Wednesday, October 14, 2009

bookending the day with thoughts of Mom

Most days, I go for a walk and my usual path is the loop up around Pine Hill Drive and Fraternity Row. Sometimes my path is clockwise and sometimes counter-clockwise. I occasionally meet Elizabeth Gulacsy who lives on Pine Hill Drive and goes for early morning walks with her dog Duna (Danube, in Hungarian). Since the Uni-Mart was out of unfiltered Camels, I thought I'd take this morning's walk down to the Mobil to see if they could supply my habit.

We were getting a beautiful snow shower as I started out on my walk to the Mobil. There were spots of sunshine, especially beautiful on the northern hills as I passed the Alfred State horticulture facility. The Mobil did have my cigarettes and as I passed the road up into the cemetery, it beckoned me. I walked in to Mom and Dad's gravestone and thought of them, and Uncle K and Aunt Ahvy and many others who are memorialized there. Our folks and K and Ahv so nicely surround Aunt Roberta. It wasn't particularly heavy or solemn but more like comforting to have the spirits with me.

The day progressed rather like many: a couple errands, a visit to the Box of Books, a visit to the campus store to pick up my Times, email, an hour of ARTstor cataloging, other online work.

Just as I was about ready to get something to eat for supper, Doug stopped by to say he was going to fetch someone to look at the old fridge out behind the garage. I don't know how that went but I fixed some food and then did the dishes. Mom could never understand how many suds I used. I still haven't figured out quite the right amount and I was rather drowning in suds. Well, not really drowning but there were still plenty when the last plastics had been washed for recycling. Since I rinse my dishes as I use them and then do the dishes every few days, there aren't a lot of them with lots of detritus for washing. Oh, well, it was probably Mom's thriftiness more than a sense of green but it doesn't matter.

I am glad to report that I am not haunted by morose thoughts as I meander around the house and the village.

As I contemplated sharing these thoughts about starting and ending the day with thoughts of Mom, I realized that the 14th of October was drawing toward a close and tomorrow would be her 80th birthday. So happy birthday, Mom, and best wishes to all of us.

2 comments:

Sherman Clarke said...

Make that 90th birthday. I was re-reading Doug's comments from Dad's birthday and realized I'd given Mom a decade, or taken one away.

Doug said...

Happy 90th Birthday, Mom!