Posted tagged ‘errands’
January 9, 2015
I should be out on the deck replenishing my vitamin D except I can’t. The sun has gone. One day here, the next day gone. It is, however, warm, 32˚. That may sound cold, but it was minus 1 yesterday morning. Today is almost tropical.
Late again I suppose you’re thinking. Well, I had PT this morning then did a couple of errands. I figured I was out anyway so why not. Yesterday I got the tree down and outside by myself. Only a few needles fell on the floor when I dropped the tree. Using one hand on the trunk and the other to move the base to get at the plastic bag was like juggling. I have been productive this week in stark contrast to being a sloth the whole of last week.
One of today’s errands was really self-serving. I bought my all time favorite sandwich for lunch: a panini with avocado, cheddar, tomato, bacon and spicy mayo. It was a reward of sorts.
Last night I thought I heard a noise coming from the living room so I muted the TV to listen. I heard it again. Neither Gracie nor Fern the cat stirred from sleeping beside me on the couch, but I went to investigate anyway. The sound came from the chimney and sounded like an attack on the flue. A raccoon one time tried to get in by pulling at the flue but the chimney has since been capped so I couldn’t imagine it was anything but the wind. Just in case, though, I banged the fireplace screen a few times. When I went out today, I checked and the chimney was still capped.
I have no weekend plans. I’m perfectly happy being comfy in the warmth of my house. My friend Peg sent me a tin of cookies and an ornament of Elvis singing Winter Wonderland. I’m all set. I have food and entertainment!
Categories: Musings
Tags: 32˚, chimney noises, cleaning living room, empty dance card, errands, favorite sandwich, panini, PT, putting tree outside, sloth, Wind
Comments: 8 Comments
January 3, 2015
No new experiences can be had sitting in my den. I haven’t been outside for a few days except to get the mail and newspapers and fill the feeders. Last night I noticed two strings of lights on the deck rail were no longer lit so I went out and unwound them from the deck. It was cold, and I wondered why in the heck I was doing that. I didn’t have an answer but once I started I needed to finish. Now only half the rail is lit, and I’m wrestling with the half full, half empty concept.
We, Gracie and I, have to go out today. She is out of canned food, my trunk is filled with trash and I need to go to the pharmacy. It is an ugly day, cold and cloudy. Rain is expected tonight. It is a perfect day to hunker down, but that will have to come later.
I diligently read two papers every morning. When I write that here, I always get comments about reading on-line and why aren’t I. That’s easy to answer. I like the feel of the paper, the sound of the pages and all the small pieces of content. It takes me a while to read both papers. I skip over international news in the Cape Times as I had already read it in the Globe. I pick and choose what to read on the sports pages. I am first and foremost a baseball fan, but I have a while to wait before it resurfaces. I read football stories if they are about the Patriots. I am not such a football fan that anything else is of interest except I did read about Rex Ryan cleaning out his office even before he was fired on Black Monday. In college I seldom missed a home hockey game, but I don’t like hockey, never have. It was the pre-game festivities which drew me in college. I do like basketball, but I haven’t followed the Celts the way I used to.
The last thing I do in the Globe is the crossword puzzle. The last thing I do in the Times is the cryptogram. The puzzle gets finished. Sometimes the cryptogram doesn’t and that drives me crazy and frustrates the hell out of me. I tend to ball up the page and toss it. That makes me feel just a little bit better.
This morning I finished both of them.
Categories: Musings
Tags: Baseball, Boston Globe, burned out lights, Cape Cod Times, cold night, crossword puzzle, cryptogram, dog food, errands, football, international news, newspapers, Red Sox, sports pages
Comments: 10 Comments
December 28, 2014
The rain is back, but it’s a light rain, a tolerable rain. The day is warmer than expected. Gracie and I are going to the dump later. I also need to hit the store for a few essentials like cream for my coffee and bread. Gracie has only one can of dog food left so I’ll stop at Agway. I am not in an errand mood.
Decorating the house for Christmas is fun, filled with anticipation and memories of Christmases past. Cherished ornaments take their places in the front of the tree, and I move them around until they are just right. The tree is most beautiful at night with its lights brightening the room and reflecting in window panes. Soon enough, though, it will be time to take down Christmas. I usually do it all in one day as I don’t want remnants of Christmas hanging around, too much regret at its passing. Once I’m finished and Christmas is back in the cellar the rooms look bland. The only lights which stay all year are in the windows and in the kitchen where the shell lights and the pepper bunch light up the whole corner. After New Year’s is take down day.
I love the syfy channel, and I love comically bad movies, but sometimes my suspension of disbelief just can’t fight the absurdity. Cars chase running people who stay in the middle of the road. Veering toward a sidewalk between parked cars is never given a thought. Standing and watching a car flying right at you in a storm is common. The next shot is always the car and a body underneath it. Storms and strange prehistoric creatures bring out the silliness more than most plot details. A creature appears. Some idiot standing in a field stays there and the next thing is he is being flown away with his legs dangling from the creature’s mouth, sort of a take-out dinner. As for me, I admit I watch anyway. I really do love the absurdity.
Categories: Musings
Tags: Accra, boring house, errands, rain, silly people, Suspension of disbelief, syfy movies, taking down decorations, warm day
Comments: 10 Comments
December 22, 2014
Last night it rained. I never heard it so I was surprised to find everything still a bit wet this morning. The sun keeps trying to break through the clouds but hasn’t quite made it. It is a warm day, in the mid 40’s. Today is a baking day for me.
I have a memory of a day much like today, a warm, cloudy day, the day before Christmas. I think I was nine or ten. My mother sent me on an errand to the white store probably for milk or bread, staples we seem to run out of often. I could barely believe she expected me to do a plain, every day errand on Christmas Eve, but she did. I took my bike out of the cellar, walked it around front and then rode down my father’s grassy hill, the one we were never to ride down but the one we always did. I remember riding around the corner, passing the brick house, stopping at the next corner to check for cars then pedaling as fast as I could straight away on the next street and around a corner to the stop at Spring Street to check for cars all the while muttering and bemoaning my fate. I made that trip to the white store so often I can still see the streets and the houses in my mind’s eye. There were two odd houses. One was the brick house near my street and the other was a ranch squeezed on a small lot among houses built in the 40’s. It always looked out-of-place. I remember putting the package in the front basket of my bike and using one hand to hold it so it wouldn’t bounce out at bumps in the road. My other hand was steering. The ride home that day seemed endless, far longer than the ride to get there. I think it was the bumps and the package and the day before Christmas.
Categories: Musings
Tags: bike basket, brick house, errands, memories of Christmas, milk and bread, rain and clouds, ranch house, riding down hills, riding my bike, Spring Street, warmth, white store
Comments: 4 Comments
December 19, 2014
It is quite late for me because I had several errands. I also treated myself to lunch in between as I had a half hour wait before I could finish my last errand. Today is a still day, a windless day. It is dark and cold. Everyone was bundled up and was moving quickly from store to store.
I need to get out of my public clothes into my cozies. I’ll be glad when I’m really old because I’ll wear whatever I want in public and people will chalk it up to old age.
The Christmas tree lot at Stop and Shop is gone. A few trees are on the ground, the leftovers I expect. Agway is still open but has very few trees. I remember my mother talking about her Christmas tree and how it was decorated when they were in bed on Christmas Eve. They’d wake up in the morning to a glorious tree and gifts from Santa. I like having the tree around longer. I get to admire it in the living room, and I get to sit and read surrounded by Christmas. Both trees are lit now. They have given the day its only color.
Fern has taken to sleeping on the tree skirt. She falls asleep warmed by the lights and sleeps so deeply she snores but ever so slightly. I have to listen closely to hear her. Gracie, on the other hand, snores loudly, like a grown man, a big grown man. She snorts as she sleeps. Sometimes I can’t fall asleep for the racket. Boxers tend to be snorers.
A few Christmas jobs remain. I have my baking to do, presents to wrap for my Cape friends and Christmas dinner to plan. I ordered a pork roast from the butcher, but that is as far as I’ve gotten. I know I’ll do an apple dish and some sort of potato, and I’m thinking baby carrots for color and one more vegetable yet to be decided. I’m going to do a relish tray. My grandmother always had one on her table when we ate there. I was always drawn to the celery. I have the perfect dish to use: a very old glass sectioned plate just like the one my grandmother had. The old touches are always great memories to add to the table.
When I think of dessert, I think of the Cratchits and their Christmas pudding. The flame was always so dramatic and such a splendid finish to dinner.
Categories: Musings
Tags: cat under the tree, Christmas Eve, Christmas trees, cold, cozy clothes, dark day, decorating the tree, errands, planning dinner, relish tray, Snoring, still day, tree lights, wrapping presents
Comments: 10 Comments
December 9, 2014
The wind is howling and the rain is falling sideways. My backyard trees are again dancing in the wind, back and forth and back and forth. The rain has flooded roads and is falling so heavily that even a quick dash means getting cold and wet. This morning I made four stops. First was the library board meeting, then the post office, then PT and finally the store for life’s essentials: bread, cat food, chicken and a chocolate bar.
I am so happy to be back inside my warm, dry house. When I finish writing, I’m going upstairs and put on my cozies. I bought some clam chowder for dinner. It seemed perfect for a day like today.
Yesterday I brought up a few Christmas decorations from the cellar and later today I hope to decorate some more. The tree in the dining room is lit. I like to go the long way around to the stairs so I get to see the tree. I can hardly wait for the big tree, but now I have to hope for a couple of dry days.
The gold finches have braved the rain and are at the feeder though it swaying in the wind. The red spawn doesn’t seem to like the rain. He is probably in a cozy nest snacking on my sunflower seeds. If he were a character in The Wind in the Willows, his nest would have comfy furniture, a fireplace and a filled pantry. He’d be sitting by the fire with his feet on an ottoman as he drinks afternoon tea from a dainty China cup.
The last wind storm took down several of my outside decorations. I had to go down the side hill which is covered with brush, thorns and branches. Getting down is never the problem. Getting back up always is as I have nothing to hold on to help pull myself up. The other day I threw the ornaments I had retrieved onto the grass above the hill so I could have both hands free. I made it safely up the hill, a major accomplishment for me.
Now to my slippers and my cozies and maybe, just maybe, a nap.
Categories: Musings
Tags: chilly day, Christmas decorations, clam chowder, cozies, cozy, dancing trees, errands, getting soaked, rain, red spawn, Tree, warm nest, Wind, Wind in the Willows
Comments: 12 Comments
November 10, 2014
Today is a lovely fall day with a slight breeze, mottled light shining through the backyard branches and birds at all the feeders. It is a quiet day. I don’t even hear cars. I do hear the snoring, especially Gracie’s. She seems herself. The next test for her is Saturday.
I have to buy cat food and litter today so Gracie and I will be out and about later. I also need some cold cuts so I can keep hiding the horse-sized pill she takes each morning.
I have started my Christmas shopping. Everything I’ve bought is on one of the guest room beds so I have to start checking what’s there and making a list of what I need. My sister in Colorado never helps. I ask and she says she’ll have to think about it. That drives me crazy. My other sister usually has one big item in mind and always asks if it is too expensive. It never is. The best part of Christmas presents is getting something you really want. I may drive my sister crazy this year as I have nothing in mind. I’ll just let her surprise me.
The three boys are getting Hess trucks for one of their gifts. They get one every year. The baby will only be 5 months by Christmas, but I figured I’d start his collection. Both babies got hand-knit stockings already, and I have ordered each of them a wooden box containing three handmade ornaments including Baby’s First Christmas. Kids are easy. Adults seldom are. To some I give magazine subscriptions including Afar, Smithsonian, Bon Appetit and Yankee. They are always a big hit as gifts. I’ll also do some hunting in local stores as I love to find different and off-beat gifts, and there are a few stores I can always count on for something special.
Well, my back is horrific today. I did too much yesterday. That’s always the way with me. It happens all the time. I am a slow learner.
Categories: Musings
Tags: baby's first Christmas, Christmas presents, Christmas shopping, Christmas stockings, cool, errands, fun stores, horse pills, lovely day, magazine subscription, off-beat gifts, sunny day
Comments: 15 Comments
November 1, 2014
Today is rainy, dark and dismal. It will get colder tonight and by tomorrow night will be in the 30’s. Mother Nature’s weather this time of year seems confused about its identity. Is it fall or is it beginning of winter? 60˚ will be back by Wednesday.
My short sleeve shirts are in the bin, my sandals are in the back of the closet, the movie projector and screen will be put in the cellar and the deck will be closed on Monday. I’m wearing my slippers and a sweat shirt. It is the start of winter mode. I always feel sad to pack summer away.
I have some errands today so I am glad for the rain. It keeps people home.
Last night I had 18 trick or treaters, a big number for me. Most were little kids, but a couple were high school age. I didn’t care. They got candy anyway. My large size Necco Wafers were a hit. Kids were yelling to their parents waiting on the street about the size of the candy. My neighbors across the street turned out their light at six. Mine went out at 7:30.
For the most part I don’t mind growing old. The grey hairs are a badge of honor. The wrinkles aren’t as bad as I thought they’d be by now; however, I do worry about one thing: the old lady temperament. I am already impatient enough without adding old lady to the mix. What if I start scowling for no reason? Will I get pushy? I think old people believe they are entitled simply because of longevity. The whole aisle in the store is theirs. To ask nicely to pass by merits a tsk or two or even a look. I don’t mind growing old. I just mind being old.
Categories: Musings
Tags: dismal, entitlement, errands, Getting Old, grey hairs, Halloween candy, rainy, scowls
Comments: 14 Comments
October 24, 2014
Today is much like the last few days, rainy and dark. The wind is still here, steady and strong. The oak leaves and the pine branches sway from side to side. The deck is littered with pine needles and yellow leaves.
Today we will venture, Gracie and I. We have five stops starting with Gracie’s second favorite place, the dump. Her very favorite place is Agway where dogs are welcome and where I buy her food and treats and food for the cats, and it too is on the list. Gracie will be a happy dog.
My backyard has lights wrapped around tree trunks. The palm tree is on the farmer’s deck. The fir tree in the deck corner has a single set of lights which are lit always. I think my yard has a touch of magic. I look out the window even on the darkest nights and see those spots of color beaming and radiating. Winter will come when night will last longer than day, but in my yard, there is always some light.
The house is quiet. All the animals are having their morning naps and all of them, all three of them, are in the den here with me. Gracie snores now and then and breathes deeply. The cats sleep soundlessly. How exhausted they all must be after a good night’s sleep. I remember sitting in school on dark, rainy days. The old school with its tall windows was the best spot to watch the rain, and I’d be drawn in by the sound of drops hitting those windows. We were quiet on day’s like today as if the rain had a dampening effect on all of us. During lunch we tended to whisper. We bemoaned our fate, stuck with no recess, no chance to let go of the energy stifled by sitting at a desk.
The basement bathrooms were four sets of wooden stairs away from the room, and those stairs were the only exercise on a rainy day. The nun herded us down in two lines, the boy’s line and the girl’s line, one on each side of the steps. At the bottom of the final set boys went right and girls went left. None of us ever dawdled. We’d finish and join the line to go back upstairs. When we were all done, the nun walked us back to our room. Nobody ever made a sound going up or down the stairs. We didn’t dare.
Categories: Musings
Tags: Agway, errands, oak eaves, pine trunks, quiet days of rain, rainy days in school, school bathroom, school lunchtime, tall windows, the dump, wind and rain, wooden stairs
Comments: 8 Comments
October 9, 2014
I swear it was sunny when I went outside to get the papers. Now it is cloudy and dark. The trees in the backyard look stark against the grey sky. It is cooler than it has been. I have no complaints, though, as it was 70˚ yesterday. I went about my errands with the window down. I had a list and missed nothing, even got my flu shot.
I have been restless and don’t know the reason. I go from being on-line to reading to cleaning and finally to wandering the house looking for something to do. I have polished and dusted. I have swept the kitchen then wet mopped the floor. My timing, though, is bad. My cleaning couple come today.
I don’t remember watching my mother clean the house. She did it while we were in school. I have no idea as to her routine. I just know the house was clean and the beds were made when I got home. In the late afternoon, my mother would start to work on dinner. I remember her standing by the sink peeling potatoes. It is always 16 Washington Ave in my memories. That is where I spent most of my growing up years. Here and there are memories of earlier and later places, but I can still remember every room at 16 Washington Ave. I remember looking out the picture window at the rain or the snow or the wind blowing leaves down the street. The television was in a cabinet. There were two closets downstairs almost right next to each other, and I always wondered why the builders did it that way. The first, the larger of the two, was where the coats and boots were kept. My dad would come home from work, take off and then hang up his topcoat and put his hat on the shelf. The other closet, in a nook, wasn’t as deep. The ironing board and iron were there, and my mother used to hide Christmas presents in the back. That’s all I remember about that closet.
We always said Washington Ave, never Washington Avenue. I don’t know why.
Categories: Musings
Tags: cleaning, cooler, errands, grey sky, hat, making beds, my mother, peeling potatoes, restless, stark, top coat, two closets
Comments: 6 Comments
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