Posted tagged ‘lights’

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“All writers are vampires.”

May 3, 2012

The yard lights, two bottle trees and some tulip ground lights, were out last night so there I was around nine thirty trying to figure out why. I had my flashlight, but it wasn’t enough so I jumped up and down to get Gracie’s motion lights to react. They didn’t so I ran back and forth. The lights then came on so I could see to check the box holding the plugs, the timer and the extension cords. The plugs were fine so I came back in, got a lamp, plugged it into the outside socket and found it didn’t work. I knew then it was time to hit the circuit box. I came in, went down the cellar and pushed the levers back and forth, looked outside and found the lights were lit. I raised my arms in triumph, in a Rocky move; of course, there was a domino effect, and when I came back inside, I had to reset the CD player, the microwave and the old VHS player. I also realized the timer’s clock is probably wrong, but I decided it coukd wait. You’re probably wondering why I just didn’t wait until today for everything. Well, I love looking at those lights, sometimes from the deck and sometimes from the window, and they make shadows of tree branches and their trunks which seem to be nine feet tall stretching across the yard. They’re beautiful, and I didn’t want to miss even one night.

Today is dark and damp and cold at 49°. Yesterday I did errands so I get to lounge today. The book I’m reading is Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter. The title alone tells you it’s a strange one with limited appeal, but it appealed to me. I won’t tell you anything as I’d hate to be a spoiler. I figure I’m not the only one with varied, even odd, tastes in books.

As for me now, I’m almost ready for the afghan, the couch, my book and some music.

Categories: Musings
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Comments: 15 Comments

“The pack slumbered and only a few watchdogs rattled their chains.”

February 27, 2012

Winter has left the building. We’re back to 43° today, but a bit of a cold breeze reminds me I live near the ocean. I love that breeze all summer, but I dread it this time of year.

The deck is my favorite summer spot, but I wish I had a porch which would be lovely and warm today. Both Gracie and I could nap there.

Last night I watched from the red carpet to the end of the Academy Awards. My friend Clare and I rated all the dresses and wondered what some women were thinking when they donned some really ugly dresses. It’s a good thing I don’t work greeting people on the red carpet as I suspect, “Why did you pick that really ugly dress?” would not be a welcomed question. How about, “Do you know that dress is a bit dowdy?” Nope, I’d lose my job quickly. I don’t gush.

Last night 4 cars on my street were vandalized, one worse than the others. They used some sort of cream, like hand cream, to cover my neighbor’s car then left some cream on a couple of others as well as mine but in only a few spots. We figured they were running our after covering my neighbor’s vehicle. All that happened between 5:30 and 11:30. All of us have dogs, but none of them barked though I told everyone Gracie did, but I have no idea if she really did as I wasn’t home to hear her. We laughed and commented that my friends’ dog barks at air but not vandals. We wondered if  Cody, who lives in the house with the car most covered, barked and was told to go back to sleep. Another neighbor has sensor lights which are quite sensitive, but none of us saw them lit. We were too busy watching TV, and my neighbor’s TV is in the back of their house so they couldn’t see the lights come on in the front. I figured those lights lit up the area to give the vandals a better view.

Maybe we all need signs on our lawns which say: Be Quiet! Dogs sleeping! My neighbors can add one which says: Walk a bit. The lights will come on should you need them.

Categories: Musings
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“Everybody’s a dreamer.”

February 23, 2012

Yesterday was a perfect day. It was warm and sunny and the morning was filled with the sounds of bird songs the way spring mornings are. I did all the outside chores I’d been holding off until the weather got warmer. My new palm tree was assembled, put on the deck and lit up last night. My neighbors phoned and said they were thrilled to see it. They called it iconic and likened the tree to the Citco sign at Fenway. This new palm tree is taller than the old. Some of my friends used to have to duck under the old fronds. This one is a foot taller. I also figured out why the ground lights had been off for so long, and they too were bright last night except for the two strands which had lit their last. I bought two new ones, and I’ll put them up today. I have missed all my night lights.

Today is cloudy but warm. A while back the sun tried to break through the clouds but just didn’t have enough oomph yet but it keeps trying. I’m rooting for the sun. Every now and then the leaves move but the day is calm. It rained last night, the second night in a row, and it’s still damp.

The sun just reappeared and the sky has touches of blue. I think it will be a lovely day.

When I was a kid, some things just seemed exotic to me. Palm trees were on that list. I pictured a white sandy beach, water so clear you could see the fish and a line of palm trees along the sand. I imagined drinking from a coconut just knocked from the tree. I think it was Swiss Family Robinson which conjured my imaginings. When I saw my first palm tree, I wasn’t disappointed.

The desert was also among my exotic imaginings. I saw myself dressed like a Bedouin and riding a camel. My clothes were bright reds and greens and blues, and I wore a cloth across part of my face to keep out the sand. I could see myself sitting on the saddle as the camel slowly walked across the desert. It must have been a movie which had me imagining the Sahara as I don’t think any of my books did.

New England is the least exotic place I know, but I figure for some people New England and all it offers might be part of their imaginings. Sledding down a big hill in winter, collecting shells along the shore, swimming in the ocean and eating freshly caught fish might just be part of someone’s dreaming.

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Comments: 14 Comments

“Everybody’s a dreamer.”

February 23, 2012

Yesterday was a perfect day. It was warm and sunny and the morning was filled with the sounds of bird songs the way spring mornings are. I did all the outside chores I’d been holding off until the weather got warmer. My new palm tree was assembled, put on the deck and lit up last night. My neighbors phoned and said they were thrilled to see it. They called it iconic and likened the tree to the Citco sign at Fenway. This new palm tree is taller than the old. Some of my friends used to have to duck under the old fronds. This one is a foot taller. I also figured out why the ground lights had been off for so long, and they too were bright last night except for the two strands which had lit their last. I bought two new ones, and I’ll put them up today. I have missed all my night lights.

Today is cloudy but warm. A while back the sun tried to break through the clouds but just didn’t have enough oomph yet but it keeps trying. I’m rooting for the sun. Every now and then the leaves move but the day is calm. It rained last night, the second night in a row, and it’s still damp.

The sun just reappeared and the sky has touches of blue. I think it will be a lovely day.

When I was a kid, some things just seemed exotic to me. Palm trees were on that list. I pictured a white sandy beach, water so clear you could see the fish and a line of palm trees along the sand. I imagined drinking from a coconut just knocked from the tree. I think it was Swiss Family Robinson which conjured my imaginings. When I saw my first palm tree, I wasn’t disappointed.

The desert was also among my exotic imaginings. I saw myself dressed like a Bedouin and riding a camel. My clothes were bright reds and greens and blues, and I wore a cloth across part of my face to keep out the sand. I could see myself sitting on the saddle as the camel slowly walked across the desert. It must have been a movie which had me imagining the Sahara as I don’t think any of my books did.

New England is the least exotic place I know, but I figure for some people New England and all it offers might be part of their imaginings. Sledding down a big hill in winter, collecting shells along the shore, swimming in the ocean and eating freshly caught fish might just be part of someone’s dreaming.

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Comments: 14 Comments

“The doors we open and close each day decide the lives we live.”

January 5, 2012

This is the strangest winter. Yesterday was freezing, literally. When I went to the dump, an open area all around, I thought I’d been whisked to the steppes of Russia. The wind was so cold my hands nearly froze when I got out of the car to toss the trash, lots of trash, in the bins, and by the time I got back into the car, my breathing was as heavy as if I’d be plodding through drifts of snow. Right now it is 36° and feels almost balmy. The paper says 40’s today and 49° by the weekend. I don’t quite know what to make of this winter.

My Christmas tree is gone, lying outside waiting for pick-up. I miss its aroma but most of all I miss its colorful lights and decorations. Winter is drab with its dead leaves, bare branches and early darkness. It is only Christmas which gives winter life and color. Now we’re stuck waiting for spring.

I have these weird bursts of energy. The other day I put away the rest of my Christmas decorations, did a load of wash, watered all the plants, dusted the shelves in my room, changed my bed and filled the bird feeders. I felt accomplished. Today, however, is a day of lethargy. I knew it as soon as I woke up. I didn’t have a single concrete thought, and I just stayed a while comfy and warm under the covers. Gracie sensed my mood. She didn’t move; she just stayed asleep at the foot of my bed.

I don’t know why we pick one road over another. I know I seem to have chosen the right ones for me. My life continues to be a good one. I have found the best of friends and have had the most wonderful experiences. I enjoy every single day even the most mundane of them. My former student, Francisca, is religious. She finds great solace and comfort in God and believes it is God who directs our footsteps. She said I had faith that I would find my students when I went to Bolga. It wasn’t, according to her, mere coincidence that Shetu was at my hotel for the first time in a few years the very night I had dinner there, and that we would find each other. Francisca believes it was God’s will. I would never dispute her. Even if I did, she’d laugh and tell me I was wrong. She’d say she knows better.

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“Like snowflakes, my Christmas memories gather and dance – each beautiful, unique and too soon gone.”

December 17, 2011

Last night was cold, but today we’re back up to 50°. The sun is in and out of the clouds making the day bright but not sunny. I have to refill the feeders later and I’m glad my fingers won’t freeze. Earlier was already warm enough for me to stand outside for a little bit watching Gracie. She ran like a crazy dog around the yard, came in and got her snack, always two biscuits, then she flopped down on the couch for her morning nap. That’s where she still is. One cat, Fern, is on the couch in the living room, and the other, Maddie, just went down the cellar. I suspect she might be mouse hunting.

Later I have some shopping to do so I’m gearing up to fight the crowds at the supermarket and curse the wagons left in the middle of the aisles. My list is small and for that I am thankful. I hate grocery shopping.

Gracie and I went for a ride to see the lights the other night. I was far more enthused than she. I pointed out to her all the wonderfully lit houses, lamented the dark ones and laughed a bit at the “at least they did something houses.” I saw lit Christmas trees through windows and a few plastic Santas on lawns. Those Santas reminded me of my childhood when plastic Santas were the newest Christmas decorations. I have a few myself I’ve collected over the years but haven’t used them in a while. I think next year they’ll be perfect for the deck. It will be like a Santa convention.

When I was young, we used to string popcorn for the tree and a couple of times we added the cranberries. We’d sit at the kitchen table with the bowl of popcorn in the middle for us to share. It took a delicate push to get the needle through without breaking the kernel, but no matter how gently we tried, the table was usually strewn with broken pieces of corn kernels. We’d munch as we worked figuring the popcorn was as much for eating as threading. When our strands were ready, we’d each take our own and place it on the tree looped from branch to branch. We’d then step back to admire our work and how pretty it looked on the tree. When Christmas was over, the strands went outside for the birds.

We stopped doing popcorn when my dog Shauna decided the Christmas tree was for snacking. We caught her eating the popcorn enough times that we gave up before she pulled the tree down during her snack time. Shauna was a great one for sniffing out treats from just about anywhere. She always found her present under the tree. She’d pull it out from the pile and unwrap it then settle down to eat her present. She was always on Santa’s nice list.

Categories: Musings
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“For the spirit of Christmas fulfills the greatest hunger of mankind.”

December 12, 2011

A flicker is dining at my suet feeder. Compared to the birds I usually see, it is enormous as his body is the same length as the wire feeder. His back is to me so I can see the beautiful pattern of his feathers. I also see that a few of the smaller feeders need seeds so I’ll go out later and fill them. The gold finches and the chickadees especially love those smaller feeders. I haven’t seen many of the spawns of Satan of late. Perhaps they feel the vibes.

At 45° the day is winter warm. Gracie was out for a long while earlier this morning, a sure sign she finds the day agreeable. It’s now her morning nap time.

The den is a mess filled as it is with bags of gifts to be wrapped, tissue paper, assorted wrapping paper rolls and boxes with ribbons and tags. Only a few gifts are left upstairs to be brought down, but all the up and down the stairs yesterday took its toll so I left the larger, heavier boxes until today. I wrapped a few gifts last night, but today I’ll finish the bulk of them. I enjoy wrapping presents and making the ribbon just so, but for my sisters, I can’t add ribbon to the gifts as their cats are notorious ribbon eaters. Mine usually aren’t but this year Fern has given a few gifts a taste.

The houses are beautiful all lit up for Christmas. Many use colored lights on the fences and bushes but just as many use white ones. The candles in the windows are mostly white though I did see some red ones the other night. When I was a kid, orange was the color of choice for window lights. No houses had white lights anywhere. The outside lights were all colors and the strands had those huge bulbs you don’t see anymore. I have a couple of sets from long ago, but I don’t use them. I guess I keep them more for sentiment than anything else. They were beautiful and they were bright.

At dinner last week my sister noted that people really are nicer at Christmas. They tend to smile more for no apparent reasons. They are less impatient. They will even stop to admire a tree or a decoration. I agree with her and have a theory as to the reason. I believe all of us have pieces of our childhoods kept alive especially for this time of year when we welcome wonder and magic and let Christmas into our hearts.

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“Cold! If the thermometer had been an inch longer we’d have frozen to death.”

December 5, 2011

Today is warm; it’s 56°. That’s not winter the way it should be with Christmas only three weeks away. I remember walking to school this time of year bundled against the wind and the cold. My head was covered; my legs were encased in snow pants under my skirt and my fingers were barely warm inside my mittens. A scarf  kept my face from the worst of the wind, but the walk to school was always a cold one. It was actually a relief to arrive at school and hear the hiss of radiators as we stood in the cloakroom and shed our outer skins.

At the foot of my bed was a radiator. Above it was a window. The window was never very good at keeping out the cold nor was the radiator much better at keeping my room warm. Often, on a freezing winter morning, the inside bottom panes of the glass were covered with frost. I remember taking my fingernail and using it to write my name across the frost. We wore flannel pajamas to bed and always had slipper socks to keep our feet warm on the cold floors. I still wear slipper socks. I like the sound the soles make on the floor, that scuffing sound. Every Christmas we always got a new pair. Back then the slipper socks were all grey with brown leather soles. Now they come in every color.

We used to run to be the first to turn on the window lights. You had to turn the bulb as there was no switch. Back then our living room was the only one with window lights. My favorite was the one with five bulbs which always went in the picture window. The bases of all the lights were plastic, and when the bulbs were added, they sometimes got top-heavy. My father used to tape the bases to the window sill so the lights wouldn’t fall off. Sometimes they did anyway and the bulbs would shatter. I remember the small pieces of an orange bulb all over the floor.

Each night one of us had to crawl under the tree to the outlet to plug in the main cord to the lights. I remember there were lots of cords attached to one another, but we never had a problem with the cords or the fuses. I do remember a few times when the tree fell. It always fell slowly loaded down as it was with lights and ornaments. My dad would lift up the tree, one of us would hold it by the trunk, and he’d lie down on his stomach to tighten the screws in the base. That didn’t always work and the tree would sometimes fall again. My dad’s solution was always a hammer, some wire and some nails, never a bigger tree stand. I think he enjoyed the challenge.

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“Autumn is marching on: even the scarecrows are wearing dead leaves.”

November 25, 2011

The headache has come and gone all day, but I decided to get out and about anyway. I needed a blood test so the errand seemed perfect to add to the misery, but the day was so lovely and warm I’m glad I didn’t miss it. Well, the lab was closed so Gracie and I went to one of my favorite places to shop, and I bought two Christmas presents. I felt accomplished.

Thanksgiving was wonderful with great friends, the tastiest food and even a card game after dinner. My friend Clare made my favorite fall appetizer: a sugar pumpkin filled with bread and cheese combined with the pumpkin then put back into the pumpkin shell and baked in the over. Nothing tastier or prettier. We took a bit of a break before dessert out of necessity. We needed time to digest to make room for the pies: chocolate cream and pumpkin.

I have plenty of leftovers, and I’m hoping I’ll feel good enough later for a re-creation of yesterday’s wonderful dinner.

Now that Thanksgiving’s over, I can start concentrating on my Christmas list and seeing what I have and what I need. My outside lights will go up next week. The neighbors across the street always ask me not to park in front of the house so they can see the lights so I oblige and park at the top of the driveway so they can still see the lights strung across the gate and the huge lit wreath on the middle. When the lights around town go up, I’m always reminded of the ride we took every Christmas when I was a kid so we could see the lights. I think that was the only time we never argued about sides in the backseat. All of us were too glued to the windows to notice encroachment.

It’s been really warm so far for this time of year, but soon enough it will chilly and time to bring out the sugar cookies and the hot cocoa with melted Marshmallow Fluff floating on the top. I used to love that most of all when I was a kid.

Categories: Musings
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Comments: 8 Comments

“Autumn is marching on: even the scarecrows are wearing dead leaves.”

November 25, 2011

The headache has come and gone all day, but I decided to get out and about anyway. I needed a blood test so the errand seemed perfect to add to the misery, but the day was so lovely and warm I’m glad I didn’t miss it. Well, the lab was closed so Gracie and I went to one of my favorite places to shop, and I bought two Christmas presents. I felt accomplished.

Thanksgiving was wonderful with great friends, the tastiest food and even a card game after dinner. My friend Clare made my favorite fall appetizer: a sugar pumpkin filled with bread and cheese combined with the pumpkin then put back into the pumpkin shell and baked in the over. Nothing tastier or prettier. We took a bit of a break before dessert out of necessity. We needed time to digest to make room for the pies: chocolate cream and pumpkin.

I have plenty of leftovers, and I’m hoping I’ll feel good enough later for a re-creation of yesterday’s wonderful dinner.

Now that Thanksgiving’s over, I can start concentrating on my Christmas list and seeing what I have and what I need. My outside lights will go up next week. The neighbors across the street always ask me not to park in front of the house so they can see the lights so I oblige and park at the top of the driveway so they can still see the lights strung across the gate and the huge lit wreath on the middle. When the lights around town go up, I’m always reminded of the ride we took every Christmas when I was a kid so we could see the lights. I think that was the only time we never argued about sides in the backseat. All of us were too glued to the windows to notice encroachment.

It’s been really warm so far for this time of year, but soon enough it will chilly and time to bring out the sugar cookies and the hot cocoa with melted Marshmallow Fluff floating on the top. I used to love that most of all when I was a kid.

Categories: Musings
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Comments: 8 Comments

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