The sounds of the wind and the rain woke me this morning. The rain was heavily beating on the roof, but the wind was intermittent. Both started last night, but the wind was first. I ran out for my newspapers with my hood over my head. Henry balked about going out but he did twice. The second time he went out he came in the dog door to get out of the rain. Usually he waits for me to let him in. I am well trained.

Potatoes and onions are baking right now. There are small Yukon Gold potatoes, a sweet potato, two regular potatoes and two white onions. I can smell the onions, but it is a sweet smell. I have to keep an eye on the Yukon Gold.

I cleaned more yesterday. I wasn’t going to clean but guilt got me up. I finished washing and dusting all the boxes and trinkets and books. I can’t believe how shiny and bright everything looks. The wall shelves are next.

While I was watching YouTube, I got a tour of a rental. The door was shown but not opened to the basement. Here we don’t have basements. We have cellars. We even have an interesting way of using cellar in a sentence as in put it down cellar, not put it down the cellar, just cellar. I remember my mother telling us to go play down cellar. Maybe it is a New England thing.

When I was a kid, I had everything I needed. I had a bike to take me anywhere. I had roller-skates which were just fun, never a means of transport, but I loved roller skating on the parking lot near my house. I remember the tingling on my feet when I skated and how strange it felt to walk after roller skating. I got a transistor radio one Christmas, and I used to put it in my bike basket and roll with the tunes, on AM stations back then. I remember the radio bouncing in the air when I hit a bump. I always thought I was a lucky kid.