Be My Valentine

I'm covering a whole week here--lack of free time means less blogging. I had a steering committee meeting Tuesday night--two days early to avoid Valentine's Day.  So Tuesdeay and Wednesday were pretty stressful. Thursday I went to Ross Auctions and bought this:

I've been looking at china cabinets for the dining room (too small) and breakfronts (too big) and I settled on this.

Thursday night the Belfast Jazz Orchestra played at Shorts Recration Club, so I danced with my swing dance buddies. I took Friday off and ran errands, hit some golf balls, and worked for a few hours.

I wrote recently of random memories and I've noticed this week a few arising from smells. I smelled something a bit like hay, and that made me think of being in the hay loft at Kingsland stables in Virginia, where I took riding lessons. I smelled something that reminded me of steamed turnips, which made me think of the smell at my high school as I headed to the canteen for lunch. I loved school lunches in Derry, so this was a good memory. I also hear sea gulls occasionally--I'm not that far from Belfast Lough. That always takes me back to summers with my grandfather in Atlantic City. I wonder if the first half of life is about storing up memories and the second half is about spooling them out, like watching a film of your life. Not that I spend a lot of time on memory lane, but I am delighted by these sudden intense memories from some of my many prior lives.

Feb. 11-15