Pouring

It’s been pouring rain all day since about midnight… it’s a lovely day for being indoors and being cozy.  After days of 40C heat, 21C feels like you need to break out the sweater!  Jerry was on my lap this morning, stretched out and snoring for a good hour, then was annoyed when I got up to do things.  Don commented that he didn’t sleep most of the night, but he doesn’t seem to be unusually tired today; I imagine, though, he’ll probably try napping soon.

I was not feeling particularly energetic yesterday or today either, for that matter.  I haven’t done anything unusual, but I feel like I could use more sleep.  For some reason, I seem to sleep best after 6am… I doze before that, but apparently at 6am my body decides it’s time to sleep!  I did eat something slightly more for the last 2 days, but it’s not anywhere near enough, I know.  I’ve arranged for someone to help with cooking for a couple of days, so we’ll see how that goes… I had a talk with the provincial coordinator, and she says that they will be removing the men from my care schedule, especially as the one who is assigned to me is one to whom I’d objected because he insists on washing all of me despite my objections.  He will be assigned to male patients instead.

I read a post about people complaining about the loss of use of cursive in schools.  I thought about my years at school and the absolute mountains of paper that I wrote essays and assignments on in longhand cursive.  We didn’t have access to typewriters, and I’m fairly sure that a typewritten assignment would have been rejected as possibly being copied or done by others.  Even at university, papers were handwritten (except for computer programming exercises, which were printouts)  I still enjoy writing things in cursive, and I do occasionally send notes and letters without benefit of printer (I somehow have to keep arguing with mine, so I tend to ignore it, plus most of my stuff is created, shared, sent and signed electronically)  It is vanishingly rare for me to have to print something out for a “wet ink” signature.  I remember that about 20 years ago, I was at a seminar when a (very pompous) representative from Microsoft bragged that they were working to eliminate handwriting within a generation… I’m sadly afraid that they’re succeeding.

So one of my girlfriends sent me an image of a cookbook by a Trinidadian chef — she was our equivalent of Julia Child, and had a very popular show (on Monday nights around 6pm as another friend has reminded me)  I sent back photos of the covers of the 3 books I have that were written by her, and published posthumously by her family in a limited edition.  They’re jammed full of many traditional, old fashioned recipes, many of which have fallen out of favour.  They use several local ingredients that again, have fallen out of common use, replaced by a number of imported items.  It’s a shame, as the loss of the culture is very real as many items are now unknown and unrecognized in favour of things like apples and berries.  (Not native, yes, tasty, but there are so many local fruits that are delicious)  I know I sound old and crotchety, but I’m mourning the loss of variety in my culture that’s willingly being adopted by the wider community.

I’ll stop here; I know I feel a little nostalgic and melancholic because (a) someone sent me that gorgeous sunset photo; (b) my appetite remains elusive and I’m craving some Trini food and (c) I want some mango!!!  I’m done whining for now… Good night!