SETTLING INTO WINTER

Winter is closing in upon us   Time has been pushed back an hour, so we are back to being surrounded by darkness in the late afternoon.   Dan has taken care of all of his “getting ready for winter” tasks around the house.  Plants we want to save over the winter have been sprayed for bugs and brought into the house.  Snowplow services are hammering stakes into the ground marking out the driveways they’ll be plowing.  Squirrels are scurrying about collecting nuts and burying them in the planters on our deck and in our yard.  As a result, potting soil is scattered all over our deck and our lawn is full of holes.  Everyone is starting to shift into hibernation mode.

Another thing the colder weather does is make me wax poetic about things that I might have put into a novel had I the talent to ever write one.  For instance:

The leaves are bright vibrant shades of red, orange, brown, and yellow.  They shimmer in the sunlight shaking and rustling in the gusty wind.  The air smells like fall, crisp and slightly dusky from the fallen leaves.  Thousands of leaves float in the air making it look like it is teaming with life, but in fact, quite the opposite is true.  New leaves will greet us in the Spring, but for now, all that will be left in a few short days will be dark tree trunks and empty branches reaching out into the often-grey sky.   

See, it’s a good thing I didn’t take up writing as a profession.

I love the change of seasons, and winter is no exception.  During the rest of the year a beautiful sunny day cannot be wasted by staying indoors.  Winter’s gray and cold creates a wonderful environment for looking inward and for doing inside tasks that until now only resided in one’s mind.  This winter, however, I may have a slight problem as I’ve almost finished an on again off again project that has taken me 15 years to complete.  I’m in the process of completing a needlepoint rug that measures 60-1-/4” x 30-1/4”.  So now what will I do?  I’m certainly not going to make another rug.

I know I’ll be spending some time planning our next big trip – Italy in October 2020.  I may even try to learn a little Italian. The first part of our journey will be a tour of Northern Italy with our good friends Eileen and Jim.  Milan, Lake Cuomo, Verona, Bologna and Venice are all part of the itinerary.   The second half is what needs planning.  Are we making a mistake not going to Rome or the Amalfi Coast?  What about Pompei, the Isle of Capri, or Cinque Terre?  Unfortunately, we can’t see it all.  One thing we’ve learned is not to spread ourselves too thinly.  But the question is — where should we spread ourselves in the first place?  I think we will spend our extra week in Florence and explore some of the small towns of Tuscany.  If anyone has any suggestions don’t hesitate to let me know.

As much as I’ve stated how I like winter, I also must admit that I like escaping the winter gray for a few weeks.  Now that we are retired, we do take advantage of the fact our daughter and her family live in California.  Dan is limited to John Carroll University’s Spring break, but I get to escape for a little longer.  Our trips tend to fall near the end of “fire season.”  As I write this note fires are still burning in California, however, the fires near my daughter’s home are “contained” for now.  With the fires, mud slides, earthquakes, high cost of living and traffic jams, California is not the magical place people flocked to just a few years ago.  Dan and I don’t feel the pull to move out West permanently like my grandfather did long ago, but it is a great place to visit in the dead of winter.  Another wonderful benefit is that I usually get to see my sister and brother-in-law who live in San Diego.

Another major winter project, I hate to even bring up, is clear-cutting our stuff.  I think I’ve mentioned it before, but after 40 years in the same home we’ve got LOTS of stuff.  Our flooded basement helped a bit in the culling process, but that was a drop in the bucket.  We are seriously thinking about moving to a home with a master bedroom and laundry on the main floor.  Downsizing should be part of our plan, but I’m not sure Dan and I are capable of doing that.  In fact, I’m not sure we are capable of even making the decision to move in the first place.  Logic and common sense tell us we should make a change while we are not under any pressure to do so.  We both turn 70 in 2020 — although I’d like to point out I haven’t quite turned 69.   Didn’t I just turn 60?  How is 70 even possible? That fact alone is enough to immobilize one from taking any kind of action.  It’s just a number, but it is an awfully big one.

I’ll try to write more as the fall turns into winter.  This week is supposed to bring falling temperatures and several days of snow.  I’ll try to stay away from politics, although that is difficult given IMPEACHMENT is a word that is heard and read about daily.  Plus, I think the entire election process goes on for far too long in this country and there is only so much a person can take regardless of one’s political leanings.  Now-a-days it appears the country either leans completely to the right or completely to the left.  What ever happened to the middle?  Uh oh, I’ve slipped into talking about politics, so I must close for now.

Happy Holidays!!