January….What was that?????
January is always a little rocky. The holidays are over with all the activity and things to do. It’s the busy season at work. It’s a really long ass way to the next official holiday (Memorial Day — seriously..that’s like the end of May). It’s dark a lot. It’s cold a lot.
Interlude: I always heard about people in New England who, about this time of year, would head to the Bahamas, or Florida, or another warm place. I never really understood that. Then I lived in New England for a bit. Now I completely understand the “I’m over this shit, get me out of here” perspective.
Anyway, so January has always been a bit of a “meh” month for me. Jeff’s birthday is mid-month, so that’s always a fun interruption, but the month trudges on. I’ve long believed (no actual medical proof, but I do have Dr. Google on my side, and he’s more reliable that actual medical professionals, right?) that I actually have at least a mild tendency towards SAD (for those that don’t know — and where have you been???? – that’s Seasonal Affected Disorder). It’s been a little easy to stay in bed than get up and get to camp or the gym. It’s been a little too easy to eat a heavier “comfort” meal that to have something healthy. It’s been really easy to hang out on the couch rather than get up and do something.
Maybe I should live near the equator. I wonder how that would go from a “work at home” angle? Hmmmm. Might be worth exploring.
So I’m kind of glad that January is in the rear view mirror. February is here. We get to celebrate “remind single people they are alone” day in a couple of weeks. The days get a bit longer. Maybe a bit warmer (who knows, we may have a foot of snow at some point). But we get to start thinking about spring. I’ve already seen the countdown to spring memes popping up. Speaking of popping up, these little guys in the photo above are actually about to bloom in my garden (and, yes, I do know that I already need to worry about weeds). If that isn’t snow bait, I don’t know what is. I planted some seeds in my makeshift greenhouse in the bathtub that we don’t use. A few days ago, I pulled some frozen peaches out and devoured them in a day. To me, they tasted like summer.
In a couple of weeks, I’ll be working on tilling up the vegetable garden and getting it ready for planting. That’s always hard work, but I really do like it. This year, I think it need to worry about fencing. Towards the end of the 2018 garden, the local deer discovered they had a fine dining experience on the vegetables. I’ll probably add a few roses this year. Maybe even tackle grass in the rocky soil we know as the front yard. And then there’s the need for the trench drain in the back yard. Lots of spring time projects that I’m pretty ready for.
Hope everyone is looking forward to a good February. Here’s a little something from Marcus Aurelius for those who have tortured themselves through all of my ramblings:
” When you wake up in the morning, tell yourself: The people I deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous, and surly. They are like this because they can’t tell good from evil. But I have seen the beauty of good, and the ugliness of evil, and have recognized that the wrongdoer has a nature related to my own—not of the same blood or birth, but the same mind, and possessing a share of the divine. “