What a surprise! It is wet and rainy. The high will be in the low 40’s. Henry still needs dog food so, despite the rain, I’ll venture. A delivery is due today but won’t be here until after Henry’s usual dinner time.

Yesterday I was busy around the house. Most of Christmas is packed into bins. My presents have been put away. Tomorrow, the Epiphany, will be the end of lights shining in the darkness. Already most of my neighborhood is dark again.

When I was a kid, the early darkness and the cold of winter kept us inside after school. We watched TV or played in the cellar. If I had a book to read, it was my first choice though I would never turn down a game of Sorry. I don’t remember when our tree came down, but I think it probably was around New Year’s when my father had the day off. I do remember his struggle to get the tree out through our front door. All the while he wrestled with it, the tree dropped needles and pieces of icicles on the floor from the corner where it stood to the door. The rug looked like a road of needles. Clean up was never easy.

Okay, at one time I was an English teacher. I wince when I hear English turned on its head, upside down, a mishmash. It would be like a musician forced to listen to out of tune singers or instruments. This morning I got a chuckle from an article in the Cape paper about a man who stole a sword from a Revolutionary War statue forty years ago and wanted to return it. This quote is from Gaylord, the head of the historical commission. “Gaylord agreed to give the man anonymity if he returned the bronze sword and arranged for him to drop it off at her home along with his wife,” she said. I wonder what the man’s wife is thinking.

I slept quite late this morning and woke up closer to the afternoon than the morning. I have only read one paper, but I did watch MSNBC to check on the latest news. I have decided I can’t stand MSNBC’s and CNN’s in between program commercials. This morning I took a shower and made my bed while the commercials were playing.

In Ghana, salads had weird ingredients. They never had lettuce or cucumbers or peppers. Those veggies were’t grown in Ghana back then. There were hard-boiled eggs, tomatoes, Heinz baked beans and canned peas all stirred together with salad cream. I never made a salad, but any time I was invited to dinner at a Ghanaian’s house, this salad of sorts was on the table. I choked it down trying not to gag on the cold beans and cold peas, both straight from the can.

It rained during the night. I never heard it, but everything being wet this morning gave it away. Showers will continue during the day. The high will be in the 40’s. I do need to go out for animal food, but I’ll do a pick up at Agway and maybe a Ring’s pick-up for me. I do need milk.

Putting away Christmas will be finished today except for the tree. It will stay in the living room until Thursday when it will be returned to the cellar. My living room will look bare and dark. I do have a white lights set I never used. I’ll have to think on that.

After all this time in the house, I’m running out of things to keep me occupied. Yesterday’s sweep of the kitchen floor and the wet mopping which followed are signs of creeping boredom. I don’t just clean for the sake of it. Wait, wait, I forgot I have a new jigsaw puzzle. Hurrah, the day is saved.

I’m finding being alone more and more acceptable over time. The same thing happened in Ghana where I lived alone for the first time in my life. It took a while for me to adjust, but I did.

One of the effects of this pandemic is I have lost touch with friends which saddens me, but Bill and Peg and I have become closer as we’ve traded calls and kept in touch every few days. We make each other laugh, and I can’t think of anything better, but even Bill and Peg have become disembodied voices on the phone so we’re going to Zoom. I’ll wear my party hat.