SEASONS - A day in the life...

Wednesday. Some refer to it as "Hump Day" as it sits smack in the middle of the week. Meaning, if you can get through today the rest of the week is downhill. For some people it means a lot. For others like me... Not so much.

I'm self-employed which means I'm technically on the clock 24/7. I set my own rates, do my own advertising, find the customers, service their needs, bill them, collect and cash the check, and the cycle begins again. Needless to say there is a lot of "Down Time".

This down time can last for hours or even days at a stretch. During this down time I find a lot of things to do. I own a big old house built in the 20's that is a constant work in progress. I have owned it for just over five years and have made quite the progress on it thus far. Aside from the painting and restoration projects in constant progress, it is quite the chore to keep tidy and clean. I think I do a decent job most of the time.

When I'm not working on the house I can usually be found in front of a computer surfing random sites. I have a habit of archiving things such as movies, music, TV shows, etc. I always think, oh I'll watch them later, but rarely do. Well, sometimes I do. I recently am in the process of aquiring the entire House MD collection through season 7 (the current). I have seasons 1-3 currently. This is a show I saw a handful of episodes a few years ago, did not think much about it, but have grown fond of. In fact I thought Dr. House was a bit of a jerk. Now that I have seen the pilot I understand a bit more about who the character Dr. House is and what he represents.

But, mostly I stream stuff over the web on-demand.

During the Summer and even during the Fall I spend time outside with friends BBQing and hanging out. I enjoy gardening and going to the beach and relaxing with a good book.

However, Winter is a difficult time for me. It was not until I met (K) that I had heard about Seasonal Affective Disorder and how it affects more than half the population of this world in one way or another. I believe it affects me in ways I was not too sure about until recently.

By default, I am a people person. I can strike up a conversation with anyone about anything and it is all good. However, in the winter my exposure to people in general is limited by the weather and especially the cold. I just don't like to go out in the cold. I don't like the snow and I despise shoveling. My ears hurt when exposed to the cold and that gets me aggravated to no end.

That leaves Spring. Early Spring always has me hoping for the best. The best weather, the best jobs, and a fresh start for a lot of things after a long and cold winter. Unfortunately, Spring seems to linger about a bit too long every year, or so it seems. The Spring rains although great for the vegetation, dampens my spirit more than I want to admit most of the time.

Maybe it's because I seem to find myself single again in the Spring that I feel rather blah during this rainy season. But I digress...

It is Spring vacation week for the kids and my daughter is spending it with her mom. This leaves the big old house and I to spend some quality time together. I can sleep in a little later than usual although my eyes seem to have snapped open at 7AM each morning.

My coffee intake seems to have sorted itself out over the last two years. Since purchasing the Keurig K-Cup machine I have reduced my intake greatly and feel that it has helped immensely.

I work out of town this Tuesday and Thursday and have had a couple of local service calls this week. Today I find myself burning CDs for a local school and sitting in on some online recovery meetings. I find it comforting to know that even though I may be alone physically in this house there is an entire community of others out there ready to chat up a storm.

I'm not as stressed as I was about finances a few short months ago. I have found some promising employment with long term prospects. More recently, I have survived a two day audit without any repercussions. I have been attending all of the school related functions to do with my daughter going to college and learning about the financial responsibilities that go along with it. And then there is her Junior prom. She's just not that little girl that I could push on the swing.

*sigh*

The seasons change, and so do we all.