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“Without ice cream, there would be darkness and chaos.”

September 14, 2017

The humidity is making the day sticky and uncomfortable. Last night was the same. I ended up cooling the house by turning on the AC. Both Gracie and I slept comfortably.

Today is sometimes cloudy and sometimes sunny. Rain is a possibility, a holdover from Irma. I don’t mind as it hasn’t rained in a while.

Yesterday I filled all the bird feeders and washed off the deck and the deck furniture with the hose nozzle on jet. It was a power wash of sorts. The birds had left calling cards.

Today I have errands. The lens fell out of my glasses so I need to get them fixed. The old pair I’m using sits at an angle on my ears so I have to keep tilting my head when I read. It’s a bit disconcerting. I also need a few grocery items with toilet paper topping the list.

My house is still dusty, and I still don’t care.

Gracie is just fine. She scared the heck out of me last night when she barked at me. She had been standing beside me and staring for a while so I had blocked her out. The bark made me jump. It was an I’m hungry bark even though she had already eaten dinner and her after dinner treats. I tried to ignore her but it didn’t work. I got the paw, twice. I fed her another small can, and she was fine. I bow to her whims and wants.

I like ice cream. My favorite changes with my moods. Coconut was a favorite last summer. Couple it with hot fudge or caramel, both salted or unsalted, and it’s food bliss. Lately I’ve bought mint chocolate chip gelato. It needs no enhancements. Vanilla by itself is boring to me. It begs for toppings like hot fudge or peanut butter cups and maybe some jimmies (sprinkles to those of you not in New England). I like a sugar cone. It adds to the ice cream, but a sugar cone often ends up with a hole in the bottom. That means licking the ice cream from the top and the bottom. It’s a talent to keep the drips away. I’m very talented.

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“August rain: the best of the summer gone, and the new fall not yet born. The odd uneven time.”

August 26, 2017

Today is a carbon copy of yesterday. Carbon copy? Where did that come from? I haven’t seen a carbon copy for years. It has gone the way of the phone booth.

Last night got really chilly. I grabbed the afghan, snuggled under it and fell right back to sleep. When I woke up, the morning still had a chill, especially the backyard as the sun doesn’t get there until the afternoon. The first cup of coffee was especially inviting this morning,

Peapod came this morning, and all the groceries are already put away. I noticed I bought hot dog buns but no hot dogs. I also forgot toilet paper. I swear I looked and chose the paper I wanted, but obviously I didn’t; however, I did remember the Twizzlers. I do have priorities. I’ll just have to hit the grocery store later.

Artichokes are ugly. They are also too much work to eat. I sometimes wonder who was brave enough to taste one for the first time, and how long did it take to figure out how to eat it?

When I first started eating brie, I didn’t like the brie mold. I’d dig around underneath it and leave a gaping hole, sort of like eating the pie filling and leaving the top crust. It took a while before I realized the mold was tasty.

The world knows I hate beans. Where that came from I have no idea. Even as a kid I didn’t like beans. Our Saturday night baked beans never touched my plate. I look with distain at most beans, but one type makes me grimace, makes me crinkle my face in disgust. That would be refried beans. I can never get pass how they look. They are gross.

I love kitchen tools. My favorite is my juicer. It is orange metal and is the easiest way ever to get lemon or lime juice. I also love my avocado skinner, parer and my corn cutter which takes the kernels off the cob. I have this amazing little wheel which you roll and it minces garlic as it goes. I bought onion glasses but they didn’t really help all that much. Now I buy chopped onion to save myself. I have a mandolin, but the first time I used it I cut my finger so I don’t use it so much. I have knife sharpeners, but I can never seem to get them to work. Most off my knives are depressingly dull. On my sometime in the future to do list is to bring a few knives at a time to be sharpened. Lord only knows if my fingers will be safe.

Last night I was standing outside the Cape Playhouse before going inside. It was only 7:30, and it was already getting dark. I wanted to scream. Summer is too quickly coming to an end. Labor Day, the traditional end of summer, is next weekend. It’s time to accept the seasons are changing and it’s time to bring the sweatshirts out of the guest room closet.

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“Live as many lives as you can.”

March 12, 2016

Today is lovely with a bright sun though I wish it were warmer than the 50’s. I noticed my hyacinth is so tall I can almost see the bumps of the whole flower. The daffodils have buds not yet ready to open but getting closer. The croci are blooming in the different flower beds. They grab your attention with their color as everything around them is still brown or grey.

Yesterday I needed only two things: toilet paper and orange juice. At first I figured to stay home and finish my book, but I knew I had no choice but to go out. Gracie and I left around 3:15. I decided I might as well go to the dump too. It was crowded. At one store, I checked to see if they had their spinach and puff pastry lattice topped hand pie. They didn’t but the cook said he’d make me some. It would take 15 minutes. I should have said no. I decided to walk around to waste time until the pies were done. I filled my cart. I bought yogurt, shrimp, a piece of pizza, a cinnamon coffee roll for this morning, some gourmet dog biscuits, honey and oranges. I did remember the toilet paper. Sometimes I go and forget what I need. I got my pies hot from the oven. I was praising them so much three other people bought some, and the pies were gone.

I don’t remember at what age I started to notice things like the spring flowers popping out of the earth or buds appearing on the branches. The changing leaves were easy to notice as we shuffled through piles of them on our way to school. Spring meant bike riding and light jackets, not flowers, to us. It meant Saturdays riding all over town. A chill was still in the morning air, but it wasn’t cold any more.

In retirement I have noticed the world I often overlooked when I worked. I have the time to look and see things like my bulbs growing taller and the appearance of the first small shoots of flowers in the front garden. I watch the birds. I stand outside in the early morning listening to their songs. My life has a far different pattern than it used to have. It is now filled with bright color and wavy lines which change from day to day. Life continues to be good to me.

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“The grocery store is the great equalizer where mankind comes to grips with the facts of life like toilet tissue”

June 12, 2012

Okay, I admit it: I didn’t go grocery shopping yesterday. I just couldn’t bring myself to go do that odious chore; however, today I have to go and have ample reasons why, the most pressing being I am just about out of toilet paper. I suppose after I finish here, I’ll put on a brave face and head out to Stop & Shop.

This morning I had a library board meeting. The day was overcast and cool when I left the house just before nine. Since then, the sun has poked out of the clouds a couple of times but hasn’t yet decided to stay. I don’t mind. I like today. I like the stillness of the air and the light grey of the sky, but most of all I like the way the colors of the flowers seem to pop out of their gardens against the backdrop of the grey sky.

June is such a peculiar month. Some days are so hot it seems more like deep August while days like today, in the low 60’s, are more like April when we see the first stirrings of spring. I’m wearing a sweatshirt, and the air from the open window is making the room feel cold; however, I haven’t resorted to shoes. Sandals are now my preferred footwear.

The deck needs a bit of sweeping again but only because of leaves. All the pollen is gone, and the tables and chairs are still clean. I was just out there while I was talking on the phone, and I watered plants and picked up leaves as I chatted. It was my sister with an update on the baby. He has been moved to the NICU because of issues with his pancreas. He is tubed and has his own nurse keeping watch. My poor niece, who is mostly bed-bound, has seen little of her baby and thinks he’ll feel like an orphan. That will never happen with my sister around. She’ll keep him company. Last night it was for an hour before he ate and fell asleep. The nurses say he is a little finicky and screams as soon as he needs a diaper change. The other babies in the NICU are preemies and a set of twins together weigh less than Declan. My niece has been assured that the baby be fine though he may not be ready to go home with her on Thursday. We’ll see what happens.

I wish I had so much more to say so I could delay finishing but sadly I don’t. Stop and Shop time is getting closer.

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“A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes”

August 20, 2011

Today is lovely and without that stifling humidity of yesterday. I stood on the deck a while earlier taking in the morning. It was quiet then, but the day has gotten louder. I can hear a couple of lawnmowers and some machinery sound I don’t recognize. Earlier this morning I had to go to Dunkin Donuts to buy coffee as I had forgotten to buy cream. The route took me over the highway, and I caught a glimpse of the stream of cars leaving the cape. I guess everyone had the same idea: lets leave early. The cars going down cape were far fewer. Maybe this will be a quiet week.

I have a list of stuff to do this week and the countdown has begun. One week from today I leave for Ghana, and I can hardly believe it. After forty years my wish will finally come true. I’m flying on Lufthansa from Boston to Frankfurt, have a 3 hour lay-over then land on Sunday at 6:50 pm, Ghanaian time. My body will go through 3 time zones, and I can’t imagine the effect as I have enough trouble with this one. Ghana is only 4 hours ahead of us, and I love landing in the early evening so I can have some supper, maybe my favorites, kelewele and jollof rice, then get to bed close to a normal bedtime. That will help me adjust, I hope.

It’s like the first time I went. I don’t know a single person who’s going though this time a few of us have commented back and forth on Facebook. Three people whom I’ve sort of met are all arriving a few days ahead of me and two of them are staying at the same guest lodge as I am (http://www.hotels.com.gh/triplecrown/index.html). I planned my trip with more time after the festivities so I can get up north. None of the others were stationed as far up country as I had been. I’m hoping a current volunteer from my area might be at the ceremony and will be interested in having fine company on the way home.

I have bought a few things I wished existed in my day. I used to travel with a roll of toilet paper, most of us did, but now I have travel toilet paper in packages small enough to fit into my carry around with me bag. I have soap sheets, small pieces of paper needing only water so I can wash my hands. Sanitary hand wash in what looks like a pen is also on the packing list. I have enough electronics for a small store: my iPod and iPad with their foreign travel converter and recharger, my small camera for discreet pictures and its battery recharger and my big camera also with its recharger. They are dual voltage so I can plug them right into the wall. I’ll bring my extra international plug. When I first went to Ghana, I had an Instamatic camera and a cassette player, and I was perfectly content. Forty years is a long time.

Categories: Musings
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