Posted tagged ‘lovely day’

“Read in order to live.”

November 27, 2011

The day is again lovely and warm, though not as warm as yesterday. From my window here I’ve been watching the birds at the feeders, and I just watched a red spawn fit through the mesh of the small feeder, the one the nuthatches like, and he’s having quite the picnic. I’m thinking a weapon of some sort, even a slingshot, would be useful right about now.

The two cats and the dog are asleep. I guess they had a tough morning moving from the bed to the couch though Gracie might be tired as she did have a play date earlier with her friend Cody from down the street. Cody is let out, he comes here and barks at the door to come in, and he and Gracie romp in the yard. When they’re done, Cody barks to come in, gets a biscuit from me then I let him out and he walks home. It’s a perfect arrangement.

Today I have no plans except to loll and read. I have just started the new Stephen King novel, and I’m unhappy about it. When I hold that giant book, over 800 pages, in my hands, I bemoan its length. The problem is that the novel grabbed my attention right away, but given the number of pages, it will be a long while until the end unless I do nothing else but read, not really unheard of for me. I realize I have to partake in a bit of life here and there, but I suspect I’ll resent it as time taken away from the book.

I have sometimes read until three or four in the morning totally unaware of the passage of time as I turn the pages of an engrossing novel. When I realize the time, I tell myself one more chapter then one more then one more again. Soon enough another hour or so has passed. When I was a kid, my mother swore I was totally ignoring her. “Didn’t you hear me screaming for you?” I hadn’t. I was so into my book nothing could intrude. I always suspected she never believed my no.

“Autumn, the year’s last, loveliest smile.”

October 4, 2011

I’m tired today. I do have a few errands, but I’m not moving until later this afternoon. If I didn’t need animal food, I probably wouldn’t move at all.

We have sun, a real sunny day with no clouds for the sun to hide behind. Though it’s only in the low 60’s, the sun more than makes up for the temperature, and, without the dampness, I can feel real warmth in the air. Yesterday was a sad day. It was close up the deck day. Most of the furniture was covered and the candles taken off the trees. Only the two big wooden chairs stay uncovered all winter, and I’m hoping for a stray deck day to appear so I can sit on one of them with my eyes closed and my face to the sun.

When I was little, nobody I knew had a deck. I don’t even think I ever saw a deck. People just put their lawn chairs in the backyard on the grass. My grandparents had wooden Adirondack chairs. I think the color of the chairs matched the green trim of their house, but I’m not so sure. Other yards had those metal chairs which came in all different colors. I remember burning the backs of my legs when I sat down on one that had been in the sun too long. That was their painful drawback. My parents had ones which folded and seldom lasted more than a single season. The legs or the arms would bend, and the chairs wouldn’t open or sometimes they wouldn’t close. I had a few of those chairs after I first moved in here. I think there is still a lounge in the cellar. It won’t open and I can’t imagine why I’ve kept it.

“Wherever it came from, the musical came with its hair mussed and with an innocent, indolent, irreverent look on its bright, bland face.”

August 9, 2011

It’s a beautiful day in our neighborhood. The sun is brightly shining and glinting sharply here and there between the leaves of the oak trees. Even the horrific tenants next door are quiet enough so I can open my window. The birds are singing, happily I presume, and they’re at the feeders enjoying breakfast. Gracie and the cats are napping. It feels idyllic, perfect to inspire some sort of a poem, a short one like an Emily Dickinson’s.

I’m going off cape today to the Apple store. I probably shouldn’t as it is an occasion for sin as the nuns would say. I think the Apple store entices me to spend and be an electronic glutton, but I’m looking for some technical help. When I bought my Mac, I paid for one on one tutoring, and that’s what I’m getting today. I figured out to copy the Ghana 1969-1971 DVD Tim made but got flummoxed when it appeared as two files so I couldn’t figure out how to copy it. They’ll show me, and by the time I get home, I’ll have forgotten so I’m bringing a pad of paper.

This is a busy week for me with something every day. Most are social events. The play this week on Friday is another musical. My friend, Tony, a musician, gets personally offended because I don’t like musicals. I tell him I love music, but that doesn’t soothe his feelings which I hate to hurt, but I can’t lie. I love drama and mystery and comedies, not a play where someone sings when words could work as well or even better. I appreciate music, but I appreciate even more the turn of a phrase or the cleverness of a playwright. I’ll go this week as I skipped the last musical, but I saw a musical just last week at the other theater so I think I’m being punished.

I figure hell isn’t fire and brimstone. We are stuck for eternity with what drives us crazy. People who don’t like kids will be in a room with thousands of terrible two’s all of whom need their diapers changed. Speed demons will be buckled into cars which go no more than 5 MPH.  Beer drinkers, never seen without a bottle in hand, will be a hand’s length away from an ever flowing tap. I will be stuck in a theater watching the same musical over and over. It will be one like Carrie which is on every worst musical list. The devil will chose singers who sing off-key, which, I suppose, doesn’t make them singers at all. I will have to sit there performance after performance listening to lines like,

“All we ever do is park
Then for hours you grope me in the dark”

“Small children disturb your sleep, big children your life.”

July 11, 2011

For me it’s still early, and I’ve already been busy. First was a blood test which meant no coffee when I woke up-a painful way to start the day. Then I got yelled at to slow down by an elderly lady who had turned the corner halfway into my lane such that I had to stop or be hit. She looked panicked. Next was the pharmacy then Dunkin’ Donut’s where I ordered an iced coffee with equal and cream. She repeated my order: hot, black and medium. Slowly, distinctly and loudly I tried again. I figured take away the loudly and it was like practicing Ghanaian English for my trip. Such was my morning.

It’s a deck day no question about it. I have a few things to do this afternoon, but I’m staying outside and lolling for as long as I can. Today makes me grateful I’m retired.

My house has no shades. I wanted it that way. When I was a kid, my mother put the shades down all over the house on hot summer days. She was trying to keep the house cool, but it was always dark and cave-like to me, cooler definitely but still cave-like. The kitchen was the only room with light because the back door was always open to the screen door. I remember that screen door perfectly and can still see and place it in my mind’s eye. It was wooden and painted dark green. It never shut slowly but always slammed. The screen was one piece and was replaced every fall by the storm door which shut more slowly because of the weight of the glass. We never walked out the screen door; we always ran and it always slammed.

I loved our house in South Yarmouth. It was close to everything, and my brother and I had our own rooms. We were on the first floor while my parents and my sisters were on the second. The house had a dormer added later so the stairs were behind a door and couldn’t be seen from the living room. That also meant my brother and I couldn’t be heard. He sneaked out a lot. I didn’t. Most times, he was lucky enough to get home before my father woke up. Once he didn’t and all hell broke loose. My father yelled at me figuring I was a co-conspirator, but I wasn’t as I had no idea where he’d gone. I only vaguely remembered hearing him leave through his window. I was surprised my father didn’t think to nail his windows shut because in a short while my brother was back to his nighttime escapades.

I always think it interesting the memories we keep.