The day is a pretty one and is warm enough in the high 60’s. I’m getting outside dressed again which is becoming an ugly habit for me. I have to pick up cream for my Coffee at Ring’s where I know I won’t get just coffee, and I need to stop at Agway for a few House plants to fill empty pots in the dining room. The first stop is essential. The second is necessary, a mood lifter maybe. Plants and flowers do that for me.

I am a sucker for punishment. I voted in August, but I still watch MSNBC or CNN so I don’t miss any breaking news. There hasn’t been any, but I’m still holding strong.

My house has Clumps of fur. An analysis shows white fur held together by black fluff. These clumps would be contributions from Henry, white with a few big blotches of brown, and Jack, black except for his paws which are white and have hair sticking out like lightning bolts. I never walk upright in my house. I walk bent over all the better to collect the dust clumps.

My animals avoid me. I think they’ve had enough of me. Poor Henry bears more responsibility to entertain me than the cats, especially Gwen who is never downstairs anyway. I do miss people, but I’m finding ways to keep my self entertained. The same thing happened when I lived alone my first year in Ghana. I was so miserably homesick when I got to my school I decided to leave at the end of the first semester, but I stayed and did a 180˚. I found people who visited me to be inconveniences and was hard-pressed to be cordial. It is my house so go away. It took a while for me to find my best place. I’m working on that again.

My friend Maria called yesterday. She keeps in touch and calls periodically when she is driving her trek to work as it is a long ride, and I am entertaining. She and I have been friends since both of us were single digits, 8 or 9. I remember the summer she and I watched Watergate all day, every day. I think we did feed her kids and change their diapers, but I’m not sure.

Henry and I shared coffee and a banana this morning.