I’m sitting here in the dark. Not yet 4:30. But the sun is down. And it’s dark. Or at least heavy dusk. Sullen time. Contemplating time. Twilight time. Scout would be napping if she wasn’t at doggie day care. Kathy’s reading her second Christmas present book on the couch.
I favor Scout’s choice. Nap. Something so alluring and seductive about it. Burrow in. Sweet surrender to the pillow. Of course, reading a book is good too. But presently that is also napping. After several pages I keep rereading the same paragraph like a broken record until I finally give up and lay down. Records. Remember those things. The arm with the needle. When it got stuck and kept going around and around we said the record was broken. It wasn’t really broken-broken. But everyone knew what you meant.
Idioms. That one may not last much longer. “Like a broken record” makes no sense if you’ve never heard one. Especially if you’re British. See, there’s English and then there’s British. The British speak English. But you’d never know it. Never mind if they invented it. When I was an assistant general counsel for an international company in a prior life I had to frequently brief the British General Counsel. It was hard. I couldn’t use idioms and many phrases didn’t translate well. It was like learning a new language. Surely they had broken records in England but the idiom didn’t relate. And, I had to learn what curtain twitcher, take a biscuit, spend a penny, knees up, kurfuffle, faff, donkey’s years, and cream crackered meant.
But back to taking a nap. Or if we were in Britain, taking a kip. Now kip is a fun word and it has a bit of history. According to wordologists it actually came from Denmark where kippe was a hut or ale house. By the mid 1700s in Ireland it morphed into a term for a brothel. And by the 20th century in Britain it evolved into taking a nap. Which may say more about the cultural history of British lovemaking as much as anything else.
Now taking a nap requires some time management skills. As I dillydally, timing is becoming an issue. Gotta give Scout a lift. And once Kathy finishes her book (she’s in the book of a day club) then the priority free nap dynamic begins to change into a horse of a different color. Now or never. Or at least until the fourth quarter of “PBS NewsHour.”
But it all started with the dusk and twilight thing going on outside and now that’s changed too. Christmas lights inside and out. And on the Island, too. Dinners catered by Carole Norris. Looking for a used snowplow blade for when it might snow again next year. A bundle of sunrise pictures!
Time to play games at the old town hall game night on Jan. 12 from 2-4 p.m. And the chili cookoff Jan. 26 from 5-7 p.m. – complete with trophy and prize money!
Looking for empty picture frames. Word picture of used up empty picture frames at once sad. With a glimmer of happy on the horizon of “filling the frame.” The peaceful transition from one town clerk to another. And sad account of a beloved rabbit who never returned.
Although it was once dark and a kip beckoned. Lights are on. Time to knees up! Or maybe I did nap. And it’s all a dream like the night before Christmas.
