We have sun, a bright sun. I almost didn’t recognize it. We also have a blue sky. It is in the low 50’s. It is a pretty day. Today is a spring day. UPDATE: The ubiquitous clouds are back!

My father used to work for an ice cream company. He became the manager in Hyannis which brought us down here. When I was a kid, he’d bring home ice cream. Once he brought home a few pints, and my sister thought the pints, being so small, were ice cream for her dolls. A couple of times my father gave out Hoodsies on Halloween. What I remember the most was the dry ice. It was in a padded box with the ice cream to keep it frozen. My father would dump the dry ice into the sink and turn the water on. A cloud would form over the sink. It was almost like magic.

When I first went to school, I was afraid of the nuns. They wore black and white and were pretty much covered from the tops of their heads to their ankles. Only their faces and hands were visible. They swished when they walked, and the beads around their waists made clicking noises. When I was older, I came to think of the bead noise as an early warning system. The nuns were coming. Look innocent. The last thing anyone of us wanted was to be a target for their wrath. I don’t remember when they stopped scaring me.

One of my favorite places when I was growing up was O’Grady’s Diner. It was at the bottom edge of uptown. It had booths with red seats and stools at the counter, also with red seats. Each booth had a connection to the jukebox. The connection was a small box, almost a mini jukebox, with a coin slot on the silver top and pages of songs behind glass. You could turn the pages from the top to see all the songs, three songs for a quarter. Sometimes you had to wait to hear your song because it was in a line of songs, sort of a chronological list. Some Saturdays my father would take me to O’Grady’s for breakfast. He’d give me a quarter for the music. We both usually had bacon, eggs and toast. He had coffee. I had juice. Later, when I was in my teens, my friends and I sometimes went to O’Grady’s after drill practice. We always ordered brownies with vanilla ice cream. O’Grady’s is gone now. Where it stood is a hardware store.

The clouds are back, but no rain is predicted. It will be warmish, in the mid 50’s. I have no plans for today. I may just binge on movies. Lately I have been watching disaster movies about imminent doom from volcano eruptions, melting ice, earthquakes, cyclones and tidal waves. I’ve steered clear of epidemics. It seems they produce vampires.

I mostly used to fly PanAm To Europe though I did take a few TWA trips as well. Coming back from Ghana the only non-stop flight was from PanAm, a flight which had originated in East Africa. I remember the flight. It had a few unique moments. A few hours in, the pilot announced a buffet under the stars, kind of a cute name as names go. In the back of the plane a table had been set with breads, cheeses, cold cuts and condiments. A line quickly formed then the pilot came over the loud speaker. He asked people to sit as the tail end of the plane was dragging. We had to take turns at the buffet.

When I was a kid, some foods were never served. I figure my mother knew which ones we’d eat and which ones would stay untasted, untouched. I knew beets were round and red, and I knew my grandmother loved pickled beets, but I never tasted one, never cared to and still haven’t. I don’t know why. My mother never served honey. I did taste it, but in a candy bar, Bit O’ Honey. I thought it had a sort of strange taste, but I liked it. I always have honey in my house now, not only to eat but in case of mass destruction. Honey doesn’t spoil. Brussels sprouts never made an appearance on our dinner table. Cabbage did but only on St. Patrick’s Day. I always thought Brussel sprouts were baby cabbages, a vegetable never allowed to grow old. We didn’t eat okra, but I think my mother never heard of okra. I eat it now. I hated wax beans, both green and yellow. They were always mushy out of the can. I forced down French green beans.

It was Africa which expanded my palate. I was willing to try just about everything. I came to love plantain, okra stew, goat, tuber yam, which looked like tree bark, mangoes and paw paw, known as papaya here. I still love those Ghanaian foods. My favorites, which are easy to make here, are kelewele and jollof rice.

Because I live alone, my meals are haphazard. I lean toward quick and easy. I’m a fan of eggs of any sort for any meal. I crack them and leave them to cook. I mostly eat chicken. I am a cheese fan. Last night I had avocado toast for dinner. That is my definition for quick and easy, and I’ll add tasty.