The days are getting nicer – more often, anyway – and the sun has come out to play on a more regular basis, meaning I once again can start to consider doing all of the things I haven’t been.
That’s right, Campbell River, spring has sprung – and I couldn’t be happier about it.
While I do love the rain (some few of you may remember a column from a couple of years ago where I told you to go dance in it and celebrate its value), even I have to admit that it gets dreary after a while being surrounded by grey skies and not making certain kinds of plans just in case you’ll have to cancel them.
It affects your mind and sucks away your enthusiasm for wanting to accomplish things.
As I explained to someone just a few weeks ago, I had gotten to the point where I was saying things like, “I want to want to do things again.”
I was past the point of not wanting to do things and had moved on to not even wanting to want to do things.
But no longer!
Huzzah!
This weekend – should the sun be shining, as is expected – I will be taking my golf clubs out onto the lawn, sitting down with a cloth and bucket, and giving them a good shining in preparation of making my first tee time of the year.
That’s my annual signal to myself that winter is officially over.
After that, I’m going to build some raised garden beds in my back yard.
I’ve got plans for a nice arbour or pergola for back there, as well.
I’ll wash my car.
Not the kind of car washing you do when you get gas and the pump asks you if you want a car wash, so you press yes and go through the swirling brushes and spraying water and come out the other side.
No, I mean the kind where you get out your bucket and sponges and brushes and put some effort into getting in the wheel wells and nooks and crannies.
Maybe I’ll vacuum out the floors and seats, and give it a nice coat of wax, too.
Then I’ll go for a nice walk in the woods.
Oh, how I missed walking around in the woods. It’s not that I haven’t done that since the fall, or anything, but they haven’t been the kind of outings where you plan it in advance with a few friends, pack a lunch, and intend to spend a whole day adventuring, because for the last few months, you just couldn’t know if that was a thing that could happen with any level of comfort.
There’s no reason to do it if you’re going to be miserable by the end of your outing, after all, because that’s the opposite of what that kind of activity is supposed to do.
Maybe I’ll go find a waterfall I’ve never seen. I like waterfalls.
I’ll bring my camera and, despite not being what anyone would consider a “nature photographer,” I’ll get something that I can submit to the Arts Council’s 9th Annual Photo Show for consideration. That’ll be cool.
No matter what I end up doing, though, it definitely feels nice to want to want to again, I gotta say.
See you in the sun.