so I went to the door. I was gone a minute. When I walked into the den, the sandwich was gone. Nala hadn’t enough time to escape to the yard so she was standing on the couch with the sandwich in her mouth. I confiscated her prize, reprimanded her, threw the sandwich away and made another one I guarded with my life. Nala watched me eat it. I swear she had a pained look.

The morning is hot. It is already 80˚. The high will be 85˚. My AC is cranking. The dogs are chasing each other up and down the hall, not my favorite playtime activity for them. I usually say take it outside, but it is too hot. They are out and back inside quickly. It is almost time for morning naps.

Henry needs his nails trimmed. He saw me put the nail cutter on the table, and he took off to parts unknown. Henry is too smart to be duped more than once. I’ll have to be more creative.

When I was a kid, I never took a nap. There were so many places to visit and so much to do every day that sleeping the afternoon away never occurred to me. I was in college when I first started taking naps. They were mostly so I could study through the night. In Ghana, even in the afternoon heat, I took a nap. The whole town took a nap. My students had a rest time in their dorms. The post office closed for a couple of hours. Everything slowed down in town. I sometimes did kiosk shopping in the hot afternoon. The kiosks only closed late at night. I bought margarine, canned milk, instant coffee, toilet paper and bagged sugar and flour.

My first view of Ghana was on the bus ride from the airport to our training site. The kiosks caught my attention. I have two pictures out the bus window of these roadside mini-marts lining the sidewalks on both sides. Some looked like large boxes with shelves and two doors while others were just wood framed. They sold all sorts of things, and many of them sold all the same items of food and tickets for the lotto. I never understood how anybody could make money from a kiosk.

In my town, there weren’t as many kiosks. I always stopped at the ones right in the center of town across the street from the store with cold Cokes. I used a shepherd’s bag to carry my goods. It was woven and it stretched. I remember putting a shepherd’s bag on each handlebar of my motorcycle for even weight. The bags were stretched so much that the cans weighed down at the bottom. I kept banging my knees on the hanging bags.

I was going to the dump today, but it is far too hot to toss heavy trash bags. I do have a couple of errands so I’ll be going out later. I’ll be running from the cold car to cold buildings so I’ll have to contend with foggy glasses though I figure that’s a small price to pay for comfort.