Winter Blues......

I desperately want to be outside in the sun with the warmth spreading from my head to my toes. It hasn't been a hard winter but when you don't enjoy the season it seems to take forever to pass. What I wouldn't give to be on a beach right now in a lounge chair watching the waves roll in with a nice drink in my hand. I will ignore the wind blowing sand in my face and the awful feeling of sand in every crevice of your body cause this is my damn fantasy.

We had an in-ground pool put in last summer. The contract was signed right before Memorial Day and the construction started June 19th. Our friends who had a similar pool built over the course of 5 months said there was no way we would swim in it that summer. We went into it with the hope that we WOULD but if we didn't then it would be ready to go this summer. Turns out we picked the perfect summer to build a pool. The weather was dry so no construction delays. There weren't a lot of pools being built so the contractors were lined up waiting every morning to start the next phase. The longest waits were only with the county for permits and inspections. We opened the pool on July 23rd. It was great payback for our doubting Tom friends who said we wouldn't swim that summer. We loved every minute in the pool even when the bill started showing up in the mail. It was worth it because we had something to do as a family and a way to entertain friends when we had them over. This was the end result and we couldn't have been happier with it.


Then the inevitable day came in early October when we had to close it up. They drained a ton of water out that we had only just put in it seemed. An ugly green tarp covers the tile and coping I agonized over choosing. It won't see daylight until late April when we will open it up to get it all cleaned up in time for our kids' birthday parties in May. Yet the funny thing is, the bills keep coming. We have to pay for something we can't use. It stinks. And to make matters worse, it looks so desolute out there. I don't even like going out on the deck and seeing all the dead leaves caught up against the fence and in the curve of the retaining wall. The flowers and bushes I so carefully picked out are dead and leaves are caught in them too. It is depressing to go out and see it like that.

Today I will don my work shoes and gloves while bundling up against the cold wind. I will go out with lawn and leaf bags and gather up all of those leaves which are ruining the sight of my little oasis in the back yard. It might do little to brighten the area up but it will do a lot for me. It will signal to the area that I haven't forgotten it and that weather permitting, we will be back soon. Just like the bills. Too bad they aren't dependent on the weather ; )