Musings

I had wanted to spend a day in bed just because now I can. I used to be off on weekends - you know what that is like - running around trying to get things done that you can't do during the week because you're working.  I never wanted to waste time lolling around in bed. But I woke up Friday to a dark, damp, dreary day - so I did! I had stayed up watching James Corden on CBS last night till 1 am - I woke up about 8 am. So I stayed in bed until noon time or so.  I was reading about Italy, checking emails and texts, drinking tea and having a bagel, relaxing - and it felt great! I felt like I needed a lazy day. Unfortunately, the sun came out about noon so I felt like I needed to get up and do something although I didn't feel like going out. I put on my raggy dungarees and an old turtleneck - I need to pack things up around here so I packed up a few things. The upstairs is just about empty except for some bedding, sweatshirts, wool sox of JB's and some poster boards - I washed his sweatshirts and will pack them away for him.
I have a load of keys in the kitchen - no idea where they belong. We never locked the back door here - never in almost 11 or 12 years. I used to lock the front door if we were going to be out for the day or if we were going to Ireland - usually JB or Mike would be around anyway. But, now that I am here alone, I keep the front door locked most of the time. I lock the storm door in the kitchen about 8 pm. So I spent I don't know how much time checking those keys first at the back door - then at the front door. Out of at least 20 keys - one was for the back door and 3 were for the front. I still don't lock the kitchen door when I go out - but I guess maybe I should after posting this!!!
I like looking at our Christmas decorations - I have a lot of nutcrackers - large and small. Tina did a great job decorating the tree with wide red glittering ribbon and their silver ornaments. This is their tree, but I've had an artificial tree for years - we had a fake tree on Main Street in Watertown. It is so much more convenient - you can put it up and take it down as the spirit moves you. This one is JB's and Tina's. I love the tree, stable, nutcrackers, etc. so I don't hurry to take them down - I usually wait until January 6 - Little Christmas or the Epiphany - when the 3 kings found Jesus. In Ireland it was known as Women's Christmas - I wonder if it still is? That evening the ladies would all go out to celebrate - fathers would be home babysitting - sometimes the ladies would go for dinner, but at least they would go to the pub.
So the rest of Friday was spent sorting with a little packing. My kids and Johnny Murphy always say/said that I don't really clear things out - I just move things from one spot to another or from one room to another.  There's some truth in that. The annex where I had my office and have my bed is getting so full that I can hardly walk thru it! I'm not sure where my bed is at times because it is piled high with things! JB brought all my genealogy boxes, files, posters, pictures, photo albums, charts, etc. down into the from bedroom where Johnny used to sleep. I still have a lot of genealogy binders and pictures in the annex. I have scrapbooks from my childhood through the 1980s - how can I get rid of those! I have the newspapers from JFK's and RFK's assassinations - plus the Marathon bombing - maybe the blizzard of '78. What do I do with those? I have hundreds of photos, hundreds of census records, birth certificates, naturalizations papers -  I could go on and on and on! I can't take all those things to Gortdromagh. So I need to get everything else in the living room and kitchen packed up - that won't be so hard - I have done a lot of that already - now it is mostly Christmas things and everyday dishes, pots, pans that I'll be using. Then I need someone to lock me in the annex without food or drink until I go through everything there and find my bed. Then repeat this in the front bedroom! And what about outside! We already loaded up one dumpster, but there is still wood that JB was going to cut up for the fireplace. I was trying to put a few things in the trash every week, but it has been so wet lately that I haven't been able to do it. So this is what I am up against.
I didn't get to the 2 things on my To Do list for Friday - go to the Post Office - call Comcast. I did go to the Post Office Saturday morning after going to Quest lab for lab work. But I arrived just after noon when the PO closed. So that is back on the list for tomorrow - so is Comcast!!
I drove up to Brighton on Saturday after I left the Post Office for a renal scan at St. Elizabeth's. I got to St. E's just after 2 pm. I was drinking water because I needed a full bladder. I went straight to radiology because PreReg was closed. The receptionist called PreReg, and we did it over the phone - it took forever.  I was still drinking water as I registered - my second 8 ounce bottle since 2 pm. The tech did the scan of my 2 kidneys without any problem. She had trouble with my bladder and wanted a better picture. She made me nervous asking if I had had abdominal surgery, any trouble urinating, any hematuria, any pain all while she was scanning the bladder area which did hurt. Then she asked me to go have a cup of tea because I was probably sick of water. She thought more fluid would help her get a better picture.  So I walked to the cafeteria and got a cup of tea. She was waiting for me when I walked back 15 minutes later - I hadn't even finished the tea! She said the picture was better, and it didn't hurt this time as she pressed on the bladder area. So now we wait for the results.
My niece Lucy had texted that she was taking her father out to Ms. Kim's Golden Sails Restaurant for his birthday - she asked if I was interested. She texted me again that they were leaving at 6 pm. I was almost to the bridge so I met them there. I didn't care if it was on the renal diet or not, I had a Pina Colada! And it was good. I had chicken chow mien on pork fried rice - what huge portions! I also got 4 or 5 crab rangoons with that the dinner combo! It was a nice time with the 3 of us. Patty arrived as we got the bill. She didn't want anything so we just sat and talked for a while more. The staff all know Richie in there.
I went home with my goody bag - about 3/4 of the plate! I tried Great Course again on the Falmouth library website - still no services available! I had just started the Roman Empire - the instructor was in an imperial toga when I left! There are over 25 more lectures to that one course!! AARRGGHHH!!! Sure, I can read this history in a book - I love to read - but these instructors bring the history to life!!! I am hoping that it is not permanent!
So I read my library books on Florence and Venice. I went to bed early - 11:20 because I was tired - or probably it was the Pina Colada which was pretty strong - I couldn't even stay up for Saturday Night Live. I woke up at 5:30 and felt wide awake - I was also hungry. It was dark and raining out. I made my tea and bagel and crawled back into bed. I was reading a book that my brother Johnny had bought at an estate sale - Vanishing Ireland. I think I had read it years ago - maybe I even had it!  It was interesting reading about the different people and looking at their  pictures. But I was horrified as it dawned on me that the authors were talking about a dying part of Ireland - the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s!! I was there then in the late 70s and 80s!! How old am I?!? They talked about the hard lives the Irish had - no running water, no electricity, no cars, poverty.  I remember Nana Murphy talking about taking her laundry down to the river - she would make a fire and heat water from the river in a big basin to wash  the clothes - then she would hang them on the bushes to dry. She said the first morning after getting married, she woke up alone in bed - her husband Mikey Paul was already gone up the mountain after sheep - her father-in-law told her to go out to milk the 12 or 13 cows that they had and then get breakfast.  What a way to start a marriage!
I know that a lot of houses/cabins in Sneem had no running water in the late 70s - my cousins in Loughane had no running water and no outhouse when I first visited in 1973. Molly Crowley in Beal - between Gortdromagh and Loughane - had the only outhouse that I ever saw - although there could have been plenty of them around. Johnny Murphy told me that when he started working for the ESB (Electrical Supply Board) about 1977 he put a back kitchen and a bathroom into Gortdromagh. The water came from the lake up on top of the mountain - a pipe carried it down to the house. It would clog periodically, and Johnny would have to figure out where the obstruction was. Sometimes the water in the pipe would freeze in cold weather. The pipe wasn't very wide - like a garden hose if I remember correctly. If there was no water running in the pipe, we couldn't have the range going - the range heated the water tank - if the tank was empty, the pressure would build up in it and could explode - at least that was my understanding. The range was a big turf, wood or coal powered stove - it was the source of heat for the house - although there was a small fireplace in the sitting room to the right of the front door. If there was no fire in the range, the house was pretty cold and damp in the winter.
The winters in Sneem were nowhere as bad as a winter in Watertown - if it did snow, the snow only lasted a few hours. The first time Danno and I saw snow in Gortdromagh, we ran out to make snowballs  - Danno made a snow angel, but the snow melted a couple of hours later.
But it could reach freezing temperatures. When the pipe froze, Danno and I would take a bucket and break through ice in the river with a spade for a bucket of water to make tea or use for cooking. I didn't grow up in Ireland and only spent less than 3 years there, but I considered all this an adventure - I was back to my roots. I'm sure people worked hard - I know they had little money.
Johnny Manning's book also talked about how hard farming was in days before tractors and other machines. I used to go to the bog with my cousin Larry and Johnny Murphy. I only remember it being bright sunny weather when we were there, and the white feathery bog cotton would blow in the wind. I don't remember what they call it, but Johnny would "skim" off the top layer of ground to get to the turf. It looked like thick wet black mud. They would have their Wellingtons on because it would be wet and would start cutting the turf - they used a slan or slean to cut a big long piece - maybe 12-18 inches - and throw it onto the bank - I would take a spade and pitch the piece of turf a distance - I had to spread it out so it could dry. Once the turf dried, we would stand it up on an end and lean 3 or 4 pieces together so the wind could dry it more - stook it but I am not sure that is how it is spelt. I suppose this was back breaking, but I only did it a couple of days at a time - I was either on holidays or had small kids to mind. I remember the Murphys rented a piece of the Breens bog across the river one year. I was down there spreading turf with Johnny, Larry, Jamesy Breen, and Danno - who was only 7 - a couple of days after Mairead was born. I was so happy to get down there!
Sometimes Nana would bring tea and homemade bread to the bog if within walking distance - it never tasted better except in the hayfields. Other times I would pick it up since I had a car and bring it to the bog.
Here are some old photos from 1984! I couldn't get the pictures any clearer. What a difference with today's photos taken on a cell phone!

Jody showing how it is done!

Larry to the left, Jim Shea, Paddy Casey, and Danno in front. The bog cotton on the left.

Paddy Casey, Johnny Murphy, Danno

Johnny Murphy - see the sods of turf on the bank near Danno? They are spread out to dry.

Christine giving some idea of the size of a sod of turf - they were heavy when they were wet.

Danno with his plastic spade, MEM spreading turf, Johnny Murphy is supposed to be cutting 

Danno's head and arm, MEM throwing turf, Johnny Murphy

I loved being in the hay fields as well. Larry used to cut his hay with a scythe - Johnny Murphy would go over to help him. I loved the music he made sharpening the scythe with the scythe stone - at least I thought it was music. They would cut the hay, and I would turn it over to dry it out. I remember shaking out the hay in Gortdromagh, but there it was cut with a tractor with a mower on the back. Mikey Paul was there with his straw hat on, Johnny, me, Danno - sometimes Larry. I developed a rhythm or motion to it - we moved along a row and then moved on to another row. Nana again would bring tea - maybe sandwiches or homemade bread. I loved having tea in the hay field or bog - I remember warm summer days - a lovely breeze - fresh air - blue skies. In Gortdromagh we could look down at the main road - see who was passing by.  Once the hay was dry, we would make small hay cocks - then larger ones. I was never there to see how a large haycock was made so I don't know how it was started. But I remember throwing pikefuls of hay on top of it. Sometime a horse or a tractor would take the haycock to the hayshed.  Later Mick Connor Simon would bale the hay in Gortdromagh which was much less work but not as much fun - for me anyway. Now I think everyone makes silage.
Here are a couple more pix from 1984 - I'll have to look for the others.

Johnny Murphy and Larry making small haycocks.

Patrick Breen, Christine, Danno and Jody

MEM and Julia Connolly in Ballyconnelly, Connemara 

Anyway, I was feeling tired about 8 am so rolled over and went to sleep until Mike called me at 9:15 am from Larry's house. I guess a truck or branch brought down Larry's telephone line so his landline is not working. They had a good night in Sneem on New Year's Eve which was Larry's birthday. Mike said it was quiet today - it had been busy till today - now everyone was going home after the Christmas Holiday. They told me that a young man from Sneem had died - Batty Murphy was 56 - his father Joe had died in September when I was leaving to come home. Johnny Murphy used to work for Joe who was a sheep farmer when the Murphys were children - Johnny was a teenager - Joe was a cousin of Mikey Paul's. Joe was a vey nice man as was his wife Betty - we would visit them occasionally when we were home.
Mike said he plays poker at Dan Murphy's Pub on Fridays. He and Larry are going back to the Blind Piper on Thursday night for a bite to eat, and to see if they have music. It was great to talk to Mike instead of texting him. My phone does not have an international plan although it is only $15/month so I could get it. I had tried to Face Time Mike but didn't get through.
I packed up a little more today before Beth called about 11 am. We changed our trip to Rome - we are leaving Saturday February 29 so we will be there 3 weeks. Beth seems very happy and excited about it - this is her trip - she needs to do a little research now so she gets to visit the sights she wants to see. We are lucky to be able to stay with her nephew and niece in Rome.  No need for a car so that eliminates a major expense. We can take the train to Florence or Venice if she wants.
I headed out for a walk along Falmouth Heights Beach about 3 pm. I was all bundled up, but it didn't seem as cold as yesterday or last week. There were a few people walking, and kids playing ball on the beach. There is something about the smell of the ocean and the sea breeze that is so soothing and invigorating at the same time!
I went into Stop and Shop to buy split chicken breasts to make chicken soup tomorrow. It was about 4:10 when I came out. So I jumped into the car and headed to the Heights - I pulled in beside the Tides Motel to watch the sunset. There were a few others there - some taking pictures. The sun went down quickly in the end - the sky then lit up when the sun was below the horizon. I am not used to just sitting and watching the sunset - I always feel like I should be doing something - like I don't have enough time. But I guess I have time now! I just have to get used to it!

I have received many emails and texts so I want to say thanks so much for all the support!