Quiet time

Life is noisy.  It hasn’t always been noisy for me, but it’s gotten much noisier in recent years.  It’s easier to find quiet time when you live alone – or at least have a good bit of alone time.  Except that, in this hustly-bustly world these days, even when you’re alone, it can be difficult to quiet the noise in your head.

This is the first Saturday morning without bowling since last summer.  Bowling isn’t like so many other youth sports that have a season which correlates with a weather season.  Youth bowling leagues start in early September and go until May.  And for us, there are tournaments which always occur on Sundays all over New England.  So, today is unusual for that reason – no bowling league.  But also, today is the state bowling tournament and Spencer moved to a different league this year and they prefer to do their states all in one day instead of staying over night and splitting the games up over two days.  So, he’s bowling nine games in one day and he got a ride with a friend.  Mixed feelings here.  I’ve always been at states with him – in fact all tournaments, pretty much.  But I didn’t have to drive two hours in thunderstorms to Shrewsbury. So I’m counting it as a win for me.

Which brings me to my quiet time.  Marty is golfing (yes, in the rain) in a tournament this morning.  Spencer is gone for the entire day at a bowling tournament.  It’s Saturday morning.  And I am completely alone in my home with my doggies and old cat.  Nice.  Very nice.

I caught up on recorded shows on the DVR for a while.  I heated up some of last night’s leftover pork dumplings with ginger sauce (Friday night Chinese takeout – yum) for breakfast.  Then I turned the tv off and turned the heat up to 72 and sat in the living room for a spell.  It’s in the fifties outside and it’s not that it’s cold in here, but no one else is home to share an opinion about the temperature and I wanted it toasty warm.  It’s raining steadily now – after a couple of good bouts of thunder – love it.  And I listened to the quiet.

Then my mind got up to no good and started chattering like a 4-year-old after cotton candy and soda.  So I decided I needed to put myself in time out and I moved to a different chair.  I always sit in my spot on the couch.  Everyone has their one spot.  We all live with assigned seating.  Come on, you know you only sit in one spot in your living room, one chair in your kitchen or dining room, one side of the bed at night.  And if another family member trespasses by taking your spot, it’s disconcerting.

So, I moved to a chair across the room where no one usually sits.  When I sat down, all three of my pets lifted their heads and looked at me for a moment as if to say, “Hey, what are you doing over there?  What’s happening?  Do we need to be on alert for something new, exciting and different?”  Then they must have decided “not so much” and they went back to snoozing.  And I noticed how beautiful our Red Maple tree looks in full leavage (that’s what I’m calling it even though I’m sure there’s a proper word and I just can’t think of it).  It’s deep, red leaves are glistening with raindrops and the color set off perfectly against the bright green leaves of a bush behind it.  This time of year a lot of the green leaves are still that vibrantly, unnaturally neon lime color of green because they are young and newish and morning rain and late afternoon rain makes that green look almost electric to me.

Now that my chattering 4-year-old has left, and I came in to write this post to my blog, I spun my stool around to face the back yard for a moment and watched these two little birdies [fill in the blank on the type of bird, because I’m clueless] popping in and out of a bird house.  I only bought this bird house for decorative purposes a million years ago and used to keep it on top a shelf in my living room but now Marty set it out on the deck railing and lo and behold, these two little birds (Frederick and Lolita) have taken up residency (no rent, no lease, no security deposit!) and they are a blast to watch.

Frederick and Lolita always look so busy and intense.  I hope they find quiet time in their new home like I have.