Posted tagged ‘rain’
July 14, 2016
I woke up to sun and now it is cloudy. The official report says a partly cloudy day with 78˚ as the high. Weather reports never seem optimistic. This is a half full, half empty sort of prediction. The optimist would say partly sunny.
It hasn’t rained much in a while. We had spitting rain one morning, but that’s about it. The cape, though, is not under a drought warning. Neither is the western part of the state, but the rest of the state is. I miss the summer rain.
I love onion rings, not the thick ones but the skinny ones with the light batter. Two seafood restaurants I really like serve them, and I always order a plate with onion rings. Lately I’ve ordered clams. Neither restaurant serves clams without the bellies. Those are for the tourists. The plates come heaped with clams, onion rings and French fries. I always eat the French fries last because sometimes I run out of room and would never want to leave a clam or an onion ring.
At a pub or a similar eatery, I usually order cheeseburgers covered with cheddar cheese. They usually come topped with lettuce and tomatoes with French fries on the side. I use mayonnaise on my French fries and my cheeseburger. I am not a big ketchup fan. I don’t know why but I consider ketchup on hot dogs and scrambled eggs as trevesties.
I have the TV on, unusual for me during the day. I’m finding most of the commercials are aimed at old people by age, not disposition. I have seen several about buying life insurance not dependent on physical condition or how old you are. A couple of commercials are touting the I’ve fallen and can’t get up alert button. The companies must figure only older people are home during the day.
I got all my errands finished yesterday. This morning I made my bed, and now I’m done.
Categories: Musings
Tags: 78˚, cloudy, daytime TV, French fries, fried clams, Ghanaian food, insurance commercials, life insurance, light batter, mayonnaise, onion rings, rain, skinny rings
Comments: 8 Comments
July 9, 2016
Today is another cold, damp, overcast day. I have shut all my windows, and I’m about to go get my sweatshirt. Rain is predicted for the afternoon. This is the sort of day which makes an afternoon nap sound inviting. I’m already tired thinking about it.
Peapod came this morning. I was told the delivery would arrive between 7:30 and 9:30. He knocked on my door just before 7:30. Luckily I was awake. The larder is full again.
Last night I saw a wonderful production of The Music Man at the Cape Playhouse which is starting its 90th year of continuous entertainment. I have been going there at least 35 years. I remember when every play was sold out. That’s not the case anymore. I’m thinking that live productions don’t appeal to the Netflix, Amazon Streaming, YouTube generation as I see so few of them at the Playhouse, but for the first time in a while there were several kids last night. I was glad they were being introduced to a live performance. None of the ones near me looked bored. That’s a good sign.
The library in my town had records you could borrow. I remember bringing home Camelot and playing it so many times I memorized most of the songs. A live version of Peter Pan with Mary Martin played on television when I was a kid. It was wonderful. My mother bought the records of the musical for us. They were 45’s. We’d load them on the middle piece you put on the hifi so we could pile three or four 45’s at once. I still remember most of the words to all the songs. My sister took my niece when she was young to a revival of Peter Pan. She loved it as much as we had only she was lucky to see it in person. She got to watch Peter fly. I never thought it strange that Peter Pan was always played by a woman when it was staged. My niece saw Cathy Rigby, but for me, Peter Pan is always Mary Martin.
I have flowers needing to be planted in pots and the dead flowers on my front step need to be replaced. Today seems the perfect day to do outside work, but I’m going to have to force myself to be motivated. Being cozy and warm inside is just so appealing.
Categories: Musings
Tags: Camelot, Cape Playhouse, cold day, damp, library, Mary Martin, nap, overcast, Peapod, Peter Pan, rain, records, The Music Man
Comments: 10 Comments
May 1, 2016
The grey day is in anticipation for the rain coming tonight. It feels cold to me, a bit raw. My sister has snow. She says it has been snowing a while but not much has accumulated on the roads, and the grass is barely covered. Her weatherman says a big storm will hit them next week, could be as many as 8″. She can’t see the mountains. They are socked in. Happy May Day, Moe!
In the Globe this morning I read some college had its graduation yesterday thus ushering in the season of graduations. That brought back a jumble of memories. I remember my mother telling me that she and my father had never imagined they would have a child go to college. No one in the family had ever gone. I also remember my father telling me I’d have to transfer from my college to a state school if my brother wanted to go to a private college as I had. He told me my brother would have to support a family so he should get the better education. That struck me to the quick because he wasn’t considering me. He was considering the role of women and throwing me into the mix, but it wasn’t an out of the blue idea for my dad. His generation believed women stayed home and men worked, but I knew I’d never have to transfer. I knew my brother better than my father did.
When I was a senior in college and the future loomed, I started to make choices. My first choice was always the Peace Corps for as long as I could remember. My second choice was law school, and my final choice, my back-up, was teaching. First I filled out and sent the Peace Corps application. I then took the LSAT. I did well and applied to a few law schools. Suffolk accepted me. I told my father about law school and wanted to know if he would help me pay for it. No was his answer. He said law was not for women. I hated his mind set, but I was okay with the no. In January I was accepted to train for Peace Corps. I called Washington right away and accepted the invitation. I then had my mother tell my father. It was cowardly, no question about it. He forbad me to go. I would have chuckled when he said it, but that would have made his veins pop in anger. A few months later my dad told me he and my mother had been talking, and they would be happy to help pay for law school. I recognized the offer for what it was and thanked him but said no.
In the spring I started to interview for teaching jobs just to go through an interview process. One interviewer told me they only hire teachers with masters. I told him that wasn’t true or he wouldn’t be interviewing any of us as we were getting our bachelor’s. I was totally frank with all my answers. I had nothing to lose. At the end of the interview he offered me a job. I admitted then I wasn’t looking for a job, just interview experience. I was going into the Peace Corps. He offered me his card and said call him when I got home. I didn’t.
If I hadn’t chosen Peace Corps, I would never have been a teacher. Of all the gifts those two years gave me, teaching was the ultimate. I had found the place where I fit the best and loved the most, the classroom.
Categories: Musings
Tags: college, graduations, grey skies, men and education, rain, Snow, transfer schools
Comments: 12 Comments
April 26, 2016
We had rain earlier, but I don’t think it was much as I never heard it. The day is cool and dark. Grace and Fern are here with me but Maddie is hiding. I managed to give her some medicine last night and haven’t seen her since. I checked her usual places, but she has found someplace new. She’ll turn up just in time to get medicine again. After that, I expect her to pack her bags and leave without even saying goodbye.
In the dampness of the morning, I walked around the front garden. All sorts of flowers are peeking out of the ground. I haven’t an idea of what any of them are. Some have spread and my burning bush which was cut to the ground last fall has several small branches. I was worried but was reassured by Sebastien, my landscaper and my neighbor. He was right.
It never entered my head that I would care about a garden or flowers. Even when I first moved in, I didn’t care so much. The garden was behind the front fence so nobody could see my neglect. When Sebastien planted the lawn, he suggested I move the fence behind the garden. That’s when I started to buy plants. I bought perennials and a few annuals but the garden was still sparse looking. I still didn’t care all that much until I saw a garden filled with color and flowers, and it was beautiful. I started buying flowers. I think I have an addiction as I buy some every year. This year, I already have a list, but I need to do some refining. I want flowers which bloom at different times during the summer and fall so the garden will always have color. I’m still taken aback by my flower enthusiasm.
It has started raining again. Maddie just showed up from wherever she has been hiding. She is allowing me to pat her. That will last only for a while as soon enough it will be time for her medicine.
I have always found the rain subduing. Even when I was little I wanted to hear the rain and nothing else. School seemed quiet when it rained. I remember the sounds of papers being moved and pages being turned but no conversations. I don’t even remember the nun teaching us. She too must have listened to the rain. I remember seeing her sitting at her desk looking at papers, but I always thought she was really listening to the rain.
Categories: Musings, Uncategorized
Tags: blooming, cats, cool, dark day, flowers, gardens, medicine, quiet, rain, subdued, wet
Comments: 10 Comments
April 23, 2016
We finally have rain. It’s a bit heavier than when I woke up, but it is still a drop by drop rainstorm. I can the drops hitting the roof. It is one of my favorite sounds. I feel cozy and protected in the house, the dark house as I have lit no lights, only a couple of candles.
It would rain on the day I have to go off cape. That’s the luck of the draw. I’m heading to dinner with friends I marched with in the drill team. Many of them were also my elementary classmates. I don’t see them very often. The cape might as well be a foreign country reached only by a long flight. Other than Bill and Peg, my friends from Peace Corps days, no one comes down here, not even my family. I always find that strange.
I think a rainy Saturday was one of the worst things that could happen to me when I was a kid. In the summer, we’d still go out because it was warm, and we didn’t care when we got wet. This time of year, though, was too cold to be outside in the rain. I remember moping around the house sighing at my plight and driving my mother crazy while I was doing it. Saturday was the only day of the week that was all mine. I had no obligations and had the entire day to what I wanted, but it was ruined in the cold of an early spring rain. Finally I would read to pass the time, but I wanted to be outside. I wanted the fresh air I didn’t get being stuck in school the whole week.
The rain has stopped. The only sound is one of my cats purring. She’s the one I had to chase around the house to give her the medicine in her ears. I have now switched to liquid thinking it might be easier. I’ll know in a bit because I’m going to try and give her some. After that I probably won’t see her for a day or two. Maddie doesn’t forgive easily, and she never forgets.
Categories: Musings
Tags: a foreign country, cape cod, chinese food, dinner, moping, off-cape, rain, ride, sighing, St. Pat's drill team
Comments: 8 Comments
April 12, 2016
Today I started early with a nine o’cock meeting. When it had finished, I went to the bank, the post office and the grocery store. I got home after eleven and had another cup of coffee while I read my second newspaper and my e-mail. It was while I was reading the local news I realized how tired I was so I decided to take a morning nap. Gracie must have felt the same way because she joined me upstairs. We just woke up. Gracie, though, is now back to napping, and I’m still tired.
When I looked out the window this morning, I saw a cloudy, ugly sort of day. When I went outside to leave, I was surprised at how warm it was. My car said 55˚, almost balmy for this time of year especially with no sun. I knew it was supposed to rain during some part of the day and it did just as I arrived home. All I would have needed was four more minutes so I could have gotten the dog, my packages and me inside without getting wet.
The easiest way to describe the weather is to say it’s a rainy day, but that’s just the beginning. What sort of rain? All rain storms don’t fall from the sky in the same way, but they do have two things in common: they get you wet and all the rain ends up in the same place, down. My favorite description of rain is one my mother used to use. She’d say it was spitting rain, and I knew exactly what she meant. The earlier rain I got stuck in was heavy. My mother would have called it a deluge. Sometimes rain is torrential. Other times it rains cats and dogs. Sprinkling is the lightest of rains. Coming down in buckets is just the opposite. I remember the rain falling on the long windows when I was in elementary school. The drops would hit the windows then drizzle down until they disappeared. When the wind is great, the rain falls sideways. Some storms have pounding rain. They are probably my least favorite because I always get so wet.
My favorites of all storms are in Ghana at the start of the rainy season. After months of no rain the sky turns almost black and the clouds darken the day. All of a sudden the wind and the rain start with unbelievable ferocity. Trees bend under the onslaught. Lightning strikes jaggedly across the sky. I once saw it hit the ground. The dry, hard earth can’t absorb the rain so it forms rivulets which run and make furrows on the ground. Sometimes the rain is so magnificent I can’t catch my breath from the awe of it. I stand and watch until the storm wears itself out and the sun comes back. I know the dry season is over and it will rain just about every day, but it is this first rain which I’ll remember.
Categories: Musings
Tags: 55˚, bank, drizzle, dry season, early meeting, Grocery store, lightning, post office, rain, raining buckets, raining cats and dogs, rainy season, torrential rain
Comments: 12 Comments
March 15, 2016
Last night it poured. The wind was so strong I could hear the trees creaking as they swayed. It was still raining when I woke up this morning. The dismal day made my decision an easy one. I’m staying home. I’m not getting dressed; however, I will brush my teeth and maybe even my hair but no promises on that last one. I wouldn’t want to overdo.
The town where I grew up was first populated in 1634. I didn’t know that back when I was young and even if I had, it wouldn’t have impressed me all that much. I’d have just thought it was old. It has all sorts of houses but few of them are made of brick. The newest ones when I was a kid were ranch houses all in rows and looking alike. Most of the other houses were build in the 30’s and 40’s and after the war. There are three octagonal houses, two of which are on the National Register of Historic Places. When I was a kid, they were my favorite houses. I didn’t know until later that they dated from the 1850’s. The William Bryant house was my favorite. It sits on a corner, has a small porch and a cupola on the roof. It was build for a shoe cutter. My town used to have a few factories where shoes were made. I remember when they closed the last one. It was the one right down the street from the square. The other house I like sits on top of a hill. It has a porch that wraps around the whole house. I used to imagine myself sitting in a rocking chair on the porch and watching the world go by.
The neatest place is the Dairy Dome on Main Street near the square. It serves ice cream in the summer and sells Christmas trees in the winter. When I was a kid, it was a gas station. The building is six-sided and really does have a dome.
On one street are huge white houses all in a row. I always thought the rich people lived in those houses. They are right up the street from the old train station, the end of the line.
When I go to visit my sister, I sometimes take a ride around town to see what has changed and what hasn’t. I always wish the railroad tracks were still there. They were part of many a Saturday adventure.
Categories: Musings
Tags: 1624, brush my teeth, home town, National Register of Historic Places., octagonal houses, rain, ranch houses, shoe cutter, stay home, William Bryant house, Wind
Comments: 8 Comments
March 10, 2016
My mood and the day are too similar to ignore. It rained earlier. The ground is still wet. The sky is a light grey. My mood is just a bit darker. I woke up very late and did not want to get out of bed. Gracie and Fern adjusted their respective positions on the bed, and we all went back to sleep. I had to force myself to get up. Two cups of coffee are just not enough today.
My house is clean. Roseana and Lee came yesterday. Dump day is tomorrow. I checked and the bird feeders still have seeds though I did have to replace the suet in both of those feeders. The clothes are all washed. There are no dirty dishes. I got books at the library yesterday. I finished the newspaper’s crossword puzzle. As all of this sounds like paradise, why the mood?
My voice is raspy. I have a headache. I am exhausted (spell check came up with a better word: exhumed) for no reason. All I can think of is maybe the cold I avoided knows spring is upon us and wants to get me before winter takes its final bow. This makes me unhappy. It also makes me grumpy.
I figure to loll in bed, take whatever medication I have and read the day away. That actually sounds inviting. The only thing missing is the maid and a bell by my bed to summon her.
This will last a day or two as I’m not coughing or blowing my nose. On the measurement of colds, something I just made up, I’m about a 3 or a 4 out of 10. If I were a little kid, my mother would have sent me to school: two symptoms do not a cold make.
The worst part of a kid’s cold is a runny nose. I hated having a runny nose. My mother used to stuff my pockets with Kleenex. That left a dilemma. Where do I put the used Kleenex? I couldn’t keep getting up from my desk to put them in the trash so I’d stash them in my school bag or the pocket of my sweater if I happened to be wearing one. Nothing is worse than a used Kleenex.
My mother usually had a Kleenex or two in her handbag. The problems were the Kleenex was a crumbled mess, often had lipstick on it and brown bits of tobacco from my mother’s cigarette package clung to it. I had no choice but to use that Kleenex. It was always a mystery to me why my mother didn’t want it back. To me, it sort of fit right into her bag.
Categories: Musings
Tags: bird seed, clean clothes, clean house, cloudy, coffee, cold, grumpy, Kleenex, libstick, light grey sky, loll in bed, Paradise, rain, raspy voice, read, sleeping in, suet feeders, tired, tobacco, unhappy
Comments: 19 Comments
February 5, 2016
I’m beginning to wonder if there isn’t some yet unknown connection between humans and hibernating animals. This morning I first woke up at 8:30. It was pouring and the rain was pounding the roof and windows. It was not inviting so I got comfy again and went back to sleep with Fern and Gracie as bedmates. Jump forward two hours. I finally stirred and dragged myself out of bed. It was still raining. I ran out for the papers. That’s when I noticed the rain was turning to snow. Little beads of ice were on the grass and the walkway. When I let Gracie out a few minutes later, I saw the ice on the back stairs and immediately threw out the deicer. I don’t want a repeat of last week when Gracie fell.
The prediction is for 4 to 8 inches of wet, heavy snow. It has already covered the lawns, the roads and the tops of the branches. It will snow all day into the evening.
I’m still hooked. Snow demands my attention. I like to watch it fall. I love the world covered in white. All the blemishes disappear.
I just lost my electricity for about five minutes. I didn’t panic. I groaned. I’m thrilled it returned so quickly, but now I have to go around and reset clocks on the appliances. I suppose that a minor complaint compared to the loss of electricity.
My iPad is locked. I forgot my password and tried too many combinations so it locked me out thinking I was an iPad thief. Now I have to go hunting to find out how to get into that infernal machine.
I keep opening the front door to check the amount of snow on the ground. It is falling quickly. The backyard is a winter wonderland. Some branches are already lower to the ground burdening but he wet snow.
It just happened again-the electricity went off for a few minutes. Now I’m getting nervous.
I am a picture straightener, and I want my clocks in sync so I just corrected the ones in the kitchen, a mistake. The electricity just went off for a third time. Now I’m making sure my iPhone is charged, the lantern is here with me and the heat is high for just a bit to warm the house just in case. I am not happy.
Categories: Musings, Uncategorized
Tags: 4 to 8 inches, beads of ice, covered roads, disabled iPad, hibernation, no electricity, pouring, rain, Snow, winter wonderland
Comments: 10 Comments
January 16, 2016
The rain started about 1:30 this morning. I was lying in bed when I heard the tap,tap on the roof. My first thought was the weatherman was spot on with his timing. He also said it would stop in time for the Pat’s game. He prognosticated perfectly again because the rain has now stopped. An hour ago it was raining heavily, but now it is just damp and grey and windy, sort of an ugly day.
I am late in posting because I am suffering from sleeping sickness, at least that’s my excuse. I did go to bed really late, but I slept until 11:30: that was nine hours. It has been the same all week. I wonder if I missed a visit from Maleficent and her whole sleeping curse thing went right over my head. Right now I am the only creature stirring.
My father was a huge football fan. He also watched hockey, but never baseball or basketball unless one of us was visiting, and he’d turn on the game for us. I know he found baseball boring, but I don’t know why basketball. My father was a shouter at the TV. He moaned at fumbled turnovers and screamed at interceptions. He was a Giants fan until the Patriots were formed. He then transferred his allegiance to the home town team. He watched the one Super Bowl they made in his lifetime, in 1985, and it was a rout. The Bears beat the Pats 46-10. My father hardly screamed that game.
My dad would love the Pats now. He’d get a kick out of Belichick and his press conferences. He’d be yelling at the officials and their treatment of the Pats. He’d never go to the bathroom or the kitchen except during time outs.
I always miss my dad but most especially on days like today. We’d be watching the game together. My mother would join us but she knew absolutely nothing about football and a couple of times rooted for the wrong team. That was okay. At least she watched.
I’ll be here watching, and I’ll be yelling at a call or a poorly executed play, and I’ll definitely be moaning at a Pat’s fumble. I always think of it as channelling my dad.
Categories: Musings
Tags: boring baseball, cloudy, damp, football fan, hockey, Pat's game, rain, sleeping sickness
Comments: 18 Comments
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