Posted tagged ‘sun’
February 28, 2016
We have lots of sun this morning and a light blue sky, but the day is breezy and cool. I can hear the sweet sounds of the wind chimes blowing.
I’m in a Sunday frame of mind, the kind of Sunday we had when I was a kid, a quiet day, a hang around the house day waiting for dinner. Sunday was always special. It was the only day we had dinner, a fancier fare than we had all week. Dinner was always in the afternoon, usually around two. Supper was at night. My dad used to work late and wasn’t always home in time for supper. We were always together for Sunday dinner. The meal centered around a roast of some sort and mashed potatoes. The vegetables differed from week to week. Bread was never served though I remember it was always on the table at the Cleaver’s, the Walton’s and most other programs about families. Their bread wasn’t fancy, just sliced bread stacked on a plate. I never saw any of them use salt or pepper on their foods. We didn’t either. The table held our plates and silverware and the food. There was barely room for the six of us. Most times my mother would move the food to the counter after we had served ourselves. If we wanted more, she’d always get up to serve us. I don’t remember my mother ever sitting down for an entire meal. We seldom had dessert, not even at Sunday dinner. If there was any in the house, we’d have a bowl of ice cream or we’d grab a few cookies, Oreos were the favorite.
I didn’t know until I was older that potatoes could be more than mashed or French fried. I was surprised to find out carrots and potatoes weren’t the only vegetables which could be served fresh, not out of a can. I did know about corn on the cob, but that was a summer vegetable for a cook-out.
I don’t remember having Sunday dinners in the summer. We had picnics at the beach and cookouts in the backyard. We ate a lot of hamburgers and hot dogs. Corn on the cob and baked beans, out of a can of course, were usually the vegetables. In those days we never had salad. Potato salad came much later, when we were older. Green salad was never a hit.
Despite the canned veggies and the lack of salads and greenery, we were healthy kids. We suffered from the usually maladies of childhood in those days like measles or the mumps, but that was about it. I might have wished to have a few stay at home from school sick days, but I wasn’t ever that lucky.
Categories: Musings
Tags: baked beans, Chicken, childhood maladies, cook-outs, corn on the cob, day quiet day, dinner, mashed potatoes, picnics, roast beef, Roasts, sea breeze, sun, Sunday, Sunday dinner, veggies, wind chimes
Comments: 10 Comments
January 29, 2016
The sun is just now breaking through the clouds to defy the prediction of rain showers. We’re going to the dump later so I’d appreciate it if Mother Nature held off on the rain. I have a trunkful.
When I was a kid, the town trash trucks came once a week. My dad would haul the heavy barrels out of the cellar to the curb. The truck always had at least two men hanging off the back. They’d jump off, grab barrels, empty them into the back of the truck then toss the barrels to the curb. The guys wore heavy gloves and grubby clothes. I liked to watch when they’d compressed the trash to make more room. Our next door neighbor was a trash man and once in a while he’d do our home route. We’d all wave and yell.
I never really thought much about the garbage can in the back yard by the steps. It was in-ground, and you had to depress a lever to open it. I hated emptying the garbage from the house. The bin smelled awful and there were always maggots. The garbage truck also came once a week. The garbage man walked to the backyard carrying one barrel slung over his back. He’d open the bin, pull out the garbage can and dump it into his barrel. I always thought being a garbage man had to be the grossest job, but I was wrong.
The grossest job is being a night soil man anywhere. His job is to go from outhouse to outhouse to empty the pails while people are sleeping. I just happen to have met one in Ghana. It was while I was visiting my friends who didn’t have running water. I was back and forth to their outhouse during the night as I was suffering from a volunteer’s common ailment which necessitated frequent visits to the outhouse. I can’t imagine the night soil man was as surprised as I was. When he pulled out the pail, I heard the noise and jumped up. He poked his head just a bit into the hole and greeted me. I greeted him back. He smiled and put the empty pail back inside. I sat down. It had been the most interesting encounter.
Categories: Musings
Tags: barrels of trash, garbage bin, Garbage truck, Ghana, greeting, maggots, night soil, pails of night soil, smells, sun, trash truck
Comments: 14 Comments
January 24, 2016
“We’re happy tonight, walking in a winter wonderland.” I’m lying. I’m not happy. Here I am stuck in the house, and from the window I can see way off to the driveway where the blue plastic sleeve of my newspapers is clearly visible. I know if I really wanted the papers I could put on heavy shoes and some warmer pants then trudge my way through the deep snow to the papers. I think I’ll choose to be patient and wait for Skip, my factotum, to come to plow and shovel.
We didn’t get as much snow as I expected. I think maybe we got only 8 or 9 inches. The problem is the snow is heavy and wet. Branches and bushes bow under the weight. The sky is still grey. I was hoping for some sun. Nothing is prettier than untouched snow glittering in the sun.
My dad was one of those shovelers who went out during the storm hoping to stay ahead of the snow. I used to watch him from the picture window. He’d do the front steps first then the path then the three steps to the street and finally his car. Sometimes the snow was so high I couldn’t see him, but I knew where he was because I could see the snow flying left or right off his shovel into the air.
The plows left layers of snow on the street. Sometimes the first layer would melt just a bit from the sun then overnight it would refreeze and produce the perfect hill for sledding with a layer of ice on top. This happened every day until the streets were down to pavement then we went sledding on the grassy hills.
Today I have football, the Pats against the Broncos. The winner will be Super Bowl bound. I’ll be cheering and clapping the whole game; at least, that’s what I expect.
(P.S. Skip has come and gone. Yippee!)
Categories: Musings
Tags: flat land, flying snow, glistening snow, heavy snow, layer of snow, paper in the driveway, plows, shoveling, Sledding, sun, trudge, winter wonderland
Comments: 16 Comments
October 13, 2015
My mornings rarely start early, but today the alarm jarred me awake at the God awful hour of 7:30. I had a library board meeting at nine and I wanted time for coffee and some of the paper. After the meeting I did my three errands. This has been a most industrious morning for me.
It started raining last night and was still raining when I woke up. Mother Nature must have looked kindly on me because the rain stopped for the few minutes it took me to get the papers then it started pouring when I got inside. The sun came out around 10 for a while then the clouds came back, but it must be a peek-a-boo day as the sun is back.
The day is warm. The morning was filled with the sounds of birds, and the rain brought a sweetness to the air. It is supposed to get really cold by the end of the week so I will savor today.
My father was a football and hockey fan. He thought baseball was boring and just didn’t enjoy basketball. We were poles apart. Basketball and baseball were always my favorites, and I never did like hockey. I abided football but didn’t understand much of it. Baseball has always been my top favorite sport. The cellar dwellers, the Sox, were a cheap Saturday afternoon in the bleachers when I was a kid. Now they are still cellar dwellers but even the bleachers are expensive. I usually try to go once each year but mostly I watch them on TV. I haven’t been to a Celtics’ game in a long while because I seemed to have lost interest. Filling the gap has been football. My dad would have loved to have someone watch with him, and he’d be thrilled at the success of the Pats. He watched them in their early days, their struggling years. He yelled a lot at the TV. I watch every Pats game, and I now understand the general rules of the game, most infractions and even some strategy. I’m hazy about some positions and their responsibilities, but that doesn’t deter me from enjoying the game. I yell at the TV. My dad would be proud!
Categories: Musings
Tags: Baseball, basketball, errands, football, hockey, morning meeting, Mother Nature, peek-a-boo day, rain, strategy, sun
Comments: 10 Comments
October 6, 2015
We have anomalies today, and I haven’t quite interpreted their meanings. The sun is shining and the sky is blue. What do these heavenly signs portend? Might they be heralding the end of time and the destruction of all we know and hold dear? Or might this be just a sunny day, and I’m over-reacting?
My neighbor brought me dinner last night. I dined on rice, chicken and an okra dish, the best okra I’ve ever had with not a bit of the slime I’d come to associate with okra. That was a vegetable I didn’t even know existed until Africa where I ate okra soup many times the slime notwithstanding. I’m now adding okra to my list of favorite vegetables.
My brother had the job of emptying the baskets into the barrels kept in the cellar until trash day. It was his only job. I didn’t have a job though sometimes I’d set or clear the table if asked. I think boys and trash were a natural pairing when I was a kid. Back then girls had a certain behavior protocol which didn’t include trash. Any kitchen work was appropriate. Girls also had a stricter dress code than boys. I had to wear a dress or a skirt going to church which also meant I had to wear nice shoes and socks and a hat. I always felt over-dressed, and I was never one for prissy. My brother wore a collared shirt and nice pants. That was it. I envied him the casualness of his Sunday clothing.
Now that I look back, I liked having a Sunday. Every other day of the week was filled with school, playtime, movies, bike riding, watching TV and the so many other fun things we did to pack our days. Sunday was truly a day of rest. We were expected to stay around the house. We had that great family Sunday dinner. It was always special, not the usual fare. The one constant was mashed potatoes.
Sunday has lost its identity. That’s too bad as we all need to stop to take a breath, look around and be amazed at all we can see. Sunday used to be that day. It was special. I even wore a dress.
Categories: Musings
Tags: anomalies, blue sky, destruction, dress and hat, end of time, girls' dress code, heavenly signs, Okra, prissy, sun, Sunday clothing, sunny day
Comments: 8 Comments
September 22, 2015
I would have guessed today is cooler than it is if I hadn’t gone outside. The view from my window is of a dark, cloudy day with a breeze strong enough to ruffle leaves and sway the tops of trees and smaller branches. It is definitely a long sleeve day, maybe even a sweatshirt day.
Fern, Gracie and I slept in this morning. They must have been cold as they were right next to me, Fern on one side, Gracie on the other. I hated to get up as they had to move when I did. When I patted Fern good morning, I could feel the warmth of her fur on the side where she had leaned against me. Cats do like being cozy.
I have started this third paragraph several times and not been happy with any of them. That happens sometimes. My mind doesn’t settle too deeply on any one thing. It stays in the shallow end. Even the papers today gave me little pleasure. I did finish the crossword and the cryptogram, but it was only in the sports pages where I could find some optimism and even that was threaded a bit. The Trump quotes had me cursing out loud. I didn’t count the numbers of assaults and murders reported in the metro section but thumbed right pass those stories. Business had the story of the peanuts and salmonella and VW’s fake air tests. Even the Cape had a murder, a body was found at one of the rest areas. The safest sections to read were the weather and the comics.
I just looked out the window, and the sun is shining. It sneaked in while I was complaining. It seems it might be a nice day after all.
Categories: Musings
Tags: Clouds, dark day, dogs on beds, murders and assaults, pessimism, ruffled leaves, salmonella, shallow end, sun, swaying branches, Trump, warmer than it looks, weather and the comics
Comments: 14 Comments
August 27, 2015
Delightful is the first adjective that comes to mind to describe today. It is cool and dry, magical words. The windows and doors are wide open. Sitting here in my room, I can smell the fresh air, the cut grass and the flowers. I can feel the cool breeze from the window. I can see the sun shining through the branches and glinting off the leaves. I can hear the birds singing and the boys down the street yelling to one another as they play. I have reconnected with the world all because it is cool and dry.
I am guilty of procrastination. The morning filled my senses but left my brain blank of thought. I knew I had nothing to talk about today. I made my bed, sat on the deck, took my time reading the papers, checked the TV Guide for the next couple of days, read my e-mail and finally faced the inevitable: it was time to write, to compose, to imagine, to start Coffee.
If I could reorder my life, I wouldn’t change much right now. I have been retired for eleven years and have recently entered the what day is it phase of my retirement. I thought today was Friday until I remembered it wasn’t. I don’t live high on the hog (I’m thinking maybe today can be idiom day), but I do believe in ease and comfort. I have my house cleaned every two weeks though I am forced to do a bit of cleaning in between, as little cleaning as possible. I have my lawn cut and tended to all season. In the winter my yard is plowed and shoveled. My groceries are delivered though I do go to Ring’s, a bit of an extravagance, where I buy gourmet foods, pizzas and even organic dog biscuits for Miss Gracie. When I’m out, I sometimes stop to treat myself to lunch, usually my favorite sandwich with avocado, bacon, cheese and horseradish sauce. I have season tickets to the Cape Playhouse.
How do I keep body and soul together? (still working on idioms here). I don’t go out to eat much, don’t go to movies except on my deck, seldom buy new clothes (“Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes”) and use the library for new books.
I haven’t traveled in a couple of years, and the itch is starting, but I need to build more of a nest egg (number 3 if you’re counting). Rome was not built in a day (4) and my trip won’t be either. I’m thinking next year back to Ghana. My friends too are going back, and we are working on going back together. We lived side by side in Bolga and traveled together often. It’s time we did it again!
Categories: Musings
Tags: birds, breezy, cool and dry, delightful, empty of thought, fresh air, kids playing, procrastination, sun, sun glinting through branches
Comments: 8 Comments
July 20, 2015
The rain never materialized. It will be sunny all week and today will hit 85˚. My AC has been cranking since yesterday morning, and the house is delightfully cool. I have errands today so I will appreciate it even more when I get home.
I have always believed in magic, not the rabbit in the hat magic but everyday magic like when you wish on the first star: I wish I may I wish I might have this wish come true tonight. I have never made outlandish wishes figuring the simpler the wish the more likely it might come true. At Christmas when I was young I made all sorts of wishes and most of those came true.
I have proof that magic abounds and wishes do come true. Once I was walking home from my aunt’s house. The route was through the brush beside a metal fence which joined another fence, a shorter fence. It was there I usually scaled the two fences to get to my street. I stopped to rest just before scaling. I mused while sitting and wished I had money enough for a new book. I swear I looked down and found a 50 cent piece, just enough for a new book. That had to be magic. I wasn’t on a path. I was walking in piles of dead leaves captured against the fence.
But I’ve always known, fifty cents or no fifty cents, that we live in a world filled with magic. Fireflies dot the darkness with light. The sun rises and sets in a brilliance of colors. Rainbows announce the end of the storm and the whereabouts of the pot of gold if you’re especially lucky. I sit outside in the wee hours to watch the meteor showers in August. I clap and say things like wow and amazing as those beautiful streaks of light cross the dark sky. I love shadows and how scary and tall they can look. That flowers bloom year after year can be nothing short of magic. I know science explains most things because some people need answers. As for me, I’ve known the answer all my life-it’s magic, pure and simple magic.
Categories: Musings
Tags: 85˚, a world of magic, Accra, coolness, fireflies, heat, magic, making wishes, meteors, sun
Comments: 8 Comments
July 14, 2015
When I woke up, there was sun. Now the day is darkening and getting breezy, hints of the rain predicted for the afternoon. My room is dark as I haven’t lit any lamps. I like my house in the unexpected darkness of a soon to be rainy day. For reasons I can’t explain the house is comforting in the darkness and in the quiet. I don’t even hear birds singing. The only sounds come from the rustling of the leaves on the trees hanging over the deck.
I haven’t been to a drive-in movie for years. Wellfleet still has one, but I can’t seem to interest anyone in going. I even promised to do the snacks but had no takers. We were frequent drive-in movie goers when I was a kid. My grandfather had a pass to every E.M.Lowe’s theater including the drive-in, and we used that pass often. Just like every other kid at the drive-in I was wearing my pajamas and my sneakers, no slippers in case I needed to walk to the bathroom. At intermission the playground was filled with kids dressed for bed in their pajamas and robes. The first movie was always one for kids, sometimes a Disney or a dog movie like Lassie. After intermission came the movie for adults. Kids presumably had fallen asleep. The adult movies were seldom recent releases but were a year or two old and would probably be PG-13 rated today. Sometimes I’d see a bit of that movie before I fell asleep, but by the time I was 11 or 12, I’d watch all of it, well most of it anyway as we always left before the end. My father was not one to wait in traffic so we’d get a head start and be the only car leaving so early.
We never bought anything from the concession stand as most things were too expensive. I’d sometimes check out the food and sometimes really want a hot dog, but I knew not to ask. We had plenty of snacks in the car. My favorite was the popcorn. My mother was never shy with the butter. We each had a nickel bar of candy bought at the corner store on our way to the movie. The jug was always filled with something to drink, but my father got annoyed if we wanted some too often as he was the pourer who felt abused by constant asking.
My family didn’t have much money when I was growing up, but I never knew that. We did neat things and the drive-in was always one of my favorites.
Categories: Musings
Tags: Clouds, concession stand, darkness, drive-in movie, films for adults, leaving the movie early, nickel bar of candy, PG-13, playground, quiet, rain, sun, wearing pajamas
Comments: 20 Comments
June 22, 2015
The sun is in and out this morning trying to decide what to do. The air is still damp and a bit humid. Right now the sky is dark but the sun is peeking through. Rain is predicted for this afternoon so I’m thinking the sun will disappear for good a bit later.
It is officially summer, and it’s barbecue time. Bring out the ribs, the burgers and the chicken wings then add some sweet summer corn. My home-grown tomatoes are getting bigger on the vine and before too long they’ll be red ripe. July 4th is opening night at the movies. I have three possibilities on the ballot: Independence Day, Jaws and 1776. I’m leaning toward Jaws as it is celebrating its 40th birthday. “We need a bigger boat,” says it all. I have decorations and sparklers and I’m working on the menu. Red, white and blue will carry the day!
Memory is an odd thing. I have vivid memories of my childhood, but I sometimes hunt high and low for where I put my glasses. Some singular moments stand out from all the others, and I don’t know why. They aren’t particularly important moments, but they stay prominent regardless. One memory is silly. I was on the plane to Ghana and we stopped in Madrid. When we got back on the plane, my seatbelt was caught between the seat and the wall so I couldn’t use it. I pretended I was belted when the stewardess went around checking seatbelts. I don’t know why I just didn’t ask for help.
I sat in the back of the room when I was in the sixth grade, but in the front of the room when I was in the eighth. Neither really matters, but I still remember how the rooms looked from each perspective. I remember the candy counter at the movie theater. My favorite nickel bar of candy was a Welch’s Fudge Bar. They aren’t around anymore. My second favorite was a Skybar. You can still buy one of those. The fudge square was my favorite, probably still is. I remember how funny my feet felt in shoes after ice skating. My bologna sandwiches were misshapen because I had to cut pieces from a roll of bologna and some pieces were thick while others were too thin.
I can still close my eyes and see and describe places as they were. I don’t think of it as a trip down memory lane but rather as an adventure back in time.
Categories: Musings
Tags: Barbecue, bologna sandwiches, childhood, damp, Elementary school, humidity, July 4th, memories, movie night, planes and seatbelts, red, Skybar, sparklers, summer, sun, tomaotoes, vivid memories, vivid pictures, Welch's Fudge Bar, white and blue
Comments: 14 Comments
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