Teri Parris Ford's Blog

Finally Some Warmth!

This spring has been not quite miserable but certainly not pleasant. I've been out of sorts at times with life not quite back to normal from the pandemic, feeling very in between places. We finally got a warm Saturday yesterday (over 80) and it was glorious. I drove over to Erika's after continuing my work on the garage to help her finish a project Monika started her on (redoing her entry closet). We had to pop over to Home Depot to pick up some screws for a shelf and looked around at the plants. It reminded me of being at Jessi's as I had gone to her Home Depot almost every other day when I was there last year. I got a lot of cleaning done at home, ran some errands with Monika and ended the evening watching the new Batman movie on HBO. Today is not quite as warm (only 60) but still sunny and pleasant. With better weather, I am hoping for better moods. 

 

No Holiday

I have put off cleaning out my garage for almost a month because of the cold. I finally decided to use the weekend to get it started with a space heater. It meant not being able to open the garage door, but I piled up stuff to donate or toss by the door. I did not get the whole space done but I got a great start.

It seems a little weird that it is Easter weekend. I no longer have any reason to celebrate, no days off work, no place to go, nothing special to cook. Jim and I used to create ornate baskets for the girls with lots of candy and gifts but not this year. I suppose the girls got big tax refunds for Easter (not me). With temps in the 30's, it's hard to get excited for spring. The snow in the forecast again. Ugh!

We heard from Jessi!

Jessi made it to Norway this past week and had a couple of days to explore Tromso. She reported it was cold and spent most of her free time hiking and was most impressed with the Northern Lights, not the food. We got several snaps and texts as well as an email report.

Plodding thru April

I started up with trying to take a photo each day again this year but I often forget especially on really busy days. I have stopped almost all social media posts as I rarely have any interest in engaging there. There's a lot going on in the world, at work, and even at home sometimes, but I feel like I'm just plodding thru life right now. I'm thinking it's just the end of winter blues once it warms up, life will lighten up. Today is Jim's birthday but he's busy with army duties this week. His new role as a major up in Minneapolis has him running around a whole lot more than ever, not quite as much as when he's been active duty though. He'll retire from the army at 60 and I am hoping that will be a good time for me to retire as well and move up to live with him full time.

10 years ago I had planned to retire right at 55 in order to spend time with my parents, especially my dad who I had hoped to go traveling with. After his death, I decided to hold off until I turned 57, which would have been this year. Then as the year approached, I knew retiring this year was premature so I did not pursue it but I've been grappling with the emotions of when to set aside what I've come to find is a lot people's dream job.  I can hear my mom telling me just to take it one year at a time. Sounds good.

Unproductive

Well vacation is over and I did very little. The weather made it hard to clean out the garage and it was my only goal. I'm hoping to get to it next weekend instead. We had several snow sessions, all light with melting almost immediately but snow all the same. What I did get done: a nice visit with Jim over the long weekend (Sat -Tues morning) but nothing accomplished at the new house, scanning of all family negatives from 1995 on Wednesday (see sample here with a look of how I feel today) and Jim's band concert negative (which I only scanned a quarter since there were so many), started working out again, watched all of Bridgerton season 2 and Pieces of Her on Netflix as well several episodes of other shows I'm watching (Picard, Severance, Moon Knight), a couple of movies and lots of news. I also worked on quite a bit of animation curriculum, some school newspaper and yearbook stuff, meeting a couple of students at school on Thursday and Saturday.

Here's a list of all the things I could have done but didn't attempt: cleaning out the garage, cleaning out the basement, staining the stairs in the condo, refinishing the floors in the extra bedroom or my master bedroom (we did Monika's room and almost finished the hall with the hope of using the same flooring for the rest of the upstairs), and/or painting the basement in the new house at Jim's. I've never made so much money before but I'm feeling strapped for cash and so reluctant to do anything that cost funds thus flooring and paint are out. In all honesty, I'm feeling blue, fat, and a bit lost. At least I started working out again and had several sweaty sessions in my basement with weights that I'm hoping will help pull me back to a place where I am more comfortable in my clothes. January and February were way too sedentary. I know that by the time spring arrives, the winter blues are typically weighing down heavily. In the past I've combated those blues with tanning sessions, travel, lots of hot yoga and or art making. This year I did little of any of that other occasional trips to MN to see Jim and short trip to see Jessi. Now that spring break is over, I'm looking at the month of April with nothing to look forward to other than warmer weather. I'm hoping just the sunshine will turn things around.