AN HOUR LOST IS NEVER REGAINED

 The recent damnable but inevitable clock change took me by surprise this time around. I had completely forgotten about it.

Fortunately, I was prepared. I refused to turn my clocks back an hour last fall - - so consequently I didn't have to turn them ahead this time.

Springing an hour ahead means that we lost an hour, doesn't it? Hell, if I subtracted all the precious hours I lost in my life (for one reason or another) I'd be timeless.
Ponder that for awhile. It might get profound.

I've been under such an enormous amount of stress lately (for endlessly complicated reasons that I won't go into) that I've been plagued with panic attacks and dizzy spells. Nothing new here. I've suffered from similar anxieties my entire life.

Last Friday morning, when I first got out of bed, I was seized by a combination dizzy spell and panic attack - which was compounded by the fact that I  didn't have my glasses or contact lenses, so I couldn't see a damn thing.

I unceremoniously crashed into a bookcase and everything came tumbling down: cheap Chinese vases, brass trinkets from India.....and, of course, books. A ton (or so it seemed) of dust-covered books that I hadn't read in years.

I was hit in the head with the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. 
Lying there dazed amongst the clutter, I decided that it could have been worse. I could have been clobbered by Ayn Rand or Dostoevsky.

Fortunately nothing was broken - - except my pride...and perhaps my will to live.
The three cats gathered 'round and looked surprised.

As if my poor excuse for a life wasn't tainted with enough problems, the almost-springlike weather has vanished and winter has returned with a vengeance. Howling winds, bitter cold, ice, and a semblance of snow.

I desperately needed to get to my mailbox this morning. The accumulating ice, frozen mud, impenetrable slush, and falling snow made it impossible to use the car.
So I walked. As usual. It was frigid and beyond miserable. By the time I crawled back up the mountain to my shack, I was nearly frozen and on the verge of passing out.

Safely (??) back inside, I suddenly realized that I couldn't feel my feet. I pried my muddy boots off carefully, hoping that a collection of frozen toes wouldn't tumble out.
They didn't.

In the muddled void of my shivering contemplation (whatever that means), I realized that losing an hour might not be a bad thing after all. It will bring me an hour closer to July, when hopefully the ice will thaw out.

A view this morning from my back porch.

P.S.

I'm way behind in reading blogs lately. But I'm thinking of you. 

RAINBOW AFTERNOON

"Don't you just love those rainy afternoons in New Orleans when an hour isn't just an hour - but a little piece of eternity dropped into your hands - and who knows what to do with it?"

I'm saying that with my best Blanche DuBois southern accent - 
and I'm in a state of delectable melancholy, perpetuated by a rain-soaked afternoon in which I am selfishly languishing, accompanied by a cozy cup of steaming tea and the contented purring of several lazy cats.

Occasionally I resort to cheap theatrical tactics, in order to annoy my critics. 

Rainy afternoons were made to indulge in languishing, and today I made the most of it. The temperatures are mild, the cold bite of winter is a thing of the past. Everything outside is sprouting green and some of the trees are almost starting to bloom. I'm slowly but surely emerging from my seasonal cocoon.

I'll never get used to the infuriating clock change - which is one of the most ridiculous and annoying inconveniences ever inflicted upon mankind. It serves no discernible purpose. 

In early evening the rain stopped, the clouds parted, and a spectacular rainbow appeared in the golden light of the setting sun.

 
I pulled on my boots, grabbed my El Cheapo camera and ran outside to capture the spectacle for posterity. The rainbow was already fading over the house.  I happened to see the tail of it glowing beyond the trees in the meadow by the cow field.

Despite the mud and the strong possibility of falling on my ass (again), I bounded over to the meadow and managed to snap a few pictures before it disappeared.

 

 Unfortunately, there was no pot of gold at the end of this rainbow (believe me, I looked).

My other blog:
http://cabinetofcurioustreasures.blogspot.com