As The Seasons Turn

Sweat pants. Dark before six pm. Leaves falling. Yard work is raking instead of mowing and beds are filled with straw. Haystacks with pumpkins and scarecrows. Pumpkin pie and carved pumpkin faces. Spongebob, Superman and Cinderella take over the streets. Buckets filled with sweets and fresh fruits. Cold mornings, warm days, cold nights. Furnaces lit. Wood cut, gathered and stacked. And a lucky few still have cherished wood stoves to claim and light. Yellow, orange, rust and white Mums in twin pots on front porches.

I'm ready for everything October and the next few months brings. Burning leaves with a smoke that intoxicates and perfumes the air with a scent that makes my spine tingle with pleasure. And neighborhood bonfires. Nights spent with good people and loads of laughter. And smores. I'm ready to fumble for my keys in the dark, because I've worked late and now the sun has gone down. Gone down an hour or so earlier than summer time would know about. I have already started gathering winter blankets to put on top of bedsheets and under comforters. I'm watching Zach scrambling for a jacket in the morning before he leaves for school. 

I'm ready to sit on the front porch glider, bundled up in a warm hoodie until my bones begin to ache from the cold. I'm ready to fill the feeders for all the birds that are surely headed South for the winter. Further down South, but we will see them first. I'm ready to gather pecans to crack and shell as I sit and watch football on television because it's too cold and nasty to venture outside.  I'm ready to cook big pots of soup and big pots of chili for those cold weekends when you spend your time looking for whatever will warm your soul from the inside out.

And I think I am REALLY, REALLY ready to see Zach in something else besides those dang nylon gym shorts and white tee shirts. Lawd...is there a teenage boy ANYWHERE who owns any other clothing than that I ask you?! He has so many nice shorts and shirts (I would say nice tops here, but if he reads this he will freak out!) that I have maybe seen on his body once or twice. Instead he would rather wear some FAMU hoodie somebody 'gave' him, several tee shirts I KNOW I did not purchase, and Tater's camouflage clog shoes he wears like they were made of gold.

And with the cold, brings the next season of ball, which is basketball. And even if Zach decides not to play school ball (which he is pondering as I write) I know our own driveway and goal will get a workout like nobody's business. He and Matt and whoever else piles up at our house, will be right outside my front window, whooping and hollering, laughing, trash talking, shucking and jiving. Bringing life to a too long dead driveway and this old lady sitting on the inside listening. And smiling.

The man cave will come alive with ping pong matches, Foosball games, and musical instruments long neglected for more fun outside.  Drums, electric guitars and piano's blaring noise that is truly music to my ears.

Yes, I'm ready to hibernate for awhile. To be able to come home, sling off my work clothes and grab some sweats and a comfortable old tee shirt, claim my recliner and not move. Because I don't have to move. It's dark, it's cold, and I don't have to feel guilty about doing nothing. Get caught up on my reading. I probably read three times the number of books during winter than I do any other time. No guilt. No flower beds to be weeded, no lawn or flowers to be watered, and no sunshine to lure me outside.

But come Spring, be guaranteed, I will be so ready to see it again too. So ready for some warmth, longer days and beautiful blooming flowers. I'll be whining about being ready to go fishing, hooking some worms and smelling some lake water. Kind of brings you to that old saying we've all heard a million and one times, "We're just never satisfied are we?"

So folks, grab a book, a blanket, a cup of coffee and a bowl of soup and join me. Live the good life on the inside for a few months. Get to know everybody in your house again. Get caught on your television shows. Get your inside projects done. And get rested up for the next season in line. I don't know about you, but I'm not getting getting any younger, and it takes these slow, cold winters to help me gear up for those fast, hot summers!

copyright © 2011 Michelle Mount Mims