It’s the middle of February on a sunny Sunday, and I decided to step outside for a little bit. I noticed there’s work to be done like clearing some of the fallen trees we lost during some of the fall in winter wind storms. There is some “scrub“ to clear out so we can get a better view of the pond, but for some reason, I’m just not feeling it.
I went down to mess with the pool cover, the Bain of my existence, to remove a couple small limbs before they did any damage. I looked around the pond and just around the area and realized yet again how thankful I am that we live where we do.
For 22 years, and a few years before that, we lived in a neighborhood. Nothing wrong with living in a neighborhood, especially when you have young kids growing up. They had their friends, we had ours. A day like today would’ve been spent on the neighbors deck, putting down a few cold ones while the kids played something outside because we would make them. Actually, it wasn’t hard to get our kids outside when the weather was nice. That is the beauty of having a neighborhood with young kids. They find each other and dry each other out to let their imaginations run free.
I saw a couple videos about kids growing up in the 70s and 80s and how we were “indestructible“. If it wasn’t for a video games and 2000 channels on the TV, along with TV sizes ranging from 24 inch monitors to 100 inch behemoths that take up an entire wall of your basement, I’m not sure the outside would’ve been quite what it had been for my generation.
They say it started in 1974 with a video game called pong. It was much later in the 70s and into the early 80s that one of our more well off neighbors bought an Atari gaming system for their kids. If there was a cloud in the sky or rain coming down, we were all trying to find a way to get over to their house to watch a little white square bounce back-and-forth while you used the joystick to move a line up and down, trying to keep your opponent from getting that little white square past you.
As I sit out here right now, and hear the planes fly over and the wind blow through the trees, rattling some of the remaining leaves that refused to let go of their trees, I have some great flashbacks to my own childhood. We live on land where there is lots of trees. If I would’ve lived here as a child, my parents would’ve seen even less of me than they did. I would be finding trees to climb, boulders to jump off of, and would have been the most decorated combat hero, ever heard of. Of course, the only person that would’ve heard of all this is me in my own head. I had quite an imagination. For example, in the middle of the summer when it was 100° out, we would put on my dad‘s marine uniform, complete with wool coats and pants, and go sweat to death laying on a pile of leaves with our “guns“ ready to take out the enemy if they ever showed up. It’s a wonder we didn’t pick up hundreds of ticks. But today it’s 60° and sunny, and it’s just relaxing to be outside away from everything.
I’m still channeling my inner 12 year-old, looking at the stairs, going down to the pool and wondering how many I could clear without wiping out. I look at the remaining acorns that the squirrels left behind in the gravel driveway and want to start throwing them at whatever target I can find to see how accurate I am. I want to put on some boots and go exploring through the trees. But instead, maybe I’ll just do like I did when we lived in a neighborhood on a day like this, get a cold drink and just enjoy the sun.
There’s a real peace that comes from living out here. At least for me. I often find myself in the middle of the day where Work has been more than stressful, and I sit down exactly where I am right now and just take it all in. My reminded of what it took to get here and the people we had to say goodbye to I reminded of how much they would’ve enjoyed coming out here. I start thinking of little projects that I debate tackling, I hear the shotguns at the nearby gun club and realize how much the sound has just kind of blended into the background.
I’m wearing a sweatshirt and pants, but when the wind dies down in the sun blankets me, I’m dreaming of shorts and T-shirts again. Where I love fall and winter days out here, there’s certainly something to be said for spring and summer. Right now, there are very few leaves on the trees, so you can see through to the people across the way, and even the people that are a couple of properties over. But if you’re lucky, you get in just the perfect place where you can’t see any of that. All you see is trees, the pond, some squirrels, and the occasional deer. Speaking of, I should probably go get some more feed corn. I felt kind of bad about not helping them make it through the winter as much as I could have. Not that putting out a couple piles of feed corn would really do much for them, but it’s been nice just looking out and seeing nature at its finest.
Tomorrow is a national holiday, and luckily another day to be able to spend avoiding being in front of a computer or being on calls all day having to make decisions and judgment calls constantly. Another day of not having to put out fires or solve other people‘s problems. A day of not having to coach someone on their performance and best of all, a day of not having to answer to anyone.
I’m writing all this on my phone and I can see my reflection in the screen. The beard that I used to not be able to grow is now in full, but is no longer the combination of red and brown that it used to be. All of those chores that I could be doing I’m putting off simply because the idea of the pain I will be feeling after the fact it’s not something I look forward to. I have to remind myself. It’s a good pain because it means you put in an honest day of taking care of what needed to be taken care of. Some may not be up for the physical part of work, but I’ve never shied from that. I can’t do it at the level I used to be able to, but I’ve also found that after years of complaining about the Pace my dad and others went, I realize for them it wasn’t about getting things done as fast as possible, it was just about getting them done. After all, I’m not getting paid for any of this work. I don’t owe any speed or productivity to anyone but myself. But, those trees will still be in the front yard in the morning. Maybe that’s when I will feel the urge to do more than just sit in the sun and take it all in.
Random Thoughts of an Ordinary Average Guy 