January Pause

I can’t complain about my weather after seeing what the East coast has endured. Here it has been cold, some black ice, snow flurries, and nothing horrid considering it is January. I usually tolerate January fairly well, and if there are heavy snows, that is fine because I basically hibernate anyway. I have written, submitted, studied markets, and read books until I am numb.

But I have felt the old S.A.D. symptoms sneak in during the last week. Normally, I don’t see that until late February or March. It is a physical response as much as mental; S.A.D. rolls in quietly like the tide, hovers around the ankles before suddenly becoming a drowning feeling. But while this January has been one of office work, it has also been one of very dark days. Give me bright snow reflecting the heaven’s light over a sky looking as gray as freshly poured concrete any day! I found myself getting up later, moving slower, and one day never dressed at all.

So yesterday morning I met a friend at a local coffee shop forcing myself out. It was cold but I warmed the car so Miss B could go too. She is also tired of cold and dark. None of the other dogs come out to play at the fence this time of year!  She was glad to sit on the town square and watch the people moving about the town square while I had a cup of tea. People were out like flocks of birds at feeders despite the frigid air. The streets were dry and they got out to “blow the stink off them” as my dad used to say.

Once back in the car with the heater running, I could not face coming home just yet. I was up, out, but had no place to go, needed nothing. But I made an errand when I decided I needed new white silk tulips. Once I had walked about the store fetching them, I still was not ready to return home. So I went to a couple of flea markets making quick passes through the aisles. Like I told one store owner, it is hard to find what you want when you don’t really need anything and you aren’t sure what you are hunting!

But I did find a couple of baubles…white hobnail bowl and a bone china tea cup with pansies. Dragging them home, I heard my head repeat my own adage: One comes in and two goes out. Oh what will I discard for these two winter prizes?

Miss B and I brought home our shopping, put it away, and she got her supper while I went to a quick church service. The sun had actually peeked out for a short bit but dusk was falling again. I noticed the sky was wiped in shades of blue reminiscent of milk remainders in a bowl’s bottom after a blueberry breakfast. Then I noted it was 6:00! The days were getting longer and the pitch black of winter was easing. Only 55 more days until spring!