The Ugliest Time of the Year

         This is the time of the year I dislike the most.  The world looks gray, listless and extremely dismal.  The trees are bare of leaves and the few pine trees mixed in with the hard woods have lost their color also.  The green of the pines looks dirty brown. The only color that stands out, is the purple sprayed on a few trees which means "No Hunting".  These trees are few and far between and even their purple color has faded to a washed out sad shade of lavender.  We are between seasons. Winter isn't through with us yet and Spring is just around the corner--but out of sight.

       It has rained most of the day,a slow drizzling rain hanging to the tree branches. We have heavy rains coming in tonight, continuing through out tomorrow.  And I find myself needing to take a vacation.  I need to feel some sand between my toes.  To wade in water that is warm, instead of mud that clings to my boots and goes to my knees at times.  I need to go to Florida!!!!  Since that isn't possible right now. I think I will get my scrapbooks out, reread my journals and maybe even make a margarita.

        As I look back on our vacations over the past three years, I have wonderful memories of our time in Fla. with our oldest daughter, Lisa and her husband Lisle. I can literally smell the ocean, because I bought home a gallon of ocean water!!  I searched until I found the perfect clear genie bottle to hold my ocean. I added white sand from the Emerald Coast, sea shells and a tiny starfish from Naples. I have it sitting on my computer desk beside a dish of seashells and a picture of a "maneki neko" cat from Japan ( who is supposed to bring me happiness). What more could I ask for?

        Well, that is an open ended question.  I really, really want some sunshine.  I want some things that I can't control.  I want our gravel road to find it's bottom!!!  It is soooo muddy that it is literally hard to drive through.   I say "through" because there is no driving "on" it right now.  It is a fight, for three miles, until we reach the black top road. That is enough whining, for right now. The things I want today, are things I have no control over.

      In due time all this gloomy weather will pass.  Spring will get here and the world will look alive again.  Until then, I think I will put on my favorite Jimmy Buffet c.d. --do a little dancing--maybe watch  "Practical Magic" again.  That movie always brings a smile to my face.  And thank God for all the good things in my life----which far out number the weather and the mud.