This is that dreadful time in winter when I hit the horse latitudes; I need to organize but am unmotivated. I need to plan for my spring garden but it is so cold outside it doesn’t seem it will ever be warm again. My hair needs to be cut, we need new clothes, and of course, there is the dreaded grey slush melting on the floor by the mat next to the back door.
There’s something about that grey slush that just sends me over the edge. The inability to control my environment, the irritation of stepping into a cold puddle in my stocking-feet? Either way, I hate it.
I’m sick of eating casseroles, soups and leftovers. I’m sick of ground beef. I’m sick of waking up in the morning in a dark house, with bare trees outside the windows. I’m sick of the white residue of salt water crusting the car from the water thrown by other drivers’ tires on melting city streets.
Staticky hair from wearing a hat. Chapped fingertips, chapped lips, dry skin. Cracked heels catching on socks, cold drafts next to the door, my engagement ring turning to the side inside my winter gloves, my eyes watering in the cold, my glasses fogging when I come inside.
My daughter is having growing pains and in the evenings after school, every day this week, she has whimpered while rubbing her thigh, unable to concentrate on homework. The nurse line at the doctor’s office has cut me off mid-recording each time I’ve tried to leave a message. It took three tries to ask them to call and let me know if we need to bring her in for an exam.
A thousand things are on the list of what I could complain about, but really what it boils down to is restlessness, the feeling I get every year between the new year and the start of spring. I’m unable to focus, I can’t take on new DIY projects or crafts, and I just want to curl up in a ball and sleep.
So instead, I’m going to take a hot shower. I’m going to start a loaf of bread and get ready for a client meeting this afternoon. I’ll make supper for my family and after PC gets home and we eat, Rabbit and I will sit down and watch “American Idol.”
Spring will be here before long, but it can’t come soon enough for me.
The viburnum suspensum is in bloom here, tiny white flowers with no scent to the human nose. A freeze earlier in the “winter” didn’t affect my shrimp plants. They are still blooming, providing food for a rufous hummingbird that decided here was far enough south for it.
And I was grumbling about having to put on a light sweater against our 50 degree days; about a 20 mph wind from the north; about having 3 cloudy days in a row.
Your puddles indicate snow, hence precipitation. We’re far below our rainfall needed. I’d take a mighty snowfall, freezing the shrimp plants and the viburnum right now if it meant breaking the drought.
Before Christmas the supermarket had giant loofahs for sale in the produce section. Santa got me one for my stocking – I can chop a new piece off it every month so it doesn’t get musty – and perhaps for the first time in my life, my upper arms are smooth! It’s these little things I hold on to.
I am definitely in hibernation mode. I like it, but my kids have energy to burn. Right now I have to put on my Nanook of the North wear and accompany my daughter selling GS cookies. Ugh ugh ugh.
It’s the dry skin on my legs and feet that really bugs me this time of the year… oh, and what happened to your office project? Would love to see how that is coming along.
Our winters here are pleasant, but summers here are insane. It’s really even too hot to go swimming with little children, with 107 and 108 degree weather. By August, everyone seems to be hibernating here, and people seem to get angry quickly. It’s oppressive. Anyway, hope you get some relief soon! I totally get what you mean.
We run our humidifier in the winter, which keeps the static electricity to a minimum, and thus the animules in the house aren’t shocking each other when they touch noses.
Every time I shower, I use lavender-scented petroleum jelly (a container costs $1 at Dollar Tree) to moisurize my face and body. I let the hot water melt some of it off for a minute before I get out, and it works fabulously. Since I don’t have those hormones flowing through my body like the rest of you spring chicks, my skin is getting thin and and wrinkly.
I’m sick of winter, too. Sick of cold feet, mismatched gloves, ratty scarves, and I need a new (meaning “different”) coat. And I’m tired of having to walk carefully on the sidewalk, knowing that a slip could maim me for life, or worse.
I’m sick of chicken and noodles, regardless of how homemade-tasty it is.
I am soooo with you.
I almost burst into tears a few weeks ago reading how long it will be until the daylight is long again, but already it is staying light enough until at least 5:30 now and what a huge difference that makes!
As for the laundromat… ugh, do I remember that being expensive. One Sunday night in winter (this was in rural ME) I filled the triple-load washer with laundry that included brand new work clothes and watched in horror as the washer filled up with rusty water, and since it was late on a Sunday, and the large-load washers lock when running, there was nothing I could do.