Posted tagged ‘Gracie’
November 27, 2012
The weather is back to cloudy, grey and bleak. Rain is expected here while off-cape will be getting a little snow, an inch or two. I figure it’s just enough to remind people that winter is impatiently waiting in the wings. Yesterday I actually did some cleaning, a bit of polishing and dusting. I also filled all of the bird feeders and put out new thistle and suet feeders. Today I have to bring up the laundry from the cellar and do a few errands. Gracie will be glad for the errands. I’m not so glad about the laundry.
When I worked, I was able to fit in all the errands and chores despite the long work day. Weekends were filled with laundry, grocery shopping, cleaning and a run to the dump. I was usually in bed on school nights by 10 as the day started around 5:15 or 5:30. The alarm went off at 5, but I always hit the snooze button so I could feel as if I were cheating the clock in some small way.
Since my retirement I have noticed strange phenomenons. Though I have all the time in the world, I don’t get a whole lot done. I procrastinate as there is always tomorrow or the next day or the next, on and on. I also noticed I have become protective of my time. The phone gets answered reluctantly though I’m okay if it’s a friend or a family member. I hate appointments. They usurp my time. This week I have two, both of which I voluntarily made: one is to have my car checked for servicing and the other is stuffing envelopes at the museum where I am a volunteer. Based on past performances, I’ll regret having made them and will have to force myself out the door. I’ll whine and curse a bit.
When I was a kid, if my mother put on lipstick, it was a signal she was going out, and we always wanted to know where. I usually wear slippers around the house. If I put on shoes, Gracie is on the alert. She knows I must be going somewhere so she plants herself by the front door. Lipstick meant a complete change in routine and now it’s slippers. I guess I just don’t go out often enough or I should wear shoes inside more often.
Categories: Musings
Tags: Bird feeder, cleaning, going out, Gracie, lipstick, retirement, Shopping, time
Comments: 33 Comments
November 19, 2012
The weather? Cloudy again, and I’m disgruntled. I don’t think asking for a couple of days in a row of sun is an outlandish request. It should be compensation for days in the 40’s. I’d be happy with that.
Today Gracie is seven years old, but it didn’t start out to be a happy birthday. She was sick with an upset stomach. I had to clean up when I came downstairs this morning. Knowing a remedy, I took Gracie out front where there is a patch of grass she always nibbles on when we’re going to the car. She grazed and mowed down all the rest of the blades. I also gave her a couple of fronds from the spider plant. Right now she is sleeping beside me on the couch and snoring. I know she feels better because she enjoyed a piece of cheese and some of her dry food before taking her morning nap. We’re going for a ride later just to celebrate the big day!
Yesterday I made cookies and caused what my sisters would call a Kathleen moment. The cookie sheets were leaning against the back of a tall stool. When I pulled them up, I knocked the unopened 5 pound bag of flour on the floor. It upended the dog’s water dish and water went all over. I grabbed the flour and managed to keep it dry then I tried to clean up the water on the floor. In the process I overturned another dog dish which I didn’t realize had water in it from the first dish. Now the water was spread all over. I finally sopped up the small lake then washed the dog’s food mat and all her dishes. I put the flour in a container. All of that happened before I even started on the cookies. Good thing the cookies tasted so great: chewy coconut lime cookies. I brought them down to my friends for our regular Sunday evening. We have appetizers and dessert, play a few games of Phase 10 and Sorry then watch The Amazing Race together. It’s a great Sunday tradition.
Today is a nothing day. I do have one necessary stop then no other plans. My bed will stay unmade. The clothes will remain in the dryer one more day. The cabinet won’t get organized. I am ambition-less.
Categories: Musings
Tags: baking cookies, birthdays, cloudy days, fiascos, Flour, Gracie, messes, Water
Comments: 10 Comments
November 19, 2012
The weather? Cloudy again, and I’m disgruntled. I don’t think asking for a couple of days in a row of sun is an outlandish request. It should be compensation for days in the 40’s. I’d be happy with that.
Today Gracie is seven years old, but it didn’t start out to be a happy birthday. She was sick with an upset stomach. I had to clean up when I came downstairs this morning. Knowing a remedy, I took Gracie out front where there is a patch of grass she always nibbles on when we’re going to the car. She grazed and mowed down all the rest of the blades. I also gave her a couple of fronds from the spider plant. Right now she is sleeping beside me on the couch and snoring. I know she feels better because she enjoyed a piece of cheese and some of her dry food before taking her morning nap. We’re going for a ride later just to celebrate the big day!
Yesterday I made cookies and caused what my sisters would call a Kathleen moment. The cookie sheets were leaning against the back of a tall stool. When I pulled them up, I knocked the unopened 5 pound bag of flour on the floor. It upended the dog’s water dish and water went all over. I grabbed the flour and managed to keep it dry then I tried to clean up the water on the floor. In the process I overturned another dog dish which I didn’t realize had water in it from the first dish. Now the water was spread all over. I finally sopped up the small lake then washed the dog’s food mat and all her dishes. I put the flour in a container. All of that happened before I even started on the cookies. Good thing the cookies tasted so great: chewy coconut lime cookies. I brought them down to my friends for our regular Sunday evening. We have appetizers and dessert, play a few games of Phase 10 and Sorry then watch The Amazing Race together. It’s a great Sunday tradition.
Today is a nothing day. I do have one necessary stop then no other plans. My bed will stay unmade. The clothes will remain in the dryer one more day. The cabinet won’t get organized. I am ambition-less.
Categories: Musings
Tags: baking cookies, birthdays, cloudy days, fiascos, Flour, Gracie, messes, Water
Comments: 10 Comments
November 18, 2012
When I went to get the papers, I gasped a bit for breath not expecting it to be so cold. Frost had iced the lawn and covered the car windows. I hurried back inside, had my first cup of coffee and settled in for a while to read a bit of the paper, but I couldn’t linger as I had to leave earlier than usual to go out for breakfast, even before my second cup of coffee, so I could scrape the car windows. I rummaged through the trunk and found the windshield scraper then went from window to window. I even scraped the window for Gracie. I hated every minute of scraping those windows not because of the effort but because of the significance. That frost is winter’s first assault.
On the way home I noticed lawns being raked mostly by men wearing warm jackets. A few joggers were out running, and they were wearing mittens. One woman, walking her dog, didn’t seem at all phased by the weather. She had on a long sleeve t-shirt and shorts. I was impressed by her hardiness.
The day is pretty with bright sun and a steel-blue sky, but the strong breeze blowing the leaves left on the trees has me thinking the day looks far better from inside rather than outside. When Gracie goes out and stays a while, her ears are really cold when she comes back inside.
When I was young, we never did much on a Sunday. After church we’d hang around the house and maybe watch a TV movie while my mother prepared then cooked dinner, and sometimes we’d sit or lie on the living room rug to play a few games while my father read the paper. He always sat in the same chair by the picture window, and I can still see him holding the paper in front of him. My father read his paper not as a whole but section by section. He’d finish one section then add it to the pile he’d started on the floor beside the chair then he’d pick up the next section and start reading. He always left the sports pages until last.
I read the Sunday papers much like my father did, section by section, and I put each finished section in the recycle bag I keep by the table here in the den. The one difference is in the last section to be read. I always save the travel pages.
Categories: Musings
Tags: cold, cold weather, coming winter, frost, Gracie, jogger, Sunday, Sunday paper, Wind, window scraper
Comments: 13 Comments
November 18, 2012
When I went to get the papers, I gasped a bit for breath not expecting it to be so cold. Frost had iced the lawn and covered the car windows. I hurried back inside, had my first cup of coffee and settled in for a while to read a bit of the paper, but I couldn’t linger as I had to leave earlier than usual to go out for breakfast, even before my second cup of coffee, so I could scrape the car windows. I rummaged through the trunk and found the windshield scraper then went from window to window. I even scraped the window for Gracie. I hated every minute of scraping those windows not because of the effort but because of the significance. That frost is winter’s first assault.
On the way home I noticed lawns being raked mostly by men wearing warm jackets. A few joggers were out running, and they were wearing mittens. One woman, walking her dog, didn’t seem at all phased by the weather. She had on a long sleeve t-shirt and shorts. I was impressed by her hardiness.
The day is pretty with bright sun and a steel-blue sky, but the strong breeze blowing the leaves left on the trees has me thinking the day looks far better from inside rather than outside. When Gracie goes out and stays a while, her ears are really cold when she comes back inside.
When I was young, we never did much on a Sunday. After church we’d hang around the house and maybe watch a TV movie while my mother prepared then cooked dinner, and sometimes we’d sit or lie on the living room rug to play a few games while my father read the paper. He always sat in the same chair by the picture window, and I can still see him holding the paper in front of him. My father read his paper not as a whole but section by section. He’d finish one section then add it to the pile he’d started on the floor beside the chair then he’d pick up the next section and start reading. He always left the sports pages until last.
I read the Sunday papers much like my father did, section by section, and I put each finished section in the recycle bag I keep by the table here in the den. The one difference is in the last section to be read. I always save the travel pages.
Categories: Musings
Tags: cold, cold weather, coming winter, frost, Gracie, jogger, Sunday, Sunday paper, Wind, window scraper
Comments: 13 Comments
November 17, 2012
No question about the day: it’s a late fall day, a pre-winter sort of day when the air is cold, the sun is shining providing light but no heat and the sky is a brilliant blue, the sort of blue which only comes in the clear air of a cold day. The leaves still left on the trees in the backyard are brown. I look outside and it is uninviting, even with the sun. I’ll venture out later to fill the feeders and pick up some paper towels Gracie stole from the trash bag on the kitchen floor. She is quite particular about what she takes and she always sneaks out the dog door with her treasures. I’ve yet to catch her in the act.
I’m watching the worst movie, a 1940 film called Out West with the Peppers, a sequel to The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew which I watched a few weeks ago. I chose it over a syfy channel film about a creature which lives on light and energy, a creature which looks a lot like the crawling roots of a tree. I read a few books from The Five Little Peppers’ series when I was young. I got the first book for Christmas one year so I figure it’s a bit of nostalgia which has me watching.
I have nothing planned for the day except the usual: make the bed, take a shower and get dressed in sloppy comfortable clothes. I’m thinking I might even fold and bring up the laundry which has been sitting in the dryer for a few days. There’s also a cabinet which could use some organizing so that goes on the possibility list. That’s about all I can come up with for now. I figure it’s enough.
Categories: Musings
Tags: fall day, Five Little Peppers, Gracie, milestones, syfi channel
Comments: 13 Comments
November 15, 2012
The house is dark; outside is uninviting. It is an ugly, raw day with a cloud-filled sky. The yard got cleaned this morning, and the guys let Gracie escape through the back gate. They opened it without checking, and off she went. It was a catch me if you can game. Gracie would stop and wait until one of the guys got close then she’d run, stop to wait then run again. Finally I called my friend at the end of the street, and she went right to him.
I still haven’t grocery shopped yet, but today I must as the last of the dry cat food was used to fill their dish this morning. The wash, though, got done yesterday, but it is sitting in the dryer. I’ll get to it sometime.
I remember laundry stiff from the cold hanging on the lines. My mother would brave the weather, bring in the still damp laundry and hang it in the cellar so it would dry. She always hung up her laundry in the same way. Shirts were clothes-pinned to the line by their bottom edges and one shirt was attached to the next so three clothespins hung up two shirts. It was the same with sheets though she’d double those over the line. I don’t remember us having anything but white sheets back then. The clothespins were wooden. My mother would slide the clothespin bag along the line as she hung the clothes. She’d have a clothespin in her hand and one sticking out of her mouth, and then she’d maneuver being careful not to drop the clothes. It was like sleight of hand to hang and pin. My mother was a master.
No one around here hangs clothes anymore. The house next door, a summer rental, has a clothesline hanging between two pine trees, but I only see towels and bathing suits on it. My sister uses her clothesline in the warmer months. It saves money and the clothes, especially the sheets, smell wonderful.
I still remember getting into a bed freshly made with sheets smelling of the sun. It is one of my favorite sense memories, that smell. It is right up there with burning leaves. When I first moved here I had a clothesline, but my allergies didn’t take well to the pine pollen so I had to buy a dryer. I’m still sorry about that.
Categories: Musings
Tags: clothes line, Clothespin, dryer, Drying, Gracie, Laundry, pine trees
Comments: 15 Comments
November 13, 2012
The sky got black almost as quickly as in a science fiction movie just before the aliens arrive, but the rain came instead; it fell in torrents. Gracie stayed in the car while I was at my library board meeting, and I had left a window open for her. I don’t think she was thankful. The inside door and the seat were soaked, but Gracie, being both smart and practical, had moved over to the dry side. On the drive home, I splashed through flooded streets and had to be careful about hydroplaning. Right now the day has an eerie light, but it has stopped raining for the meantime. Gracie is resting from her ordeal.
Today is my errand day and I have only finished two of five, but the rain just started again, not so perfect for grocery shopping. How sad that makes me.
I have never been a hat person. My mother sometimes forced one on me at Easter, a hat in a pastel, usually pink or blue, with small flowers. I always felt a bit self-conscious. I’d put up my hood on the coldest days when I walked to school, but I seldom wore a real hat. On rainy days my hair got wet. I remember my mother trying to make me wear one of those silly transparent hats which tie under the chin and fold up to fit into a small pouch. I always thought of them as old lady hats kept by them in oversize purses in case of rain emergencies. I have earmuffs, and I don’t mind wearing them. I have a couple of baseball hats which I actually wear at baseball games to keep the sun at bay. When I lived in Ghana, I had a straw hat I wore for a bit, but I felt like Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm so I stopped wearing it. My neighbor across the street always wears a similar hat when she works in the garden. She looks a bit like Ma Kettle working the farm.
I have a hat collection. That always makes me chuckle a bit at the irony.
Categories: Musings
Tags: Clothing, earmuffs, Easter, Ghana, Gracie, hats, rain, Straw hat
Comments: 21 Comments
November 4, 2012
As fall days go, this one is just about perfect. The sun is sharply bright, the air is clear and it’s chilly, around 45˚ chilly, not quite coat weather yet. When I went to get the papers early this morning, I could smell fall. I could smell the fallen leaves and the crispness of the air. Someone had a fire going. I noticed the yellow maple leaves had fallen on the grass in a pattern drawn from a painter’s palette. I stood and took in my little bit more of my world then grabbed the papers and went inside to a house filled with the aroma of freshly brewed coffee. My senses were in overdrive.
Gracie got loose this morning. We had just gotten back from breakfast and were on our way into the house when she pulled her head out of her collar and took off down the street. She did me the courtesy of looking back at me as she ran. I called her and was totally ignored. I took out my phone and called my friends, but no one was home. Then I saw my neighbor moving his car and asked him to call Gracie. She, of course, went right to him, gave him a hug and a bunch of kisses. He held on to a wiggly, happy Gracie until I could put her collar back on. Right now she is sleeping, resting from her exploits.
Sunday has a different feel about it than any other day of the week. Saturday was the day for errands so Sunday is a slow day, a day for taking time. On Sunday mornings, breakfast with my friend is a ritual for us. It is when we catch up with one another. Our breakfast is slow by intent and always has plenty of time for an extra cup of coffee. When I come home, I finish reading the papers. The crossword puzzle is saved for last, and I keep going back to it during the day until I finally give up. A nap is inevitable. Tonight my friends and I will play a few games, eat some appetizers as we play then we’ll watch The Amazing Race together.
I love traditions and rituals. They are connections over time, and they are to be cherished even in such simplicity as a morning breakfast or a game of cards.
Categories: Musings
Tags: fall, Gracie, maple leaves, perfect fall day, rituals, senses, smell of the air, Sunday, The Amazing Race, traditions
Comments: 15 Comments
October 27, 2012
I again woke to a beautiful morning filled with sun capped by a deep blue sky. It was quiet until I went to get the papers and was assailed by the harsh jeering of several bluejays in the front trees. I wondered if they sensed the coming storm and were giving warning or if it was just noisy bluejays. They disappeared as quickly as they came.
Gracie has spent most of the morning in the yard. Once in a while she barks for no reason. She’s just being a dog. She comes back inside every now and then, takes a drink from the porcelain bowl then goes back outside. I followed her one time and stood on the deck. She stood on the driveway. We both just watched and listened.
Saturday is still magical for me. From the time I was a little kid throughout my entire working life Saturday has always been the best day. On Saturday I could sleep-in, more important to the adult me than the kid me, but the kid me appreciated not hearing, “Time to get up for school.” Saturday morning TV was always the best. Sitting, watching, eating cereal and still wearing pajamas was my favorite way to greet the morning. In that regard, not much has changed. This morning I sat, drank my coffee and read the papers while still dressed in my night clothes, no longer pajamas but close enough. Later I’ll watch a really bad movie on the SyFy channel, and it will be like the Saturday matinee. I have to go out and pick up a few things I forgot yesterday then Gracie and I will take a ride. I love to roam on a Saturday. I always have.
Categories: Musings
Tags: Bluejay, Gracie, movies, Saturday, Syfy, Television
Comments: 15 Comments
keepthecoffeecoming.blog 