My morning began with coffee and sloths. I drank my coffee and watched two sloths from the Stone Zoo being fed. They are actually darn cute animals. The sloths ate apples and sweet potatoes and were given grapes as a treat. Breakfasts with different animals are a fundraiser for Zoo New England. My sister has already had breakfast with kangaroos, and she joined me and the sloths. It was fun to watch. There is no question that sloths are slow, sleepy animals. They sleep 15-18 hours a day. I aspire to be a sloth.

The morning is cold, in the 30’s. We are going to have snow showers later, but already snow clouds cover the sky. I always think those clouds have a color of their own, a foreboding grayness. The air is quite still.

When I was a kid, I never noticed the cold. My mother always did. She was a firm believer in layers upon layers, but they were a problem when I got to school. The cloak room was narrow, and we were all fighting for enough space to take off the layers upon layers, and the hooks were too small for our bulky jackets so the jackets hung side by side holding each other up. Taking one jacket from the pile meant tugging and pulling and causing other jackets to fall. We thought it was funny. I doubt Sister Redempta did. She probably scowled, and that was enough to silence a whole classroom let alone a cloak room filled with kids one row at a time.

Fun with Dick and Jane was my reading book in the first grade. I remember it was in color. It was also quite repetitive. It sort of looked like my life. Their father wore a suit to work as did mine. Mother stayed home and did motherly things like housework. Where it differed was how strangely well-behaved the children were, including Sally the baby.

I have to go out today. That makes it two days in a row. I will definitely need a nap this afternoon. As for the rest of the week, I have an empty dance card.