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| Robin (Photo credit: blmiers2) |
I run the kind of blog where readers can trust that they’ll
never be subjected to a post about the weather. Nobody gives a shit about other
people’s weather (except my mother-in-law).
So please forgive me, because I am going to mention the weather, but only to inform you of my
feelings. Everyone says they want to know more about my feelings (except my ten
and a half male readers).
All of us here in the Northeast have suffered through an
epic winter – lots of snow and bitterly cold temperatures. For wheelchair users,
winters like this one are long, confining, and borderline depressing. I don’t
do well outside in the extreme cold. I can sometimes manage the snowy
sidewalks, but only on a warmer day.
Please note that the obvious solution is not an option for
us. I have 100 good reasons that I can’t move from here to a warmer climate,
but I won’t bore you with them.
Almost every time I venture out in the winter it begins with
me being loaded into the wheelchair van, and somebody else driving me
around. No independence there. I appreciate my drivers, especially Kim, and I
know my circumstances are preferable to being home-bound, but it does become tedious
after a while.
Twice in the past couple of weeks, on unusually warm days, I’ve
been out in the neighborhood by myself, and it has been liberating. It boosts my spirits when I experience something as ordinary as a warm breeze on
my face. It’s nothing short of therapeutic when I can go to the grocery store
and purchase an item by myself and bring it home. Everyone loves the coming of
spring, but wheelchair users – all the more.
I look forward to a full season with our new stone patio in
the backyard – reading in the sunshine during the day and sitting by the fire
in the evenings. I daydream about taking the greenbelt path to Bug Light Park,
where I can watch the ships come in and out of port. I so want to grab lunch at
Verbena or an ice cream at CIA whenever I like, although I will need to monitor
my waistline more closely. I could go on.
As I sit here on the first day of April, temperatures still struggling to reach the upper 40s, I am like a kid on an extended Christmas Eve. I know the gifts are coming soon, and I just can't wait to unwrap them.
Posts
I love hearing you talk about the Maine weather.....especially when it allows you to be outside. Really need to hear more about this "half" male reader, as in, "ten and a half male readers".
ReplyDeleteGinny
Despite the fact that I'm not permanently chair bound, I still don't go outside much when there's snow, ice, or bitter cold. So, I, too, am itching for consistent warmer days ahead.
ReplyDelete(Watch and see me 'bitch' when the hot summer arrives!)
I must be one of your 10 1/2 male readers, and maybe I'm the odd man out, but I can suffer through reading about your feelings! And I too feel imprisoned by the winter, and so appreciate the feeling of the sun on my face. I just came back from a week in Florida which was therapeutic, but reinforced all of those hundred reasons why I don't want to move there. And I believe I've seen a map of the Greenbelt that goes all the way from Bug Light down to some destination way down south. Road trip?
ReplyDeleteYou summed it up beautifully for all the rest of us!
ReplyDeleteGinny, the half male reader was just a rounding error from a complex mathematical model. My apologies ;-)
ReplyDeleteMuffie, being in that middle ground between healthy and in a wheelchair can be very awkward. I remember those days. in some ways my mobility situation could be considered better than yours, because the wheelchair does get me around quite well in good weather.
Stephen, let's plan that road trip!
Daphne, I have become an expert summarizerer.