It holds no special meaning beyond its proximity to March, and thus March Break and the foretold lead in to spring. The winds are bitter and cold, but carry slightly more moisture than weeks passed. And are therefore more biting, and cut deeper toward the bone. A listless jab to the body on the way out for another year.
Almost two months down into the new year, and once again the threat of war looms low over the headd of Eastern Europeans, and eventually the world. Let us not forget that West Taiwan wants to attack Taiwan proper for similar land grab and control reasons. Colonialism at its worst, and therefore also its finest. Because that’s what the machine does best, slow roll over everything and everyone in order to enrich itself and crush that which stands in the way of ever increasing expansion, and the industries created to maintain it. Weee! Splat.
Perhaps the sanctions will be enough to send the incursion packing after they’ve done a few days of random, yet targeted shelling in Ukraine’s “contested” territories. I used quotes here as the only one contesting it is Putin, and his Colonial over reach across borders. Eating up another country bite by bite, like he did with Crimea. Carving up a smaller neighbour for the sake of expanding a border and reclaiming some semblance of the USSR’s control over the region. Talk about boomer energy. That’s some rose coloured, nostalgia heavy talk of returning to the past. But with heavy casualties, death and dismemberment.
On a lighter note, who wants icecream? Hard to make a segue into any topic after talk of war in Europe. But I tried, an attempt was made. So – big picture talk here. What to do with the house come Spring & Summer? I think i want to tackle the screen door again. Build one from scratch. The basement needs to get more reasonable air flow. I also invested in a bigger and better table saw late last year, and think i can do a much better job of it now, that how i did it before. Still going to be a challenge, but i think i can get it done this year! I’d also like to challenge myself to build either a table or a chair this year too. Just one chair, not a set. That sounds tedious to me. One off items are way more exciting to produce, as far as I’m concerned. Spring will also bring a new round of heavy cleaning, decluttering and a broken toy purge. Have tackled the girls closets for ill fitting clothes. Bigger kids stuff if not ruined goes to the youngest when she’s big enough for it, and clothes from older cousins & friends filter back into the older ones closet in a seemingly endless cycle. Glad for it too. Besides pant legs much of this stuff doesn’t see enough action under one kid to go into a landfill. What we don’t use/need goes to other family members in the surrounding area. I’d love to do one in one out, but sometimes that’s not the case. Swim suits get destroyed by the sun and chlorine and heavy use, so we couldn’t donate as many of those as we actually use. If you swim two or three times a day, as is the case with us during the summer, then they (swimsuits) disintegrate pretty rapidly. Girls get duck bum, as the elastic goes in the rear and a saggy duck tail appears in the fabric as it settles. Straps wear out, and whole thing sags, and then it’s just trashed after several months. Wouldn’t want to give that mess to someone else, that’s just rude.
Will need to look at my mower again this spring, see if I can convince the old girl to give me a sixteenth cutting season! Wash and clean the filters, new oil, blades sharpened, clean the spark plug, oil it up and hope for the best. Bought it in January of 2006, and has started by the second/third pull every single year since then. Doesn’t owe me much, but I’d be thankful if it kept going a few more years yet.
A taste of earlier today in this dad’s life. Sorting out laundry loads five and six. Which was the last scraps of the kids stuff, and my wife’s clothes. Then sorting out all the one off socks we seem to have accumulated. Stacks upon stacks of singular socks. Now I don’t know if the opposites have been lost, left behind places, developed holes and were thrown away, eaten or sacrificed to the washer and dryer, but I know this. One day I will go and buy bags upon bags of plain black and white socks, that fit my wife and daughters, and then I will never sort another sock again. You get 2 lbs of B&W socks, so do you and you too. I don’t want to pair, fold, stash another sock after that happens. Theme socks seem like such a good idea until no one can keep them together to get washed at the same time, or sorted and paired again after wearing them. I’ll wager good money a fair few socks are under beds throughout the house.
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