Today is brightly sunny, window beautiful. It is so windy even the heaviest pine tops and the thick oak are swaying. It is cold, in the low 30’s, and won’t get much warmer. I have no need to go out. My house is warm and cozy, also pretty dusty so I’m going to spot clean today, very few spots. I do see a dump run in my near future. The animals are having their morning naps, not to be confused with their afternoon naps or their evening naps.

After the dust has settled, so to speak, I’ll probably just read the day away, a half sloth day.

When I was a kid, I had my own bookcase in my bedroom. It was filled with mostly Whitman books, 49 cent cardboard hard covers I used to buy uptown at The Children’s Corner. A few Bobbsey Twins and several Nancy Drew’s were also on the shelves. I had some Harty Boys and some classics like Little Women and Zorro. The Whitman books were mostly in a series. I had all the Trixie Belden. She was a girl detective who lived in Sleepyside-on-Hudson. I loved that name. Her best friend was Honey, that much I remember. They solved mysteries. I also had Donna Parker books. She solved dilemmas and a couple of mysteries. I had more but those two I remember the most.

In my bedroom now is a short bookcase with two deep shelves. In the bookcase are most of the Whitman books from my childhoods bedroom. My mother and father brought the books down when I first moved into my house thinking something old would be welcomed. They were right. I filled the new bookcase I bought with most of my childhood books. The top became a side table.

I’m careful when I open those books, Most of their pages are yellowed and brittle and sometimes drop corner pieces, always corner pieces, on the floor. I was probably around nine when I read most of those books, except Little Women. I was ten when I read that book. It had been a Christmas present, and I didn’t put it down until I had read every page. It is also upstairs.

Today is cloudy. Rain is predicted. It is in the high 40’s, a typical March day on Cape Cod. I have a couple of errands to do and neither one is the dump. I’m saving that for another day. Oh, joyous! My piled beside the cellar door laundry is now a memory. I did three loads yesterday. The last load, a few sets of sheets, are still in the dryer. I suspect they are quite wrinkled but I don ‘t care. They can sit for a while.

I have been bored of late. I find myself cleaning the fridge, clearing cabinets, dusting and moving stuff around for a different look. I wish I could woodwork as I would make a small shelf to fit under the butcher block so I can use it for kitchen storage, for mostly marina sauce storage. I noticed three jars of it when I was rearranging, and I think there is another in the back. I have been thinking of clearing a bookcase shelf in the kitchen so I can fill it with some of my appliances like the panini press, but that too is for another day.

When I was a kid, I liked days like today, overcast with light gray clouds and no wind. The sounds in the classroom seemed subdued, as if the cloud cover was a shroud of sorts, maybe a cone of silence. The loudest sounds were papers rattling, desks opening and rosary beads clicking. We went from subject to subject with no break until lunch and recess. After lunch the afternoon always seemed to go so slowly. The clock was in the front of the room over the blackboard. I used to watch the hands move and click from minute to minute. I’d almost hold my breath waiting for those last couple of minutes, the go to the cloak room for your coats minutes. I can remember running out of school when the nuns finally let us go.

There is something about the rain. When I was a kid, I’d watch the rain hit the glass in the window. I’d follow one drop from when it hit to when it disappeared below the panes and the sill. Lightning and thunder added excitement to the rain. I’d watch hoping too see a bolt of lightning jagged against the sky. Many times the light caught my attention but afterwards, too late to watch.

Ghana had the best rainstorms. After the dry season, the rains came and flooded the roads and fields, both hard packed from no rain for months. The lightning was dramatic against the almost black sky. I know I have mentioned it before, when I saw the lighting bolt hid the ground in front of my house, but I had never been so close to lightning, and it still amazes me. Before that, lightning had always been high in the sky and a distance away. When I close my eyes, I can still see that bolt of lightning strike my front yard. Maybe I clapped and maybe I just kept repeating, “Wow! Wow!”