Posted tagged ‘Laundry’
April 14, 2014
The wind is whipping not only the top-most branches of the pine trees but also their thin tree trunks which sway back and forth and creak when they move. The sun was here earlier but has since disappeared. When I went to get the papers, I was surprised at how warm it is. The day will be a delight if the sun decides to stay around a while.
I’m in a funk. Nothing much is happening. I have to fill the bird feeders and renew my license, and I might just get to that laundry for want of something to do. I can’t believe how bored I am today, an unusual feeling for me. Maybe I’ll oil the old desk and the butcher block. I am really desperate for something demanding applause, balloons and noise makers.
You didn’t know it, but there was a huge pause between paragraphs. My friend picked me up, and I just got back from getting my driver’s license renewed. The picture could be worse but not much worse. The sun has since returned and looks as if it’s here to stay. The wind, however, is still terrific.
Tonight or rather early tomorrow there will be a total lunar eclipse. It is the first in a tetrad, four total lunar eclipses occurring in the next year and a half. The moon in total eclipse is called a blood-red moon because that’s the color it will look when it passes through the light from sunsets and sunrises glinting off the surface of the Earth. The eclipse will start around two which means I’m taking a nap today so I can see it. I’m hoping for clear skies.
I did some reading and found conspiracy theorists pages. One page suggested a link between the tetrad and a biblical prophecy of the apocalypse, “The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord come.” NASA, however, has assured us that tetrads are fairly common.
My favorite conspiracy page mentioned that the last blood moon occurred in 2004 on the night the Red Sox won the World Series. Given how badly their season has started, perhaps the new blood moon is just what they need to spark up those bats.
Categories: Musings
Tags: blood red moon, boring day, conspiracy theorists, driver's license, Laundry, lunar eclipse, sun, Wind
Comments: 16 Comments
January 10, 2014
The alarm went off at eight as it is breakfast Friday, the once a month get-together of women I worked with for years. I turned off the alarm, looked out the window, saw snow and went back to bed for another half hour. The breakfast is a come-if-you-can sort so I wasn’t expected. I’ll go next month.
The day is dreary. The snow, only a dusting, covers everything. Even the pines look sort of nice with their branches layered in snow. The birds were missing from the deck feeders during the coldest days, probably holed up in tight clumps of bushes or branches somewhere, but they returned in yesterday’s warmth, a word loosely used here, but they aren’t around again today. Only the red spawn was at the sunflower seeds. He does his trick of jumping from the deck rail to the squirrel buster feeder (note the feeder’s name), grabs a seed in flight then lands back on the rail to dine. I get crazed and usually chase him off the rail into the yard. I think I have him so paranoid that the door opening scares him right off the deck away from the seeds for most of the day. Banging my feet on the deck as I run at him probably helps too. I suspect the birds will return tomorrow when it is supposed to be 50˚.
I was all set for a dump run today, but now I’m not so sure. The dump is always cold with a strong wind which cuts to the bone, and I’ve had enough of bone-chilling cold this week. I’ll stave off my conscience by doing laundry, but if the afternoon looks better, Gracie and I can still do the dump run.
Christmas gives such color and brightness to the winter that I miss it terribly when it’s gone. I left my outside lights and my fake inside pine tree lit until the day after Little Christmas. My neighbors did the same. Now we have all gone dark except for my palm tree. It stands on deck near the backdoor and is bright green with a yellow trunk. My neighbors love my palm tree.
I crave color in winter. Even my winter wardrobe tends to be drab, utilitarian. The clothes are meant for warmth, not fashion. I could remedy that I suppose, but since my retirement I am seldom inclined to buy new clothes. I did buy a flannel shirt this winter, but that’s it. Maybe I’ll add a jaunty scarf in brilliant pink to my winter ensemble.
Categories: Musings
Tags: birds, Christmas lights, color, dreary day, dump run, dusting of snow, feeders, flannel shirts, Laundry, layered in snow, new clothes, palm tree, spawns of Satan, sunflowers seeds
Comments: 8 Comments
January 9, 2014
The days are getting warmer. By the weekend we should be in the high 40’s and even the low 50’s. That sounds like deck weather after the cold spell we’ve all endured. Gracie is bored because of that cold. She goes out to do her business or to take one run around the backyard. This morning she was staring and growling at some of her toys. She brought a couple to me, and I threw them down the hall hoping for a game of fetch. She just stood looking at me and whining. Luckily she is now asleep, snoring of course. I have nothing to do today. Yesterday I was out and about, but today I am staying home. My groceries are arriving later, I have a few books to read on my iPad and the house is clean. I suppose I could do laundry, but I won’t.
The Edge of Dark Water by Joe R. Lansdale was the book I just finished. I liked it. The whole novel revolved around three young teens taking the ashes of their murdered friend to Hollywood where she always expected to go and become a star. The trip is on or around the Sabine River. Skunk, the legendary killer who cuts off the hands of his victims, is after them. I won’t give any more of the story in case you’re intrigued, but I refuse to be held responsible if you hate it. Tastes in books vary in as many ways as there are books. I had no expectations for this novel and how much I liked it surprised me. I had to read straight through. At the end I found out that Joe R. Lansdale has written and published hundreds of novels, novellas, novelettes, short stories, chapbooks, comic books, graphic novels, and collections. I also found out he wrote Bubba Ho-Tep which I didn’t read, but I did see and liked the movie made from it. IMDb had the best description of this film, “Elvis and JFK, both alive and in a nursing home, fight for the souls of their fellow residents as they battle an ancient Egyptian Mummy.” Okay, that description is more than enough. I’m going to read more by this author. Amazon here I come!
Reading has always been a joy for me. Trips to the library were every week when I was a kid. I’d haul home the limit I could take and read them in a few days. I used to hide a light under the covers so I could read at night after I was expected to be asleep. I’d spend my entire 50 cents allowance on a new book which always caused my father to give me the putting money away for a rainy day lecture. I didn’t take heed. I knew I’d made the best investment with my money. I still have some of those books I bought. They are about Donna Parker and Trixie Belden, amateur teenage detectives. The pages are yellow and sort of fragile now, but every now and then I pick one up and read a page or two just for the memories.
Categories: Musings
Tags: bored dog, Bubba Ho-Tep, fetch, getting warmer, groceries, Joe R. Lansdale, Laundry, new books, reading, reading at night, The Edge of Dark Water, the joy of reading, Trixie Belden
Comments: 5 Comments
December 21, 2013
Bedtime was around 1:30, and now I’m up, and it’s still dark. My newspapers aren’t even here yet, but I’ve had my first cup of coffee, always the best way to start a day. My trees are lit in the living room. That was the first thing I did.
Nothing is on my agenda for today except maybe laundry, kind of makes me look forward to the day. As if…
The house was warm when I woke up, 66˚, even though the thermostat was set at 62˚for nighttime. When I let Gracie out, I found outside also unexpectedly warm, especially for a dark morning in December. Yesterday the high was 54˚ so I did a couple of errands so I could enjoy the day. I bought dinner, and it was delicious: steak kabobs with peppers and onions and roasted rosemary potato wedges. For dessert I had a couple of peanut butter balls my sister had made from my mother’s recipe. They are a Christmas tradition. My mother would make a huge batch and freeze some of them so in February she’d surprise us by bringing them out for dessert. They never lasted too long at Christmas or in February.
When I was in elementary school, the church fair was always a week or two before Christmas. It was in the auditorium at the town hall, a short walk from school. Fair day was always a half-day. At dismissal we’d walk in twos, class by class, with the nuns accompanying us. Once at the town hall we were free. The Christmas fair was a huge occasion, and my mother always gave us money to shop and to buy lunch, usually hot dogs. I remember the best table in the fair was the kids’ table. It was the place to Christmas shop as it was filled with inexpensive gifts for us to buy for our families. I’d walk round and round the table picking up and putting down gifts always trying to find just the right presents. After I did, I’d hand them to the woman behind the counter, somebody’s mother as the fair was run by the mother’s club. She’d bag them, collect my money then hand the precious bags to me. That usually signaled the end of the fair for me. I’d walk home with my gifts and hide them in my room, usually under the bed or in the closet. I’d take them out of their secret hiding place several times to check on them until finally I’d wrap them. I made sure to use lots of paper and tape. I was always so proud of those gifts.
Categories: Musings
Tags: church fair, coffee, dark morning, empty agenda, family presents, kids' table, Laundry, lit Christmas trees, peanut butter balls, traditional, warm day, warm house, wrapping gifts
Comments: 27 Comments
December 2, 2013
The dreary day is becoming commonplace. It rained earlier, and the air is still damp. The sky is dark. It’s a turn on your inside lights sort of day. I went to bed late but the sound of blowers woke me up early. My landscaper and two of his guys were doing the final fall cleanup of the leaves and pine needles in the front yard, on the deck and the driveway. Gracie watched from the front door and then greeted them in the backyard. They know she’s a runner so they are careful going in and out the gate. They always smile and give me a wave.
Yesterday I did four errands, changed my bed and brought up, folded and put away laundry which has been in the dryer for a week or more. Today my back has moved from painful to stiff, a definite improvement. I have to do one errand today then I’ll just take the rest of the day easy.
Last night I watched All the President’s Men Revisited and was reminded of the summer of Watergate when I stayed inside glued to the television. I was pasty white that summer, the same color as prisoners long interned in solitary.
The retrospective followed the Woodward-Bernstein trail depicted in the movie then moved on to the Watergate Committee’s investigation. I watched clips of John Dean testifying, his wife sitting behind him, and heard again about the cancer in the Presidency. Rosemary Woods and her supposed contortions in erasing the tape are as unbelievable now as they were then. The Watergate Committee, gentle at first, became more and more aggressive as information came to light. “What did the President know and when did he know it?” It was a time of country over party, when law and truth were more important than partisan politics. Too bad we’ve forgotten that simple truth
Categories: Musings
Tags: damp day, dark day, easy day, fall clean up, John Dean, Laundry, leaf blowers, leaves and pine needles, non-partisan politics, sore back, Watergate hearings, Watergate tapes
Comments: 6 Comments
October 20, 2013
We’re going to the World Series! We’re going to the World Series! Shane Victorino hit a grand slam in the bottom of the 7th which put the Sox ahead 5-2, and that’s all they needed. Shane was amazing running the bases. He was like a little kid on Christmas morning who got the present he really wanted. My friends and I were in touch by phone, and Rod, my brother-in-law, and I were iPad buddies. Now we wait until Wednesday for the first of the Series.
I was awakened early this morning. Okay, at eight, which I know isn’t really all that early, but I went to bed late. The Sox game didn’t end until 11:30 or so, and I was too pumped for bed so I stayed up until close to 2:30. Well, anyway, what woke me up was Fern being sick. She started on the down comforter, which I didn’t hear, then she turned to the floor from the bed. That’s what I heard. The bed is high. She continued in the hall. I dragged myself out of bed and cleaned up the mess. That started laundry day. I folded the clothes which had been sitting in the dryer for a week then washed the down comforter. It’s now in the dryer with a few tennis balls to fluff the down. I can hear the banging noise up here. I had no excuse so I started the rest of the laundry. I already hate today.
There is, however, a redeeming factor about the day. Syfy is showing movies about creatures gone amok. Right now flesh-eating locusts are meeting their doom; however, they did manage to dine al-fresco at a carnival. It was a tough time to be on a ride. Next up is the movie Bats: Human Harvest. I doubt you need any clarification about the plot. Genetically enhanced wasps will be a bit later. That one makes me wonder. I can’t imagine the value of wasps being genetically enhanced.
The day is sunny and bright with a blue sky. It’s still pretty warm, but that will change by Wednesday when the temperatures will drop possibly as low as the 30’s. It will time to turn on the heat.
Categories: Musings
Tags: down comforter, early rising, Fern, flesh-eating locusts and bats, grand slam, Laundry, lovely day, Red Sox, syfy insects, throwing up cat, warm, wasps, World Series
Comments: 25 Comments
October 19, 2013
Last night Morpheus grabbed hold, and I slept for twelve hours. My mother would have said I needed it, and I agree. I woke up not feeling up to par (another one of my mother’s sayings) so I’ll just sort of wait around and see what happens. The TV is filled with aliens and monsters so I’ll have plenty of entertainment.
I can hear leaf blowers and mowers, the sounds of Saturday. I went out on the deck and the air smells fresh, of cut grass and fall flowers. There is a morning chill I expect will be gone by afternoon.
I do have a couple of errands today and laundry to wash. I don’t feel like doing either, but I did finish the last of my bread for toast this morning, and I’m out of cheese, two good reasons to get out and refill the larder.
My mother shopped every Friday evening. My father drove her to the supermarket as she didn’t drive, but he never went shopping with her. When they got home, we all helped to unload the trunk. It was filled with paper grocery bags. The next few days were bountiful as cookies and snacks were back in the house though some snacks were untouchables as they were for lunches. Oreos were always a standard. They were everyone’s favorite cookie, even the dog’s. My sisters used to feed him the sides once they’d eaten the middle. He sat right by them on the steps while they snacked. He knew what was coming. My mother always warned us to go slowly because once the cookies were gone, that was it until the next shopping day. We were kids: slowly wasn’t in our vocabulary.
We used to pop corn on the stove in a pan with a lid. It was less expensive than Jiffy Pop, but it took more attention and constant shaking of the pan or the popcorn would burn. My father made the best popcorn. He never burned a single kernel. My mother would melt butter and put it on the top then mix the popcorn around to spread the butter. She then sprinkle a bit of salt. The popcorn was served in a huge bowl. In my mind’s eye, I see a green bowl, but I’m not sure as my mother also had a set of white bowls with tulips, and that set also had a large bowl. When I was shopping with my mother once, we found a set just like it at an antique store and I bought the set. It sits on my fridge and holds all sort of memories.
Categories: Musings
Tags: aliens and mosters, bowls of popcorn, Cookies, errands, grocery shopping, Jiffy Pop, Laundry, lawns, left bloers, morning chill, Morpheus, oreos, popcorn, tulip bowls
Comments: 21 Comments
August 8, 2013
Unlike the past few days, the weather this morning is humid and cloudy with intermittent rain, a soft rain you barely notice, but the paper does say a chance of thunder showers throughout the day and has predicted them for tonight and tomorrow, but right now the sun is working its way from behind the clouds seems to be struggling, maybe even losing the battle for today’s weather. The breeze is a bit stronger, always a bad sign on a cloudy, damp day.
Yesterday I earned a blue ribbon. I did my laundry, finally, all two loads, watered the inside and outside plants, paid all my bills, did four errands, filled the bird feeders and took all the stuff off the walls in the bathroom which is right now being painted and then around 6:30 met my friend for dinner. Today I have one stop, to buy more flowers for the front garden and some bird seed, then I’m going Peapod on-line grocery shopping. I think I have been the ant, not the grasshopper, for the last two days and deserve a few days of rest which I will gladly take.
We never needed back to school clothes except for a new pair of shoes and one outfit, for the first day, as after that we wore uniforms. My mother was glad for those uniforms as they saved her so much money. Outfitting four kids was expensive. We didn’t care about wearing them because that’s all we knew and all our friends wore them too. Even in high school I had a uniform; all Catholic high school students wore one sort of uniform or another.
My students in Ghana had three different uniforms. Most bought the cloth and had the dresses made. The classroom uniforms were lilac and all the students wore same style and color, regardless of which level they were. I remember watching students iron the uniforms using a charcoal iron. The uniforms were always stiff with starch and wrinkled easily. The students also had their afternoon chore dresses, and there were four different patterns, each one designating the graduation year of the student. The dresses were simple: one piece. Their Sunday bests, wore for church service and into town, were traditional, generally three pieces, and were also four different patterns. You could identify whether the student was T1, T2, T3 or T4 just by the pattern. The patterns followed the students from one year to the next so they only had to buy whatever they had grown out of or worn out. The incoming T1’s would have their own patterns.
I thought of my students when I saw Harry Potter and his friends go into town for the day, for the one day they were allowed off grounds. For my students it was Sunday. They could have visitors come or the older students could go into town to do some shopping, and usually a photographer or two came to the school and took pictures of students into their spiffiest clothes. I have a few of those pictures which were given to me as gifts so I wouldn’t forget my students. They did the same thing at the ceremony last summer. They had a photographer come and take pictures of the event and individual pictures of me with one of them, and they ordered copies. This time it was so they wouldn’t forget me.
Categories: Musings
Tags: back-to-school clothes, bird feeders, Bolgatanga Women's Teacher Training College, errands, Ghana, humidity, Laundry, rain, school uniforms, sun, working
Comments: 12 Comments
August 4, 2013
Having spent yesterday accomplishing nothing, I am raring to go this morning. I want all my errands done post-haste so this will be a short, quick musing as doing nothing for a couple of days doesn’t provide much fodder for conversation. Here was my entire day yesterday: took nap, took shower, watched baseball game, finished leftovers for dinner and went to bed late. In between there was a trip or two to the deck, a few dishes washed and the mail read, but that was it for the whole day so I’m doing my errands this morning, but I don’t really mind. That gives me the rest of the day to while away.
I was quite content yesterday. I have found that I don’t need excitement or fireworks to enjoy living each day. I don’t even have to get dressed. I do have to brush my teeth and most days take a shower, but that’s it for the musts. Oh yeah, food is in there somewhere but nothing formal: cheese and crackers or fruit make for great lunches. Dinner is catch as catch can. I’m not fussy.
When I worked, every day was hectic especially the weekends. Those two days were filled. I had to clean the house, change the bed, do laundry, grocery shop, go to the dump, correct papers (when I was teaching), plan lessons and run around doing all the other errands on that long list I used to make every week. Now I think how silly. I wasted two great days.
Now I have all the time in the world, and I don’t waste a single day. I consider doing nothing a gift, a huge gift which I wrapped with beautiful paper and huge colored bows and gave myself. I worried a bit about retiring so young and being able to take a day without structure. All of my adult life had been structured, mostly around work, so I wondered how I would spend my days.
The first day of my retirement was glorious. I got to sleep-in. No alarm at 5:00 woke me. I got to read the entire paper and have a couple of cups of coffee. I absolutely do not remember what I did with the rest of the day, but it doesn’t matter. I just remember I loved that day and the next and the next. I still feel that way.
Categories: Musings
Tags: enjoying life, errands, gift, hectic, Laundry, retirment, sleeping in, structure, working
Comments: 12 Comments
August 3, 2013
The sun was here earlier but has since disappeared. It was replaced by a cloudy sky and a stiff breeze. The paper forecasts the possibility of rain. It is 72˚ now with 85% humidity. Yesterday the breeze disappeared, and the humidity was so high I turned on the air conditioner in the late afternoon. That made for a comfortable evening.
Doing nothing worked. My back is better today and I’m happier. I’m even willing to brave the roads to do a few errands. I need odd things, those not often bought: light bulbs, a flood light, paint to do my fish table and candle bulbs for the window lights. I figure I’ll reward myself with my favorite sandwich: a panini with cheddar, bacon and avocado. I’m thinking a whoopie pie for dessert and maybe some biscotti for tomorrow morning.
The laundry has made some progress. I brought it down here and leaned it next to the cellar door. I can see it from my seat, but that doesn’t matter any more. I have learned to let it sit until I’m ready.
Yesterday afternoon I heard a huge crash as if something had fallen to my deck. I went out and found nothing. I checked both the front and the back yards then I thought maybe a branch had fallen on the roof part I can’t see, but I swore whatever it was had hit the deck. Skip, my factotum, is coming on Monday so maybe he can figure it out.
In September St. Patrick’s drill team is having a reunion. I marched from 1957 to 1964. Two of my aunts marched at the beginning, 1947, when the drill tam was started. Three of my cousins also marched but years later, they being younger than I by a lot of years. Most of the comments on the Facebook page are not from my contemporaries but from that younger group. My friends and I seem to be the grand dames.
The drill team had practice once a week in the winter and twice a week in the summer, the competition season. Competitions were on the weekends, usually a Sunday afternoon but also some Friday and Saturday nights. When we didn’t have a competition, we went to one anyway. All of my friends were on the drill team. We spent a lot of time together. Our instructor, a man named John Kelley, had to be the most patient man in the world. He’d go over and over certain parts of the maneuver until he was certain we had it down pat. It was difficult in the winter as we had to break it down into parts to fit the armory dimensions where we practiced. Once the weather changed and we could get on the field or in the schoolyard we had to work at putting it all together.
We never won much in the beginning. I remember coming home and telling my parents we had come in second, and we had, but there were only two drill teams competing. I didn’t tell them that part. We eventually won several championships both in winter color guard and summer drill. The first time we won the summer championship, someone called ahead to the fire station. We got off our bus uptown and one of the fire trucks with the siren going led us through town to the church. We were almost giddy. Finally we were the champions, and we had a huge trophy to prove it!
Categories: Musings
Tags: championships, cloudy day, errands, fire trucks, humid, Laundry, reunion, sirens, St. Pat's drill team
Comments: 19 Comments
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