Posted tagged ‘reading’
May 30, 2013
Last night Gracie went out about 11 for her last visit to the yard before bed. When she came in, we went upstairs. I saw something out of the corner of my eye, light I thought, but I looked outside and saw nothing so I got comfy in bed to read. All of a sudden the loudest clap of thunder rattled the windows and went on forever. The rain came next, heavy rain, and then more thunder as loud and long as the first. I figured it was lightning I’d seen out of the corner of my eye, a warning of what was to come. I read for about an hour and then fell asleep to the sound of the rain. This morning I woke to sun and warmth. It is supposed to be around 83˚ today: too hot for May on Cape Cod.
It is just so quiet outside. The birds were singing earlier, but I don’t hear them anymore. A few leaves flutter on a branch but make no sound. I do hear Gracie snoring from her crate in the kitchen. It is often her spot for a morning nap. I don’t know where the cats are, but I know they’re sleeping somewhere. Today is my day to buy flowers for the deck and the front yard and vegetables and herbs for the side gardens. I’m going with red and white flowers for the deck, basil for the window boxes and cucumbers and tomatoes again for the garden. I’ll decide one more vegetable and a few more herbs when I roam at Agway. This is one of my favorite days though I usually end up going back at least one more time. I just can’t resist those flowers, and this year I have all those new pots to fill on the shelf I had built on the deck.
I’m leaving deck cleaning for tomorrow if my back cooperates or Saturday if it demands a day of rest which I suspect will happen given all the hauling from the car to the deck to the gardens. Tomorrow will probably be a recuperative day. No complaining here about sitting outside with a cold drink and a good book. I just started another Patterson, an Alex Cross, a perfect book for a summer’s day.
My laundry has been sitting by the cellar door for three days but hasn’t inspired me to do anything about it so it can sit a bit longer. As Scarlett was wont to say, “After all, tomorrow is another day.”
Categories: Musings
Tags: Alex Cross, back problems, dump, flower shopping, flowers, garden shop, leaves, lightning, quiet, rain, reading, Scarlett O'Hara, sun'heat, thunder, veggies
Comments: 14 Comments
May 3, 2013
It was 10 o’clock when I finally woke up this morning. My room was cold because the window was open so Gracie was curled up right beside me on the left and Fern was curled up on the right. They were pretty cozy. I wasn’t.
The day is dreary with a cloudy sky and a feeling of dampness in the air. The breeze is strong enough to blow even the thick branches. As my coffee was brewing, I checked the feeders through the window and saw two new visitors: wrens. I also saw a woodpecker, the goldfinches eating thistle and a robin eating suet.
Today we have a couple of errands, Gracie and I. It’s time for a new dump sticker then a visit to the dump and finally the pharmacy. It is getting closer to the time when Gracie will come with me to do errands only when I can leave the air conditioner on for her. Luckily, the dump is one of those places.
Days like today were among my favorite days when I was a kid. It was too ugly to play outside so when I’d get home from school I’d put on my coziest clothes, hop into bed, turn on the light and read. I’d lose myself in the pages all afternoon. When I got older, I always carried a pocketbook book with me in case of a spare minute or two. I’d read on the bus or even standing waiting for the bus. I disguised my book and read it in church. Last summer in Ghana for three weeks, I read 12 or 13 books. I had no radio, no TV and no computer, but I had books, and they were more than enough entertainment.
When I became a volunteer, we were given settling in money to buy whatever we needed for our houses. I bought a few dishes, a giant coffee cup, some pots and pans and I bought books, lots of books at the university book store. They were as essential as that coffee cup.
Every Christmas from the time I was really young, first Santa then my mother would give me new books. When I was older, my mother would ask which books I wanted as she was afraid she’d buy ones I’d already read. One year I got Alive, The Story of the Andes Survivors. I started reading it right away and read it all of Christmas Day. My mother told me I was reading it too fast and should save it by reading only a little at a time. That made no sense at all to me. I am a firm believer that you can’t put a good book down, that you are drawn to its pages over everything else. I can remember reading The Stand straight through for days. Sometimes I was far too engrossed to realize I had read the night away then I’d hear the birds greeting the morning and look up and see the first light in the window. I still do that every now and then. I love a book which makes me forget everything but the page I’m on.
Categories: Musings
Tags: Alive, books, coudy, dump, engrossed, errands, reading, reading all night
Comments: 13 Comments
April 20, 2013
My bedroom window was open all night. It was finally warm enough. The room was filled with the smell of nighttime and of cool fresh air. I could hear the birds, and I heard when it started to rain, one of my favorite sounds in the whole world. I heard the drops fall from the roof to the deck, and I thought maybe I heard a rumble of thunder but then again maybe not. There I was comfy in bed, reading my iPad and surrounded by Fern and Gracie, both asleep and both deeply breathing, more sounds I love. I was totally content.
The top of my Cape Times was wet though it was in two plastic bags. The Globe was dry. I took my time reading the papers and drinking my coffee. Days like today invite leisure, a slow savoring of the morning. The rain stopped a short while back. Out my window I can see the pine trees, and I can’t remember the last time their branches were so still. I can hear birds singing and very now and then a bright yellow goldfinch flies by my window. Their color is in such contrast to the gray branches of the pine trees that I can see every one of these small bright birds who are sitting on branches waiting their turns at the feeders.
If I could change my life, I don’t think I would. Well, one thing maybe: a bit more money so I could travel more often. I imagine my doorbell ringing, and, there, standing on the steps, is a burly man dressed in a suit holding his fedora. He introduces himself as Michael Anthony, the executive secretary of John Beresford Tipton, Jr. In his hand is a cashier’s check for one million dollars made out to me, taxes already paid. I sign what we’d now call a non-disclosure agreement and the check is mine. I remember when I was young I’d watch that show, The Millionaire, and dream about what I’d do with the money. I don’t think I understood the magnitude of a million dollars, and I suspect my dreams back then would have been fairly inexpensive to fulfill. I do remember, though, that one of them was to travel around the world. Sometimes dreams stay with us forever.
Categories: Musings
Tags: a million dollars, deeply breathing, Dreams, John Beresford Tipton, Jr, night sounds, rain, reading, stillness, The Millionaire
Comments: 13 Comments
March 30, 2013
Mother Nature is spoiling us with these sunny days and blue skies. It is chilly still but not cold, true sweatshirt weather. Fern is sprawled and napping in the sun streaming through the front door while Gracie and Maddie are napping elsewhere. I just watched Godzilla which I haven’t seen in years. It made me laugh. Most of the film is still in Japanese so scenes with Raymond Burr were inserted so we’d know what the heck was going on. He spends the entire movie looking straight ahead and doing voice-overs. The special effects are mostly miniatures, easy to spot. I got a big chuckle out of Burr at a press conference. He was writing for all he was worth while the information was being relayed in Japanese which he didn’t speak. In one scene a woman fell as she was running from Godzilla just as every B movie dictates but so did a soldier. That one is a new twist. It was in one of the inserted scenes and the guy was saved by Raymond Burr. During Godzilla’s rampage on Tokyo, Burr stands at a window, sweat pouring down his face while he describes the horror he’s watching for his editor into the microphone of a tape recorder. He just stands there until Godzilla destroys the building and the ceiling falls in on Burr who does survive. Godzilla doesn’t.
My neighborhood is quiet. I haven’t even heard a car going down the street or a dog barking. I have no plans for the day, no errands and nothing to do around the house except make my bed, but I’m hesitant as I’m thinking afternoon nap. I’m in the middle of a Lisa Gardner book called Touch and Go so I may curl up on the couch with my iPad and read away the afternoon.
Holy Saturday was always just an ordinary Saturday. We didn’t go to church: there were no services. We’d play outside weather permitting. That night we’d take our usual Saturday night baths with maybe a bit of extra scrubbing. The Easter Bunny was coming, but he never conjured the same excitement and anticipation as Santa did. We knew they’d be jelly beans and chocolate rabbits, a candy egg or two, a coloring book, crayons and a few small toys. My mother would let us eat one choice from our baskets, never the whole rabbit, and then we’d have to get ready for church. Our new clothes were all laid out, tags snipped and ironing done. After we’d gotten dressed, there were usually pictures, black and white pictures. We wore pastels.
Categories: Musings
Tags: bath night, Godzilla, Holy Saturday, Japanese Horror movie, pretty day, quiet neighborhood, Raymond Burr, reading, sunny day
Comments: 20 Comments
January 31, 2013
The wind howled all night and rain pounded against the windows. I heard it when the coughing woke me up, but I didn’t mind being awakened as I might have missed the rain, one of my favorite sounds. The howling wind was a bonus. It could have been from the soundtrack of an old black and white horror movie, like The Werewolf.
Yesterday morning I called my friend of over forty years, and he thought I was a guy named Paul. That was it for me. I called the doctor. They wanted me in right away. I think my coughing during the phone call worked to great effect. Come to find out my cold has morphed into bronchitis and was working its way toward pneumonia. I’m on all sorts of stuff right now which should make me sound far less like Paul and more like me.
It’s still windy and rainy. I had to convince Gracie to go out this morning then I ran for the papers and yesterday’s mail which was still in the box. The mail was boring. I have to get Gracie’s license today. It is, of course, the very last day to get it without an extra fee. I like living on the edge!
At the doctor’s they told me I needed to rest. I almost laughed out loud. Rest is my middle name. I love a good afternoon nap.
Because I haven’t seen anyone or been anywhere, my life has no new stories and no new people. I communicate entirely by phone. I spend the day reading and relaxing. I know, I know, a really tough way to while away the day. I’ve been reading David Baldacci, The Forgotten, and I like it. I stretch out on the couch with my afghan covering me and my dog beside me. If I weren’t sick, I’d think my life idyllic.
The rain has stopped, and the sun is out. The sky is mostly blue. I can still hear the wind, and through my window I can see the swaying branches of the oak and pine. It looks like a pretty day.
Categories: Musings
Tags: Baldacci, blue skies, Cough, Gracie, rain, reading, sick, sunny day, Wind
Comments: 14 Comments
January 28, 2013
Today I got dressed. I don’t really feel any better, but I wanted a change. This whole thing, this cough and cold, is getting ridiculous. I should be well by now kicking my heels in the air and whistling a happy tune, but, instead, I’m expecting the board of health to come by and tack up a notice that this house is quarantined.
Another mouse got a late night ride last night around 10:30. I checked the mileage, and we went 1.5 miles. His homing instinct is only good for a mile so I’m expecting he’ll set up housekeeping in the new neighborhood. No mouse in the trap this morning-the first time in a while, but when I checked it, the mouse had eaten the peanut butter. I didn’t set the trap right last night. The mouse count, though, is slowing down. We’ve made inroads. I’m still hoping the Pied Piper will drop by. I promise to pay him, unlike his last clients.
I started another novel, David Baldacci’s The Forgotten. I finished the Patterson yesterday, Private London, in quick time, probably about the same amount of time it took him to write it. There is a second author, Mark Pearson, and I figure Patterson throws out the plot to the guy who then writes the novel. The book wasn’t very good. The main character was a cliché: the tough guy with all the right words and really great aim who inevitably saves the day.
Of late, I have been easily bored, not something to which I am well-acquainted, but staying in the house limits what I see and do. I check out daytime TV, find nothing and turn it right off. I read for a while then I get tired of reading. I could dust but I don’t even like to dust when I feel good. My sister sent me a red chili wreath for Christmas and some of the peppers fell off in transit. I’m thinking of firing up my glue gun and reattaching those peppers. I think I’m really hard-pressed for some way to pass the time.
Today isn’t the day, but tomorrow I’ll have to go out to fill the larder and get dog food. I’m already excited at the prospect of being out in the world.
Categories: Musings
Tags: cold and sick, David Baldacci, mouse rides, mouse traps, Patterson, peanut butter, Pied Piper, reading
Comments: 20 Comments
January 4, 2013
The sun is shining, but it is just a ruse to draw me outside where I’ll freeze to death. The day looks a bit hazy as if I need to spin the lens to sharpen the image. The dump was on my agenda, but it will be far too cold as the wind there is like a blast of Arctic air. Gracie loves the dump, but she stays warm in the car wearing her Pendleton blanket coat. My back is a bit iffy today so hauling trash may not be the best idea.
The books have been flying off my iPad shelf. I have been in a reading frenzy. My favorite so far is Mr. Penumbrum’s 24-Hour Bookstore. I’m not quite sure how to describe it. There are books and there is technology, advanced technology of all sorts. One of the characters works for Google; another creates boob simulation software for which there is a huge market. The main character works in the bookstore, and it is he who prompts the action, as such. He finds coded books on the top most shelf, books he wasn’t supposed to read, and then the quest begins to solve the codes. Kat, great name for a character by the way, is the one who works for Google. It is she who buys a New York Times but can’t figure out to operate it. You have to love that line but you bemoan it at the same time. Real books take center stage so to speak in this novel which sort of made reading it on my iPad an oxymoron. I don’t know what prompted me to get this book, but I’m really happy I did.
When I was in Ghana last summer, I read eleven books in three weeks. In the mornings I’d sit on the porch with my coffee and I’d read. At night, I’d lie in bed and read myself to sleep. Even when the electricity went out, I had my iPad and all the light I needed. When I was a volunteer there, I read at every opportunity, much the same as I did last summer. Without the distraction of a TV, reading and listening to music are the best ways to spend time. That was about the only thing that didn’t change over the forty years in between visits.
Categories: Musings
Tags: book, dump, E-book, Ghana, Google, IPad, Mr. Penumbrum's bookstore, reading
Comments: 20 Comments
January 3, 2013
Winter made a dramatic gesture by sending us the coldest day and night so far this season. I almost said this year then I remembered how young the year is. It was 12˚ last night, a perfect night to stay inside, cozy and warm. Poor Gracie got sent out before bed, but she was out for only a minute or two. I think it was squat and run.
My tree is standing in the living room covered by a white plastic bag. It is ready to be taken outside and brought to the dump. I took off all the ornaments and the lights yesterday. I hated doing it, but it was time. To accomplish that task I had to bring up the bins from the cellar, fill them then slide the heavy bins down the stairs and pile them until next year. My back bears witness to all the work I did yesterday so today is a nothing day. The tree can sit until tomorrow. Gracie and I also did errands yesterday, and I carried in the bags of bird seed and cans of dog food. I figured I’d already done in my back so what the heck. I did leave the 20 pounds of cat litter in the trunk, but I’m going to need that tomorrow to change the boxes. I have designated tomorrow dump day and the old litter has to go.
My scrub pine, the ugly fake tree, is still in the dining room where it will be lit every night until twelfth night. I have also left some decorations around the house to keep it a bit festive. There is no rush to return to drab.
I’ve finished Mr. Penumbra and moved on to Merry Christmas, Alex Cross. Nothing better than hostages and terrorists at Christmas. The book is short and won’t take long to finish. I think James Patterson has caught Mary Higgins Clark’s disease of hiding a short story under the guise of a novel.
It’s a wonderful world when I can plan my day around the couch and a book. I have the whole day to do what I want. How lucky I am!
Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: Agway, Alex Cross, bare house, Bird feeder, books, Christmas tree, cold, cold day, reading, scrub pine, Shopping, undecorate
Comments: 13 Comments
August 21, 2012
The morning is lovely, sunny and cool. All the animals are having their naps in all their favorite places. Every now and then I can hear a kid’s voice from down the street and a bird or two, but mostly it’s quiet. I love this kind of morning.
I took my time this morning. The day has lent itself to leisure, to reading the papers slowly, missing nothing, and having an extra cup of coffee. I’m staring at the laundry bag in the hall. It hasn’t moved and neither have I. The morning has brought a contentedness and laundry can wait.
When I was young, I loved summer mornings. They were always the coolest part of the day, and they smelled sweet, of grass and flowers and sometimes rain. I was up and out quickly after a bowl of Rice Krispies and a piece or two of toast. Sometimes I went to the playground; sometimes I rode my bike, and sometimes I’d go uptown to the library, a favorite summer spot. It was always cool on a hot day even though it wasn’t air-conditioned. The floor was highly polished tile. The librarian sat at a round wooden station to check out books. She also had a desk near the mysteries. Sometimes she’d sit there and work. The chairs around the tables were wooden and had fancy backs like captains’ chairs. I was always careful not to scrape mine across the floor when I moved it to sit down at the table to browse through a few books. I’d sit there for a while then I’d return those books to the shelves and start to choose the ones to take home. I always took the maximum.
Books never lasted too long for me. I read them quickly, sometimes in a single long sitting. Books held me enthralled and the day passed unnoticed. When I was older, it was the night which passed unnoticed. I remember finishing a book, looking up and seeing it was morning. That still happens to me.
Categories: Musings
Tags: books, leisure, library, reading, summer mornings
Comments: 20 Comments
June 21, 2012
Already it is 86°. I ventured out to get the papers then hustled back into the coolness of my house. Yesterday afternoon I turned on the AC, and by last night the temperature was so low my nose and feet were cold. I couldn’t help the nose but my feet got slippers.
I noticed my neighbors have their screen door in while I still have the storm door. The paper predicted it will be our usual June weather by Monday, 59° at night, so I’ll wait on that screen just a bit longer.
Cue the Jaws’ shark theme! Two great whites have returned to Chatham lured by the bounty of food, by all those seals lolling on the rocks. The sharks had been tagged last year, and it appears they enjoyed their vacation enough to return.
I just finished a Clive Cussler, easy, breezy summer reading. I knew from page one that our hero, Kurt Austin, would be in harrowing situations and forced to face death at least a few times; however, I knew he would save the girl, as there always is a girl, and triumph over the bad guy, a meglomaniac controlling weather and rainfall in his bid to take over the world. You’ve got to love a bad guy with a vision!
I am of the opinion that summer reading should never be taxing, never really need a whole lot of thought. Clive is the perfect example. You already know the outline of the plot and his heroes are interchangeable, but it doesn’t matter. The books are fun to read. I heard the summer reading program on NPR a year or so ago and laughed at the comment that every summer at least one book should be about Nazis. I have a whole bookcase filled on my iPad with books like a John Sandford and his hero, Lucas Davenport, a Victorian mystery where ladies swoon, two books about baseball, a James Patterson and a couple of spy/espionage thrillers by authors I’ve never read before-it was the genre that caught my eye.
With the Red Sox on the TV in the background, I spend the evening mostly reading but watching when the Sox come to bat. I’m nice and cool dressed in my t-shirt, my gaudy Hawaiian looking Capri pants, worn only in the house or the deck, and my flip-flops. A cold drink is on the table. The dog is asleep on the couch. It’s a perfect summer evening!
Categories: Musings
Tags: AC, Chatham, Clive Cussler, Great white shark, hot day, Jaws, Kurt Austin, reading, summer novels
Comments: 22 Comments
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