Winter is ALMOST a ghost now.

I’m NOT a winter person – summer either, for that matter. I just don’t hold with this planet’s indulgent extremes, its tantrums of snow and blistering heat.

The first week of March is done now and the Vernal Equinox is a short two weeks away. PHEW! The sun is rising earlier and setting later. MORE light – HOORAY!

AND this Sunday we'll move the clocks forward an hour. Well, most of us will. For me the bedside clock will finally, once again, tell the correct time. Changing the clocks – that was The Amazing Bob’s job. Yes, without him I could’ve figured out these pesky digital devices BUT it's just been simpler to subtract an hour. NOT learning is one of the ways that I've been holding on/not letting go. I will learn though. I am capable of forward movement. HONEST!

This time next week the snow will’ve melted ‘cept for soot covered, ignorable piles along the roadside. The grocery and hardware stores will have racks and racks of seeds, igniting visions of sexy, voluptuous gardens in my head. I’ve not planted in a couple years, leaving that to Jen and Oni. They plant veggies – I do flowers. This year I want to put in bee attracting BIG sunflowers, poppies and echinacea. Daisies and black-eyed Susans too. Happy flowers!

It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.
~ Charles Dickens

I drove to the Y yesterday. The brilliant sunshine made the car so very toasty. On opening the car door, the frozen air hit me smack in the face. I wanted to shut the door, bang a uey and go home. I could crawl between nice warm flannel sheets, have a hot cuppa lemon/ginger tea and a cookie. I could exercise next month instead. Rilly! 

Ah…no. I pulled my ass outta Bix, went in and got into the pool. I was stunned, on this frigid day, to find the joint crowded. I had a sad. What I do when I can’t score a lane is this – laps in place. I do breaststroke style arm and leg moves – first the legs, then the arms. It’s 30 strokes per pool length – 60 equals a lap. This is NOT as awesome as actually swimming those laps but it beats all hell out of giving up and going upstairs to the elliptical.

No animal, according to the rules of animal-etiquette, is ever expected to do anything strenuous, or heroic, or even moderately active during the off-season of winter.
~ Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

THIS should be me and it would be if I wasn’t so goddamned determined to lose weight and stay as healthy as I can be. Swear ta Bast, in my last life I was a cozy, fat house-cat who did nada but nap, snack and watch dust-motes dance in the sunlight. MAYBE, if I’m extra good, that’s what I’ll come back as.

Winter is not a season, it's an occupation.
~ Sinclair Lewis

Damn straight, Sinc. This winter shit is motherfucking HARD work!

When I was young, I loved summer and hated winter. When I got older I loved winter and hated summer. Now that I'm even older, and wiser, I hate both summer and winter.
~ Jarod Kintz

Yup.