Go Away Winter

The morning’s dark,
Outside it’s cold,
This winter thing
Is getting old,
Give me sun,
And blooming flowers,
Not falling flakes,
That last for hours.

I mean it, I’m tired of Winter! This year it seems like it’s been extra cold and dark, and we’ve had 3 big snow storms in the last 2 weeks. Snow is pretty—on Christmas Eve & Christmas morning. After that, it’s just a hassle. It must be cleared from the deck, driveway and cars. Driving is dangerous and school and daycare centers either close or delay opening. It might melt during the day and refreeze at night making the roads and walkways treacherous to drive and walk on; pushing my daughter's wheelchair in snow and ice is not easy either!  I'm tired of spreading ice melter all over the deck and driveway, and the mess snowy boots and shoes make of the floors in the house.  I'm weary of bundling up in a bulky coat, scarf, and gloves.  Winter time laundry is more time consuming; the clothes are bigger and take up more room in the washer so there are extra loads, and those larger, heavier clothes take more time to dry, and the hampers fill up so quickly!  Soups and stews are nice, but a tossed salad of fresh from the garden (or local produce stand) vegetables, and chicken or a burger cooked on the grill are so much easier.  Cleanup is 1, 2, 3, and boom! You're done with summer cooking. I'm longing for a sunny, warm weekend afternoon spent sipping iced tea and reading on the deck while a light breeze gets the wind chimes tinkling in the background. Doesn't that sound like heaven?

Well, it's too bad that I'm tired of the cold and snow because if the weather forecasters are to be believed, we're in for at the very least more flurries and cold temperatures for the next 10 days, with the possibility of a 4th winter storm next week on the first day of Spring.  Holy cow! I've had enough!  I can't take one more obligatory snow picture for Instagram, write one more poem about the snow, and listen one more time to "Operation Snowflake" on the local radio station to hear the school and business closings without going mad!  Of course, I have no choice in what the weather does, so I'll just have to grin and bear it for a few more weeks.  Hopefully once the calendar says "Spring" the weather will catch up and we'll have some nice warm days filled with sunshine and some gentle showers to coax the leaves and flowers out of their Winter sleep and brighten up the landscape.  I can't wait for that!

Taken For Granted

          There is nothing like having surgery or something breaking to make you realize you have been taking things for granted.  My recent hand surgery made me think about how I don’t really think about them and how useful they are nearly every waking minute of the day; and how much I like washing them.  Then my glasses fell apart when I was home alone.  Did you ever think about being unable to do even the simplest things for yourself?  It is frustrating at the very least.

          I had a cyst removed from the middle finger of my non-dominant had, as well as carpal tunnel surgery.  We figured that as long as I was there in the operating room the doctor might as well address both problems.  The surgery was no big deal, we were only at the surgical center about 2 ½ hours before we were on the way home, my hand bandaged, and I was very hungry! It wasn’t painful, and ibuprophen took the discomfort away.  I was instructed to keep my hand dry until the stitches came out in 2 weeks. Do you know how many times a day you need to wash your hands?  Disposable gloves became part of my daily life.  Have you showered wearing a dishwashing glove with elastic around the bottom to keep water out?  I don’t recommend it, it’s annoying!  At least I was able to shower, though, so that’s a good thing.  Caring for Hillary and working each were made more interesting by my semi-useless hand.  Things I normally do with ease were more complicated by trying to compensate and still get things done in a timely manner.  Trying to put Hillary’s hair in a ponytail was hard, pushing her chair was not easy, and I couldn’t pull her up the ramp into the van.  Good thing we didn’t need to go anywhere just the two of us!  What I missed the most was washing my hand, and as soon as I got home from the stitches being removed it was the first thing I did! The second thing was use hand cream.  It felt so good!  I never appreciated that before, but sure do now.

          The day before the stitches were removed was my birthday.  That morning I forgot to clean my glasses before I left for work.  They felt a little loose so I decided that I would wait until I was home to clean them, in case they fell apart.  Once I was home and had finished reading all the birthday greetings on Facebook I took my glasses off to finally clean them, and they promptly fell apart.  The lense fell out and I tried to put it back in, with no luck. Desperately, I tried to get that lense to stay in the frame!  The problem is, I need my glasses to see up close.  So here I was, needing to fix glasses that I needed to wear to be able to fix them.  I remembered that my husband keeps a magnifying glass near his chair.  Great! Now I could see that a screw was missing, and we had a screw in a little eyeglass repair kit (also near his chair—how handy!).  I needed to hold the magnifying glass with one hand, but I needed 2 hands to do the repair.  I was one hand short! One and a half if you take into account that one hand wasn’t functioning at 100% yet.  I was determined to fix those glasses!  Well, let me tell you that determination is important but when you’re short a hand fixing something small like that is pretty difficult.  I couldn’t do it.  After about an hour I realized that I needed to see if I had an old pair of glasses around the house to wear until my husband came home.  I think I’ve been not appreciating my glasses and how I depend on them giving me the ability to see clearly.

          They say that you don’t appreciate things until they’re gone and I believe it to be true.  Whether it’s a person, the use of a hand, or your eyeglasses, when you don’t have them you appreciate how much they do for you.  Thank goodness that it was only a short time that I had to make do without.  I can’t imagine life absent of 2 healthy hands, and eyeglasses to give me clear vision.