Posted tagged ‘Snow’
May 21, 2016
Such a beautiful day it is today. We have sun, a breeze and some white clouds hiding the blue. Rain is predicted, but I can’t remember when.
I have a mystery. Every day at different times I find the corner of the living room rug turned up. Nothing is on or under the rug so I don’t understand why, and I certainly don’t know who, but Gracie is tops on my list of suspects. I’m thinking it’s a Gaslight thing.
Today I have little to say. The week was a busy one but it was mostly because of medical appointments for me and Fern. Nothing much to report except Fern needs more potassium. It’s coming in the mail.
Lawnmowers are disturbing the quiet of my neighborhood. Even my lawn is getting mowed though it hardly seemed tall enough to merit the cutting. I understand the attraction of gas powered mowers, but I miss the click clack of hand mowers, another sound from my childhood which has disappeared.
Snow on the TV is long gone. I remember my father adjusting the rabbit ears to get rid of the static sound of the snow. The ears were wrapped in aluminum foil to give the antenna greater reach. Lots of houses had antennas on the roof.
I remember when I was in Morocco and sitting at a table on the top floor of a restaurant in the old city. It seemed every house had a dish attached to its roof or to the side of the roof. Even the calls to prayer were computerized. I remember being in Bawku, Ghana living with a family for three weeks as part of my Peace Corps training. My room was close to the small mosque on the street below my bedroom so I could hear the call to prayer. The one around 3:30 always woke me up, but after a bit, I knew when it would end so I could go back to sleep. The call became part of my night. The singing of the prayer was beautiful.
I am not a Luddite. I have all sorts of machines, mostly in the kitchen, which make my life easier; however, I am saddened at the disappearance of so many things and so many sounds. The click clack always brought my father to mind. He never bought a power mower. I miss the bells on Sunday mornings. I miss the clinking of milk bottles, and I miss the milkman. I could go on and on. It is just one of those days. It all started with the sound of lawnmowers.
Categories: Musings
Tags: Bawku Ghana, beautiful day, book genres, breezy, call to prayer, click clack, Gaslight, lawnmowers, Luddite, mysteries, mystery, Peace Corps training, Snow, sun, TV antenna
Comments: 14 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 4, 2016
It’s snowing again with that wet, heavy snow. The roads are clear but the lawns and tree branches are covered. I’d guess January if I had only what I can see out my window as a hint.
Today is opening day for the Red Sox in Cleveland. I wonder if they have boots with cleats. Are their gloves flannel-lined? This is a game to be watched on TV in the warmth of my house.
Baseball is my favorite game. Even when I was young, I loved baseball. I think it had to do with how easy it is to understand. Football has too many positions and too many plays. I get the gist and know a few of the infractions which is more than enough for me, but with baseball I even get the nuances and can understand the lingo like around the horn, Texas leaguer or hitting for the cycle. I can even explain the in-field fly rule. A pitcher’s duel is the most boring game of all despite how mechanically good the game is. A rough and ready game with lots of hits, a few silly errors, steals and maybe even a manager ejection are the most fun to watch. The Sox have several young players so I’m going to have to learn the roster. David Ortiz, hated by some but loved by many, is starting his last year. It will be strange to think of the Sox without Big Papi. I have high hopes for this season but then I had high hopes for last season and look what happened. Red Sox fans expect to suffer. It’s in our DNA.
I watched some of Sarah Palin’s Wisconsin speech for Trump. At first I thought it was a Saturday Night Live parody as they do her so well. “What the heck are you thinking, candidates? What the heck are you thinking when you’re actually asking for more immigrants — even illegal immigrants, welcoming them in,” Palin said of Trump’s opponents. “Even inducing and seducing them with gift baskets: ‘Come on over the border and here’s a gift basket of teddy bears and soccer balls.” Imagine the stampede of illegal aliens hurrying to the borders before the gift baskets are gone.
Categories: Musings
Tags: around the horn, baseball opening, boots with cleats, David Ortiz, flannel lined gloves, in field fly rule, Red Sox, Sarah Palin, Snow, Texas leaguer, understanding baseball
Comments: 18 Comments
April 3, 2016
“In the lane snow is glistening…” We got a dusting of snow last night. It is wet and heavy. I know this because I went out and made a snowball to throw at the spawn of Satan eating from the suet feeder. The snowball was the perfect heft for an accurate throw, and I hit the spawn dead on. It sort of jumped in surprise then took off on the deck rail down into the yard.
The sun has just appeared backed by a cloudy blue sky. The wind is dying down. The day is beginning to have possibilities. We didn’t go to the dump yesterday as it rained all day, but it looks as if today might just be the perfect dump day. Strange, I never imagined myself talking about the perfect dump day or any dump day for that matter. It seems I’ve turned into such an odd conversationalist.
The snow is dripping off the roof mimicking the sound of a rain storm. I can see small clumps of snow falling from the branches. I filled the bird feeders the other day so the birds are many and varied. My usual gold finches, chickadees, titmice and nut hatches are here as are house finches, woodpeckers and a sparrow of sorts I don’t know by name. I’m sure the doves are here as I did throw seed on the ground for them.
Getting ready for spring takes more time than getting ready for winter. The outside furniture has to be uncovered and cleaned. All the decorative items like the fountain, the painted tables and the tree candles have to be brought from the cellar. The three bins filled with summer I keep stored under the deck have to be emptied then filled with the furniture coverings. The pictures have to be hung on the house wall facing the deck. The gnome and the flamingo are last on the deck. They formally announce the beginning of summer.
In the front and on the side, the gardens need to be cleaned and the dirt overturned. Two branches too close to the house on the front pine tree have to come down. The lawn needs tending. When the weather is warm enough, flowers need to bought and planted to fill any empty spots. The annuals in the herb garden need replacing. The window boxes for the deck need to be repainted this year then filled with flowers and herbs. The small vegetable garden will only have tomatoes as they seem to grow best there.
In winter the furniture gets covered and all the gardens turn brown. The front yard gets its last cleaning. The dead flowers are cut. The deck is bare and abandoned. Only the feeders are left. It never takes long to ready the house and yard for winter. I always think it’s the saddest day, the day I have to admit fall has finished its course, the day the gnome and the flamingo come inside.
It is so easy to love spring.
Categories: Musings
Tags: birds, blue sky, candles, cleaning the gardens, conversationalist, deck cleaning, dump day, flowers, gold finches, chickadees, titmice and nut hatches, planting herbs, ready for summer, Snow, spawn of satan, sun, the flamingo, the gnome, windy
Comments: 13 Comments
March 21, 2016
First we had rain then we had snow last night but only a dusting to an inch. The weather today is in a weird cycle. The snow started to melt earlier so most of the branches are no longer covered. Right now, though, it is snowing again, big flakes falling straight down or from the north. The snow cover on the ground has slush underneath it. My shoes would leave only a hole, not a footprint if I walked in the yard. The day is dark and uninviting. It is a read a book day or a day to do that project I need finished by Easter. The problem, however, is I have little ambition, not even enough to turn pages. Cozy under the covers on a dark and snowy day seems just about right.
Easter never had the anticipation Christmas had. It didn’t have any rules about the necessity for good behavior but it didn’t have any wishes either. We knew pretty much what we’d find on Easter morning. The only surprises were the small toys and books my mother tucked into our baskets. A tall chocolate rabbit was always the eye-catcher. Around it were jelly beans, big round hard colored candies which were white in the middle, a few small pieces of chocolate and some yellow Peeps, wild out of the box. I remember if I ate a piece from something, like the ears from the big rabbit, and put the rest of the rabbit back into the basket, it would stick to the grass at the bottom. Later, before I could have another bite, I’d have to pull off the grass shoots.
We didn’t have a giant rabbit at the mall the way they do now. We just had Santa at Christmas. Seeing Santa made a lot of sense but seeing the rabbit doesn’t. What do you talk about? What do you ask him to bring? He doesn’t care if you were good or bad. You’ll get an Easter basket regardless. I suppose you can always fall back on the sort of stuffed animal you want, the one usually sitting beside the basket, but beyond that, I’m clueless.
Categories: Music
Tags: basket grass, chocolate rabbit, Easter, Easter basket, falling snow, jelly beans, melting snowe, no footprints, peeps, projects, rabbit ears, reading, slush, Snow
Comments: 18 Comments
March 20, 2016
Happy First Day of Spring!
Today is a cold but sunny day. The sunrise was gorgeous. The beach was warmer than I expected as there wasn’t the cold breeze which sometimes comes off the water. We sat for a bit in the car then went outside to greet the first spring day. We watched the pinkish red glow of morning touch the sky then saw the top of the sun rise over the jetty. We sang our traditional songs. My friend Clare found us each a shell, a memento, then we got back into the car and went to breakfast. The sun was getting higher in the sky as we drove away.
Tonight it will snow. The amount is still in question. We could get 0-2 or 2-4 inches. We’re on the cusp.
I don’t remember cold Easters when I was a kid. My memory drawers have hidden them way in the back. I remember warm sunshine, pastel dresses, white gloves and Mary Jane shoes in black patent leather. This, the week before Easter, is when my mother did most of the clothes shopping. The Children’s Corner in the square had the perfect dresses. It had round racks filled with pink, green and light blue dresses and other racks of petticoats to make the dresses puffy. The shoes came from Thom McCann. I wasn’t one for hats but my sisters were. They fancied round ones with ribbons. They also carried little purses with one long metal strap. A light, fancy jacket finished the ensemble.
The dresses sat on hangers in the closets until Easter. Every time I’d open my closet I’d take my dress out to look at how beautiful it was. I could hardly wait for Easter.
Categories: Musings
Tags: cold and sunny, Easter clothes, first day of spring, shells, Snow, sunrise, the beach, traditional ceremonies
Comments: 18 Comments
March 19, 2016
The day is beautiful with lots of sun and a clear, deep blue sky. The only problem is the cold. It isn’t take your breath away cold, for which I am thankful, but it is wear a jacket or a vest cold. The prediction is for snow starting tomorrow night and continuing into Monday. We could get up to 8 inches, but the forecast is still filled with maybes. Sadly the snow isn’t a maybe but the amount is.
Even when I was young, I don’t think I’d have welcomed snow this time of year. It’s bicycle time. Sled time is over. I’d have already put my sled in the cellar and brought out my bike.
I was a pretty good roller skater on the sidewalks near my house. My skates were the key kind which attached to my shoes, always shoes, never sneakers. I’d sit on the front steps, loosen the sliders on the under part of the skates then put my feet in and move the slider up and down until the skates perfectly fit my feet. I’d then tighten the slider bolts. The next part needed my key which I always kept on a string around my neck when I skated. The string was a necessity because losing the key was about the worst thing to happen. That key loosened or tightened the clamps at the top of my skates, the clamps which held on to my shoes. Once the clamps were as tight as I could get them the last thing to do was to buckle the leather strap which went across my foot.
I loved how strange the bottoms of my feet felt as I skated. It was like a tingling sensation. Coupled with that was the great sound of skates rolling across the sidewalks. It was almost like the sound of a revving motor.
The skates never really glided and didn’t do well dealing with big bumps or cracks in the sidewalks. I didn’t care; however, I did sometimes fall after encountering a crack and often skinned my knees. Blood trails went down my legs. They were like badges of honor because I’d get right back up and skate again, blood or no blood.
We went to the skating rink occasionally and rented shoe skates. The rink was in Medford, the next town over, and was called The Bal-A-Roue. It looked a bit like a hockey rink. The skating part was oval and surrounded by a railing. The surface, though, was wooden. An organ played the music so easy even now to recognize as skating music. I love going there.
When I’d get home, my skirt or my pants were usually dirty from the number of times I fell on that wooden floor. I admit the railing and I were great friends.
Categories: Musings
Tags: Bal-A-Roue, bicycle, blue sky, clamps, cold, key, metal skates, roar of the wheels, roller skating, shoe skates, skate sliders, Snow, sunny, tingling, vest
Comments: 10 Comments
March 18, 2016
Spring arrives this Sunday. I have this visual of winter packing its duffle bag while spring is unpacking its flowered tote. Spring, being experienced in the passing of the baton, will have packed a few sweaters and maybe a pair of bright yellow galoshes.
According to the weatherman, parts of the state will get snow on Sunday. I think it is just so wrong no matter how you look at it. If I were in charge, I’d make a law which prohibits snow once winter has skulked away. Luckily, we here on the cape will get mostly rain.
The sky is ominous in some spots right now. The weatherman has predicted afternoon showers. Gracie has her well dog visit to the vets this afternoon, and we’ll also go to the dump. That’s the spoonful of sugar.
St. Patrick’s Day was wonderful. Dinner was perfect. Everything was cooked just right. The meat was tender and delicious as were the vegetables. I love cabbage, but I don’t understand why. Its strange smell when it’s cooking seems to hang around far too long. I’m guessing one of the reasons I like it is I was an adult before I tried it for the first time so I brought no childhood food nightmares with me to the tasting.
When I was a kid, there were certain foods I hated. Beans, as you know, is one of them. Peaches have fur I can’t get passed though even if I could, I don’t like the taste. Over time I do keep trying the foods I wouldn’t eat. I came to love turnip. As for beans, no matter how many times I try beans of different varieties I still don’t like them. The only bean I’ll tolerate, actually the only bean I like, is green beans in that wonderful casserole which has been around for millennia. I grew into liking carrots by themselves instead of eating them mashed and mingled with potatoes the way my mother served them to us. Actually duped, not served, is the better verb here. My mother was being very clever and quite sly. It took a while before I realized potatoes didn’t turn orangey when cooked.
Categories: Musings
Tags: beans, cabbage, corned beef, duffle bag, flowered tote, Snow, spring, St. Patrick's Day, turnip, winter
Comments: 12 Comments
March 4, 2016
The snow is already covering the tops of branches. The roads are wet, and I think they’ll probably freeze when the temperature goes down this afternoon. Gracie and I finished four errands, and I couldn’t wait to get home. It’s cold.
The dump was fairly empty. Smarter people than I stayed home cozy and warm. I was the only one in the hardware store which does make sense. I guess whatever you need in a hardware store isn’t always immediate during a snow storm. The cat food stop was a necessity. Agway didn’t have many people either. My last stop was to buy lunch. I bought chicken noodle soup, the ultimate comfort food. Rita, the magician of soups, uses egg noodles, huge cuts of carrots and lots of chicken. I even bought two.
On days like today my mother often packed soup for our lunches. She’d fill the thermos bottles and make sure we had plenty of Saltines. Most times the soup was either tomato or chicken noodle. I liked eating from my thermos. I’d slowly and carefully pour the soup into the cover trying not to splash then I’d put the stopper back to keep the rest of the soup hot. I’d crumple the crackers into the soup. They sucked up all the liquid but that’s how I liked it. My mother also packed desserts, usually cookies. I was never big on fruit for lunchbox dessert. I always thought fruit was a snack. Dessert needed sugar and maybe chocolate.
We’ll only get a couple of inches of wet snow. I keep looking out the window watching it fall. The flakes change direction. Now they are from the north. A while back they seemed to come straight down. Because there is no wind, the flakes aren’t frantic. They fall slowly, individually.
All the bird feeders are filled, and I threw some on the ground under the deck. There were a few goldfinches still clad in winter drab dining al fresco this morning.
I feel a nap coming on!
Categories: Musings
Tags: chicken noodle soup, Chocolate, cold, comfort foods, crackers, dessert, dump, errands, fruit, hardware store, Snow, soup, thermos bottles, tomato soup.
Comments: 25 Comments
March 3, 2016
This has been the busiest of mornings. The periodontist said all is well so I thought I’d treat myself by taking the long way home and stopping at a few places. I noticed the thrift store was open so I stopped to shop. It, like most other thrift shops, always has older women tending the register and wrapping the items. I found a few things I had been looking for to use for Easter. The three things cost a total of $3.25. I stayed a while in the parking lot to listen to Romney’s speech and was glad I had. Give it to him, Mitt! Next stop was the candy store for a couple of Easter basket items then the Italian store for cheese. It was a fun morning.
Today is cold, 32˚ cold. Tomorrow we’re due to have 2-4 inches of snow. I think I saw spring as it was getting on a bus to Florida. Hard to tell, though, as spring had her face covered so as not to be recognized. My dad, of course, would always tell us spring snow is poor man’s fertilizer.
When I was a kid, I didn’t know what the weather would be one day to the next this time of year. It was as if Mother Nature had multiple personalities. A warm day in the morning could be freezing cold by afternoon. Sun easily turned to dark skies filled with clouds. Snow was always welcome, but I was a kid. What did I know?
I jut spent an hour with my neighbor helping him with forms for his two kids so they can get regular passports. Both are now over 18 and need to apply for their own passports as the other was because their father is a citizen.
I saw a daffodil bud in my front garden. I was so excited this morning you’d think I’d found a treasure chest filled with gold, but then again with snow coming and spring so far delayed, maybe I did!
Categories: Musings
Tags: candy shop, cheese shop, citizenship, Florida, freezing cold, Shopping, Snow, thrift store
Comments: 13 Comments
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