The day of our last snowstorm I looked outside at our snow-covered patio furniture and fancied snowmen and snow women (How come snow women is two words according to my spell check but snowmen is one word?) sitting at the table chatting. I don't know that I have ever seen a snowman sitting down---probably because they could be a bit of a challenge to build that way. Besides snowman have pretty short lives so why waste time sitting down...but if they ever did decide to take a rest I would love to have them do it at my patio table! I even felt a tickling urge to bundle up and go sit at the table myself just for fun but I really try to limit my family's (and my neighbor's) concerns about my state of mind...It is probably good that I don't give into all of my unusual urges but this was one I should have indulged. It could have been great fun to go out and sit on the deck on a snowy chair and drink a cup of hot cocoa.
Anyway...accompanying my musings about the socializing of snowmen were memories of myself sitting at my patio table only months before trying to find refuge from the hot summer sun under the disappointingly warm shade of the table umbrella. I guess that is something I have in common with snow people---we both seek shade from the heat of the sun to prevent us from melting into a puddle.
Speaking of melting...when we build a snowman in the yard it ends up melting into the grass and flower beds so there is a little essence of snow in the fresh green grass and delicate pastel flowers of spring. If I entertained snowmen on my deck they would eventually melt down into the spaces in the deck and soak into the dirt underneath. So this summer when I subject my bare feet (and I always do) to the broiling heat of my deck I will think of the cooling possibilities of remnants of snowmen having passed through the soil below. The continuous cycle of life---life begetting more life--- and even death and decay begetting life---layers of life---always a fascinating miracle to ponder.
Well the 'day of love' has passed. (I am so glad we are not limited to one day a year to show our affection but it is kind of fun to have that be a special focus as long as our undying devotion doesn't get crowded out by chocolate and flowers and jewelry and perfume and all of the other wrappings and trappings of the holiday) My sweetheart treated me very special and I tried to make him feel special too. Years ago I had a humbling revelation that despite modern marketing viewpoints, Valentine's Day is for men too! Like everything else Valentine's Day has changed over the course of my lifetime. I miss brainstorming ideas for valentine boxes for school with my kids. I miss the excitement of leaving valentines on doorsteps as a kid and running away as fast as I could before someone could answer their door. This year I missed good old-fashioned conversation hearts. I must admit I have always been fond of their overly sweet chalky goodness but now they have been relegated to nostalgic fare at best. I picked up a bag of conversation hearts on my Saturday trip to the grocery store because I had been craving them and was looking forward to nibbling on them for a couple of days but when I got them home I was disappointed to find that they were tutti fruity conversation hearts! Where were my perfumey tasting purples, my anise flavored whites, my wintergreenesque flavored pinks, my wonderfully fake banana flavored yellows? I still ate several of the tutti fruity ones because---well they contained sugar and were still a bit chalky but they did not in any way satisfy my craving. I have found it a bit sad for quite some time that the conversation on the conversation hearts isn't quite what it used to be but now they have messed with the flavor and texture. You can find sour glittering hearts, Disney hearts, gummy hearts, and of course a myriad of chocolate hearts but I did not see any of the good old original conversation hearts in small or large size. Perhaps I waited to long to get them or maybe they have disappeared because no one else liked them but me. I finally threw away the rest of the fruity ones and bought myself a roll of Necco wafers to somewhat satisfy my craving. The flavors were good but I missed the thick pleasant chalkiness---kind of like what I think it would be like to chew on soft sandstone pebbles---maybe I have a deficiency of some sort...
We have a dinosaur sitting on our kitchen windowsill. It was a Christmas gift from my youngest daughter to her dad. It was inside of a volcano which was inside of a plastic container. The volcano erupted after adding vinegar and revealed a dinosaur inside that grew when you filled the container with water. It looked big and inflated for a time --kind of like me after eating all those holiday goodies-- and then we poured out the water and it has gradually shrunken down to it's original small size. I want to do that! Eventually I guess I will have to dispose of it but it kind of feels like it belongs there now and it has got me to thinking(I know it doesn't take much and it could be a dangerous thing)...you know how we tend to have to go to the bathroom a lot as we get older and we don't drink as much either---because then we have to go again---well maybe that's why we shrivel and shrink with age---we are losing too much water! Also, older people don't soak in the tub as much because of safety issues so see---there is more cause for shriveling. Maybe we should immerse ourselves in water for a few minutes each day and it would keep us looking youthful. Babies are immersed in water for nine months and they come out all shriveled but maybe it would have the opposite effect on an old person...
My brain is starting to feel mushy-slushy and I better quit before anyone reading this drowns in a puddle of nonsense.
Who would you like to see sitting in your patio chairs?
