Posted tagged ‘rainy’
September 2, 2016
Yesterday was muggy and the afternoon was rainy, but I was glad for the rain since the cape has joined most of the rest of the state in an official drought. It rained enough all day to water my deck plants and for Gracie to get wet every time she went outside and for her to leave muddy paw prints every time she came inside.
Today is a delight. The humidity is gone, and there is a cool breeze strong enough to wave the branches. It is so pleasant to have windows open.
The cape will be inundated with tourists this weekend. It is the last big weekend of the summer and the weather will be lovely: in the mid-70’s during the days and the mid-60’s at night. Rain is forecast for Monday which seems like a metaphor for summer’s end. Cars will be bumper to bumper on the highway, all of them trying to get over the bridge and off the cape. In some years the wait was so long people played frisbee on the wide, grassy median.
When I was a kid, Labor Day really meant the end of summer traffic. Motels and restaurants closed. One-way roads went back to two-way. Main streets were no longer filled with cars. Parking lots were empty. Downtown Hyannis was like a ghost town, but things have changed. The secret is out: fall on the cape is the most wonderful time of year. The tourist season now extends to Columbus Day weekend. Buses have joined the cars on main roads like Route 28. They rumble from site to site. They stop at the outlets and at the Christmas Tree Shop. A bus in any parking lot is a tell-tale sign to keep going. It is like a giant neon light which screams Tourists! Beware!
Fern seems a bit better, but I don’t think she is eating anything but treats. I keep offering different foods hoping she’ll be enticed. Maybe I’ll have to buy a can of human tuna. She does like the juice.
I’m thinking a deck day today. There might not be all that many left.
Categories: Musings
Tags: breezy, bumper to bumper, columbus day, delight, drought, dry, fall, Labor Day weekend, long wait, longer season, muggy, over the bridge, rainy
Comments: 8 Comments
May 2, 2016
All I can say is ditto about the weather. May has not had a glorious start. Usually by this time we’ve had a few warmish days, but this year the weather is slow to change. We seem to be stuck in the rain belt, but I’ll play Pollyanna’s glad game and say at least it’s not snow.
My dour mood is gone. I feel lighter somehow. I even started the laundry. Last week I went a total of 14 miles. Today I have stuff I want to do so the 14 miles will quickly be eclipsed.
My flamingo and my gnome are getting anxious. They are still here in their winter quarters and wonder when they can take up residence on the deck, their summer retreat. I wonder the same thing. The deck has to be stained, but the weather just doesn’t cooperate. I’m leaning toward staining in the fall. I’ll have to talk to Sebastian, my neighbor and landscaper, about the possibility of waiting.
I don’t have an electric can opener. I don’t want one. Mine died a few years back, and I chose not to replace it. When I lived in Ghana, I realized how easy it was to get used to not having. Everything was done by hand. I had no machines to make life easier. After a short while, I didn’t care. It was there I learned to cook and bake. I also learned how to pick a really meaty chicken, good eggs, fresh tomatoes and recently cut meat. They were necessary skills for market shopping in Bolga.
Fast forward 40+ years, and my kitchen is a marvel of appliances and machinery. I have two food processors of different sizes, a blender, an electric mixer, coffee grinder, toaster and one of those immersion type things you put in soup to puree the ingredients. All of them have been put to good use. They are time and energy savers, but sometimes I don’t choose to use them.
I grab my cutting board, a good knife for chopping and bags for finished vegetables. I sit in the den, with the TV on and cut and chop. It helps my back not to be standing, and I’m reminded that I can do without. I enjoy the cutting and chopping in the same way I enjoy washing the dishes rather than using the dish washer. I ponder the world when doing what are essentially mindless tasks though I am careful with the knife. I let my mind wander anywhere and just follow along. I’ve never forgotten the value of washing dishes by hand. It is one of the best lessons I learned in Ghana.
Categories: Musings
Tags: appliances, deck staining, dour mood, electric can opener., flamingo and gnome, food processors, grey day, immersion blenders, Laundry, rainy, taking a drive
Comments: 4 Comments
February 25, 2016
Today is the same as the last few days: damp, dark, occasionally rainy and very windy. The phone woke me around 8. I let it go to voice. No message was left. I couldn’t go back to sleep so Gracie, Fern and I got out of bed. They are now napping.
When I was in the eighth grade, my friends and I were allowed to go to Boston by ourselves for the first time. We took the Sullivan Square bus from the stop in front of the movie theater uptown. At Sullivan Square we took the train, the subway train. It wasn’t called the T back then. I don’t remember where we got off, but I figure it must have been at the stop which had entrances to Filene’s and Jordan Marsh. That would have put us right downtown on Washington Street.
We had no destination in mind. It was the going by ourselves which was important. We roamed all over the city. I remember it was a Saturday because the market was open. Pushcarts were in rows with narrow aisles between them. The aisles were crowded with people. The wooden carts held fruit, veggies, nuts or candy. Vendors called out to us to stop at their carts. Butcher shops were in small storefronts across from the carts. Meat hung down on hooks. The butchers wore what must have been at one time white aprons. A couple of places sold pizza by the slice. I remember the smell of the pizza cooking.
We went to the North End which was all Italian back then. Widows wearing black sat on wooden kitchen chairs placed on sidewalks in front of their houses. They spoke to each other in Italian. Bakeries sold what I found out later were cannolis. Some places sold pizza by the slice or the pie.
The North End was a foreign country to me. Rabbits hung in store windows. In a candy store, some candy looked exactly like fruits and vegetables. Some looked like white mice with black whiskers. I asked and found out they had been made with marzipan. I bought a mouse. It tasted horrible. The pizza was served in square slices. The crusts were thin.
I was a foreigner. The North End was the first real place to feed my wanderlust.
Categories: Musings
Tags: Boston, butcher shops, cannoli, carts, damp, dark, downtown, Haymarket, Italain, marzipan, North End, open market, Pizza, rainy, storefronts, subway, windy
Comments: 8 Comments
November 1, 2015
This morning it sprinkled a bit, and though it has stopped, the clouds remain. Today is chilly and dreary. When I look out my windows, I see more and more dead leaves hanging from the oak trees. A small tree with some red leaves is all I have left of the colors of fall. Hunker down time is nearer and nearer.
Night has begun encroaching. With the change in time, with the end of daylight saving, it will come earlier. When I was a kid, I didn’t understand the whole idea, but I didn’t like it. My afternoon play time was less because the street lights came on earlier. I thought that was a cheat somehow, a parental ploy to get us to bed earlier.
We always had November 1st off from school because it was a holy day of obligation. That was one of the perks of attending a Catholic school. We had to go to mass then the whole day was ours. Today is the holy day and a Sunday. You get to knock off two obligations at the same time.
Clean underwear was always a big thing with mothers. I never understood why because even without the possibility of an accident and eternal embarrassment to my mother I always wore clean underwear. I mean really who’d want to wear dirty underwear? My mother would have been better served warning me to wear underwear without holes. I had a theory that socks with holes and underwear with holes were fine because nobody saw them excluding any accidents of course. I still adhere to that theory but mostly with wearing socks with holes. I turn over the top of the socks so my toes won’t poke through. A few times I tried to darn the socks but instead I got these huge lumps which hurt with shoes on. I went back to folding. When I went to Ghana, I bought enough new underwear for every day so I wouldn’t have to wash any. I have so much now I throw away the ones with holes or loose elastics. My mother would be so proud.
Categories: Musings
Tags: chilly, clean underwear, daylight saving., dreary, early darkness, holy day, hunker down time, rainy
Comments: 14 Comments
May 19, 2015
The day is dark, chilly and damp. Rain is expected. I’m guessing just as Gracie and I leave for the dump the skies will open and the rain will fall in sheets. I noticed the red spawn has been at the potted flowers again and there is soil all over the deck railing. This morning the spawn ran from the feeder as soon as I picked up the hose. It is wary now from too many showers. I’m thinking a slingshot.
When I was a kid, I seemed to be busy all of the time. I’d have school until 2 then rush home to play for the rest of the afternoon. My mother would call us inside close to supper time. I’d do my homework, have supper, watch some TV then get ready for bed. The day was spent in a flash. The whole week passed by almost before I’d noticed. Each Saturday and Sunday had a bit of a routine but those two days never seemed long enough.
During the summers when I was in high school, I sometimes whined and complained about having nothing to do. That drove my mother crazy. We didn’t have summer jobs back then so there was little to do all day long. What had delighted the kid me didn’t seem interesting any more. I didn’t ride my bike or walk to the pool or go to the playground. I just sighed a lot.
The summer after high school was when I got my first job: forty hours a week at Woolworth’s. It was the easiest job, and I jumped around doing all sorts of stuff to keep from getting bored. The only place I didn’t work was the food counter. I loved Woolworth’s food counter. It was straight and long with red vinyl stools moved in a circle for east seating. The women were all old, at least to me, and wore uniforms. Most had huge handkerchiefs as decorations atop their pockets. They kept pencils behind their ears. The wall had all the menu items listed including the flavors of ice cream. The dessert dishes had fluted tops. They were used for sundaes like my favorite of all, hot fudge. Real dishes were used for the sandwiches. They were whitish with a red ring around the inside rim. The hot dogs were wonderful cooked on the grill. The French fries were crisp and hot. Sometimes I’d have a grilled cheese sandwich, perfectly brown and gooey.
My mother and sister used to go to their Woolworth’s for a patty melt. The counter there was huge but divided almost into little islands each with its older lady taking orders. I went with them a few times, but it was sometimes a hot dog for me and other times a club sandwich. Colored toothpicks were in each section of the club sandwich to hold it together. The toothpicks were wooden. The sandwich was always delicious. I miss Woolworth counters.
Categories: Musings
Tags: being a kid, bored, chilly, colored toothpicks, dark and damp, food counter, hot dogs, hot fudge sundaes, older waitresses, playing. going to school, rainy, red spawn, tuna melt, whining, Woolworth's, working
Comments: 48 Comments
April 9, 2015
“Rain, rain go away. Come again another day. Rain, rain go away. Little Johnny wants to play.” I suspect saying this over and over won’t have any affect. This is the second day of cold, chilling rain. Last night the rain was heavy, and I fell asleep to the plinking of drops on the roof. Last night was also cold again, in the 30’s. I watched the Sox play Philly (they lost their perfect record), and when the camera followed the pitcher ‘s wind-up, I was distracted by seeing the pitcher’s breath and watching him trying to keep his hands warm. The players were bundled as much as they could be. Long sleeves were part of the uniform of the night. It was football weather.
When I was really young, I learned all the nursery rhymes from listening to my mother. She’d say them in a sing-song voice which my ears loved hearing. I remember seeing a ladybug outside on a leaf and telling her to fly away home, her house was on fire and her children were gone. All the Littles were friends of mine. I felt bad for Little Bo Peep and Little Boy Blue but really bad for Little Miss Muffet and her new founded fear of hungry spiders. I am a child born on the Sabbath, fair and wise and good in every way. I liked quoting that one. Some of them I could sing, badly, but it didn’t matter. They were fun. Old MacDonald’s was the best with all the animals sounds. Row, Row, Row your Boat was a round but somehow we always ended up finishing on the same lines no matter when we started.
Thinking about these rhymes got me to look them up, and I was surprised to find out how old some of them are. Little Bo Peep lost her sheep in 1805 and Little Boy Blue fell asleep in 1744. Miss Muffet has had her spider phobia since 1805. Ding Dong Bell is the oldest dating from 1580, that poor kitty.
I don’t know if nursery rhymes are still popular, but I really hope they are though it would be okay with me if the kitty finally came out of the well.
Categories: Musings
Tags: cold, Ding Dong Bell, football weather, Little Bo Peep, Little Boy Blue, Little Miss Muffet, nursery rhymes, rainy, Red Sox, Row Row Row Your Boat
Comments: 12 Comments
March 28, 2015
Saturday has always been the best day of the week for me. Torrents of rain falling, snow covering the ground (notice I said covering) or winds tossing tree branches back and forth have mattered little to me. They are merely dramatic backdrops. On Saturday’s I don’t have to go anywhere. I don’t even have to get dressed. I love Saturday’s.
Today is rainy. Yesterday was rainy. It will rain all day into the night. The snow is just about gone. That makes me happy and even hopeful.
On Easter Sunday, my sisters loved their pouffy dresses, their white ankle socks with ruffles and their patent leather shoes. I wore dresses as well until one Easter when I wanted a more casual look. I ended up with a suit and a pink blouse with a Peter Pan collar. I don’t remember my shoes, but they weren’t patent leather. Maybe I was channeling my future self who thought she’d be a lawyer. Every Easter, in the afternoon, we’d go to my grandparent’s house in the city. Everyone was there: my aunts and uncles and too many cousins to count. I remember a conversation I overheard just before going into the kitchen. My name was mentioned so I stopped to eavesdrop. My aunt wanted to know why I wasn’t in a dress and why I was totally poufless. My suit didn’t pass muster. My mother simply said it was what she wanted.
My guest has left. She is on her way to Pittsburg. We had a wonderful visit. We toured the cape, stopped at a few shops and had a wonderful shrimp dinner last night. I had to chuckle as she always introduced herself as Francisca and then went on to say Miss Ryan was my Peace Corps teacher in Ghana 43 years ago. We laughed a lot. That’s what she thanked me of the most.
Categories: Musings
Tags: chilly, Easter clothes, good-bye snow, Laughter, patent leather shoes, pouffy dresses, rainy, Saturday, shrimp dinner, touring Cape Cod
Comments: 10 Comments
March 17, 2015
We’re back to rainy and bleak. We’re also back to cold as it will get down to 18˚ tonight. This melt and freeze cycle is creating potholes all over the roads. I’ve been lucky so far as I’ve seen the holes in time to avoid them. Some people weren’t so lucky as a few hub caps are lying near the biggest holes.
What’s left of the snow is ugly. More of it will disappear because of the rain. All the roads are finally clear of the icy ruts. I’m just hoping the combination of the clear roads, rain and 18˚ won’t cause black ice.
My mother, father, two aunts, my 80-year-old grandfather and I visited Ireland together. It was my second trip there. It was the first for everyone else. I loved traveling with my parents and my grandfather was a trooper. He kept right up with us. One aunt always went with the flow; however, the other aunt I would have sold to the Irish Travellers whose caravans we saw throughout Ireland. She had a couple of heavy suitcases filled with enough clothes for an around the world trip. Every night my dad had to haul them out of the van to her room and then back to the van in the morning. We generally stayed only one night in each spot, usually a B&B, so why she needed both suitcases I never understood. I did ask and she said she didn’t know we would be stopping night by night. She thought we’d stay in one place. That still didn’t explain the amount of clothes and why both suitcases every night. I suggested she bring in what she needed just for the night and the next day, and she got huffy. That aunt is only five months younger than I am; she is number 8, the baby of my mother’s family. That gave her a strange sense of entitlement. Huffy should have been her middle.
My father loved boiled dinners, corned beef and cabbage for those of you living outside of New England. My mother would make the dinner a couple of times a year and always on St. Patrick’s Day. My favorite memory is one dinner when the potatoes disappeared. My mother was filling my dad’s plate with the carrots, cabbage, onions and meat. She used her spoon to hunt for the potatoes. There were none. She saw a couple of lumps of what might have been potatoes floating but that was the only sighting. When she brought dinner to my dad, he wanted to know right away where the potatoes, his favorites, were. My mother admitted she thought they disintegrated. My dad rushed out and hunted through the pan. He didn’t find any either. It became a family legend: the year of no potatoes.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day
Categories: Musings
Tags: 18˚, black ice, bleak, Boiled Dinner, corned beef and cabbage, heavy suit, Ireland, Irish Travellers, onions, potatoes, potholes, rainy, St. Patrick's Day, ugly snow
Comments: 14 Comments
November 24, 2014
Last night or rather early his morning, at 1:30, I sent Gracie outside and went with her. I stood on the deck a long while taking in the quiet of the night and watching Gracie wander around the yard. It was so warm I didn’t want to come inside fearful that winter would sneak back while I was sleeping. It didn’t. Today is rainy and dark, but it is still warm.
This morning I was ten again. I turned on Cozi Tv and watched The Cisco Kid, The Lone Ranger and The Roy Rogers Show. The Cisco Kid was resplendent in a black shirt with gold designs on the front and back. His cowboy hat was a sombrero. Pancho, his sidekick and comic foil, was more than I remembered. He was quick to draw to save Cisco and was silly but not stupid. He too was Mexican in dress and was wearing a brown billowy shirt and a sombrero. Spanish was thrown in here and there. Adios amigos was the last line as they rode out of sight. Tonto may have mangled English as a 1950’s stereotypical Indian, but he was smart and knew what needed to be done. His stunt double and he did not at all resemble each other. I wondered if I noticed that when I was little. I got a chuckle out of the discussion between Tonto and the Lone Ranger. Tonto wanted to know why the man was wearing perfume. The Lone Ranger explained it wasn’t perfume but cologne, perfume for men. I figured Tonto was right. Anyway, that would be the clue which later solved the murder of the government man.
Dale and Roy had a hit with the song The Bible Told Me So. That should have warned me. Dale talked to one of the characters about how right it was to put your faith in God and how wonderful it was to attend Sunday school. I forgot how much they proselytized. I only remembered Roy was a natty dresser.
In all three westerns fist fights never resulted in bloody noses, split knuckles or hats falling off into the dirt. It was easy to root for the white hatted hero, never the black hatted bad guy who was doomed to lose anyway.
I enjoyed my step back in time.
Categories: Musings
Tags: Cisco Kid, Cozi TV, Lone Ranger, rainy, Tonto, warm day
Comments: 10 Comments
November 1, 2014
Today is rainy, dark and dismal. It will get colder tonight and by tomorrow night will be in the 30’s. Mother Nature’s weather this time of year seems confused about its identity. Is it fall or is it beginning of winter? 60˚ will be back by Wednesday.
My short sleeve shirts are in the bin, my sandals are in the back of the closet, the movie projector and screen will be put in the cellar and the deck will be closed on Monday. I’m wearing my slippers and a sweat shirt. It is the start of winter mode. I always feel sad to pack summer away.
I have some errands today so I am glad for the rain. It keeps people home.
Last night I had 18 trick or treaters, a big number for me. Most were little kids, but a couple were high school age. I didn’t care. They got candy anyway. My large size Necco Wafers were a hit. Kids were yelling to their parents waiting on the street about the size of the candy. My neighbors across the street turned out their light at six. Mine went out at 7:30.
For the most part I don’t mind growing old. The grey hairs are a badge of honor. The wrinkles aren’t as bad as I thought they’d be by now; however, I do worry about one thing: the old lady temperament. I am already impatient enough without adding old lady to the mix. What if I start scowling for no reason? Will I get pushy? I think old people believe they are entitled simply because of longevity. The whole aisle in the store is theirs. To ask nicely to pass by merits a tsk or two or even a look. I don’t mind growing old. I just mind being old.
Categories: Musings
Tags: dismal, entitlement, errands, Getting Old, grey hairs, Halloween candy, rainy, scowls
Comments: 14 Comments
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