Sharon's blog: January Blahs

Posted on Jan 20, 2012 10:58 AM

I got up this morning feeling a little sorry for myself just as I do every January. Not a thing different about that. It's blah for about as far as my eye can see out my huge expanse of back windows facing south west. There's no color unless you count the bright orange sweat shirt of the kid who just stepped out of his front door across the street.

He's no kid, but younger than I am. Everybody's younger than I am. But he just works weird hours and goes to the park to play basketball for exercise most mornings.

In 34 degree weather?

Yep, every single morning; better him than me.

So he's gone now and I'm back to blah. It's always like that, here it is only the 20th and seems to me January has already lasted at least about 50 days. I don't really like this month. It's like that danged creaky step. You have to get past it if you want to get anywhere, like maybe to February.

These windows need washing. It rained sometime or other; it rained sideways and muck landed on my windows. Happens every January then I can't see out and if I can see out around the muck, it's just a dull blah of mismatched browns.

I can see parts of 5 houses from here. Even the red brick is dull and brown with brown roofs and tan trim and no grass to speak of; what grass I see is all fairly brown, too.

On the other hand there's my baby magnolia. Bloomed for the first time last spring. I can see it very well from my computer. I planted it right there, several feet away from my deck just so I could watch it grow. Started it from seed. Everybody said it wouldn't grow, magnolias don't start well from seed here in this climate. I never did listen much to what others said.

Well it grew and grew and now is maybe about 10 or 12 feet tall. It's the only green I see out there. Between it and me there is a fence post that holds my blue bird house. The bluebirds have raised many families in that house. I've watched every one of them. Then a year or so ago the little wrens decided to take it over. Not that they wanted it, they just didn't want anybody else to have it. Like a lot of people. So I've had a time trying to shoo them away.

A week or so ago it was cold and raining sideways and the birds needed food, but I had run out of bird seed so I whipped up some peanut butter oatmeal random seed concoction and ran out in the sideways rain. I thumbtacked a plastic lid right on top of the blue bird house and spread that concoction all over it. I don't know why I did that, just seemed right at the time.

So this morning while I was in my January doldrums, I had a visitor. No, I had two visitors. Heh. Doesn't take much to cheer me up.