A RARE AND UNUSUAL PHENOMENON

I had a rare experience this morning that I have to share with you.

See, my alarm went off and I got up.

Shocking, I know. 

Somehow I didn’t groan, roll over and beg Father Time to back it up a little so I could catch a few more winks.

Instead, I got right out of bed, made my way to the kitchen and fed the cats so they didn’t have to beg for food like…well…like dogs.  They didn’t say so, but I’m guessing they were grateful that I didn’t try to confuse them this morning.

After I fed the felines, I made a cup of coffee and sat in the living room to enjoy the sunny morning for a bit before getting ready for the day.

What makes all this rare?  Because it. Never. Happens.

I am not a morning person. Never have been. I don’t understand the concept of sunrise and I’m not sure I’ve ever seen one.  Sunsets?  Sure. I even have pictures.  But sunrises?  Not so much.

So I sat on the couch in the living room enjoying my coffee and gazing around my little domain.  Also rare this summer was the sunshine.  I think I read that in the last 19 days we’ve had rain 16 of them.  No matter how you look at it, that makes for one soggy summer so far.

So I enjoyed the sunshine.   And I noticed – for the first time in the year since we’ve lived in this house – that the sun hits the purple crystal hanging in the living room window at precisely 6:47 a.m. where it sparkles for a few brief moments before the sun moves on and highlights something else.  Since I’m all about the sparkle, I delighted in the vision.

But then what happened?  I started noticing that the window behind that purple crystal needs an immediate date with a bottle of Windex. 

And then I shifted slightly on the couch…and I saw a filament of spider web hanging down from somewhere up high, connecting to a glass globe on the coffee table and ending somewhere inside the decorative bowl in the middle of the table.

Ugh.  WHY did I have to shift slightly on that couch?  I would’ve been happy to have been blissfully unaware of that filament.  Not only that, but I am not a big fan of creepy crawly things so removing the filament brought with it the possibility that an actual spider would come out of his hiding place to find out what was happening to his handiwork.

I had to give the arachnid props though. If he had started up in the ceiling fan or on the ceiling itself, he had to create a whole lot of silk to get from there down to the coffee table. It’s a VERY high ceiling.  Poor guy was probably napping after his long journey. 

Nevertheless, I put down my coffee cup, went to the closet to find a dusting cloth and then wiped off the table, the glass globe and the decorative bowl. 

That done, I decided I’d better jump in the shower lest I find even more surfaces that need some attention with a mop, broom, or other cleaning implement.

So it looks like I have some sprucing up to do this weekend.  But don’t I always?  It’s one of those never-ending chores that won’t go away no matter how hard you clean.  The dust and dirt always comes back.

But despite all that, I truly enjoyed those brief moments enjoying the morning sunshine.  Who knew you could get so much pleasure out of taking a few moments like that before starting your day? 

Yeah, yeah, okay – so half the free world recognizes this.  The other half – like me – are affirmed night owls with an aversion to sunrises and spend every possible second snuggled up in bed waking up only to hit the snooze button one more time.

But maybe…just maybe…I’m not quite so averse to sunrises anymore.  I’ll have to test the theory.  Just not tomorrow. It’s my day off – and I’m probably going to want to sleep in.

(Heyyy, what can I say? We can’t push this “early bird” conversion. Change takes time y’know.)

Seriously…have a good weekend all. Enjoy your sunrises. And your sunsets!

Mid-Winter Reprieve Part Two. Or...Jane Might Have Been…(mumble, mumble…)

Okay, so I have to admit something. I might have been sort of, kind of, maybe just a tiny little bit…wrong. (Ack, that wasn’t easy to spit out!)

Whatever could I – Ms. Perfect – be wrong about?

W-e-l-l, for one thing, calling myself “Ms. Perfect.” Undoubtedly, I am setting myself up for all sorts of snarky comments like, “You? Perfect?” Followed by what I consider, quite frankly, rude mocking laughter.

(I roll with a very cynical crowd.)

But, also, I was maybe not really 100% right in some of my comments about the whole mid-winter reprieve thing.

It IS easy to get sucked into happy sunshine-y, balmier temperatures in mid-February as if we will not be exposed to snow and slush and ice again for the rest of the year.

So if I owned a motorcycle, I might even be tempted to haul it out, dust if off, strap on a helmet and go for a ride. (Fortunately for all those sharing the road with me, I do NOT own a motorcycle.)

Instead, I went outside and literally basked in the sun like a cat that has found that one perfect slice of sun shining on the carpet and lies down to nap in its warmth.

I sighed as I felt the heat warm my very bones. I wore my sunglasses for reasons other than fending off the glare from the winter snow and ice. And I actually smiled at other people for the first time all winter.

Hmmm. Maybe there IS something to the whole notion of wearing shorts, t-shirts and flip flops when the mercury rises twenty degrees above freezing. It is a figurative thumbing our noses at Old Man Winter for forcing us to wear ugly snow boots day after day when we really want to wear strappy sandals that show off our petal pink painted toenails.

It signifies the hope that soon we will be baring shoulders and knees to the heat of summer and will be frolicking in pools and at beaches.

Except I don’t think I’ve ever really seen anyone “frolic.” Who does that??

Besides, what will really happen is that we will forget all about the frigid winter we’ve just survived and all too soon we will become cranky as we deal with soaring 90 degree temperatures and 100% humidity. And we will complain about our ever increasing utility bills as our air conditioners struggle to keep up and cool us down. We’ll gingerly slide into our cars that have baked under the merciless sun for a mere 4.5 minutes before the internal temperature reaches the boiling point.

As do our tempers.

But. For now, we’ll look at the sun and we’ll smile. We’ll walk outside with our feet hitting actual pavement and we’ll be grateful that – just for today – we don’t have to worry about broken appendages from taking nose-dives on ice-covered sidewalks.

Some people will even haul out their motorcycles for a spin. And some people will drive with their windows down.

Not me, of course. I said I wasn’t 100% right. I didn’t say I was crazy. I still believe people catch colds when we have mid-winter reprieves.

Plus, I’m nearly out of Echinacea.

Enjoy the sunshine and warmth while it lasts, folks. And pass me the hand sanitizer, would ya?