Musings from Marilyn

Archive for February, 2010

For the past week or so here in the Pacific Northwest, we’ve have the most spectacularly gorgeous weather!  Atypical brilliant sunshine and warm, balmy temperatures.  The plants are budding, the lawn is growing, and the pollen is flying!  This has created quite a dichotomy in me, and has me a bit befuddled.  It’s weird watching the Winter Olympics when it feels like spring.  Of course, Vancouver B.C. is having the same kind of weather so it makes it even stranger.  It is typical El Nino year weather.

The allergy season has now begun at least 2 months earlier than normal.  The swollen eyes, sinus pressure, sneezing, and skin rashes have made a reappearance in me, as well as a lot of others.  I am hoping that we will get it done and over with now, and won’t have to put up with it again when it actually is spring!  There is always a trade-off, it seems.

I have been taking advantage of the great drying weather by using my clothesline once again.  It feels good to have outdoor-dried laundry…and oh, the sweet smell!  It dries so much faster outside, and gives me a reprieve by ridding my house of the indoor drying racks temporarily.

Still, for those of us who are used to months and months of dark, cloudy, gray, rainy days it is quite a transition.  Some of us don’t know how to react to so much sunshine.  Are we supposed to be all happy now?  We don’t have the excuse of gloomy weather if we are in a grumpy mood!  I have been walking every day… no sitting out for bad weather lately either.

My lawn is growing, well…like a weed.  My neighbors have been out in full force for weeks, mowing their lawns dutifully.  I have managed to elude this by just not mowing quite yet.  I usually enjoy the respite I get in winter from not mowing the lawn.  I am not ready to start the mowing process yet – it’s technically still winter.  So shaggy lawn it is.  Sorry, neighbors!

But this I know for sure – this too, shall pass.  Soon the more typical gray dankness will  envelope us.  So endure the glorious weather for a bit longer?  I guess I must.

~Marilyn

Valentine’s Day is right around the corner.  And, once again, the commercials for Valentine cards, flowers, jewelry…and even “heart-shaped” pizza are airing nonstop.  Much to my chagrin, there are two Valentine’s Day commercials that are sort of growing on me.  Good grief, I’m now getting emotionally uplifted from commercials!  Those copywriters must be working overtime.

The first is Jane Seymour’s “keep your heart open” ad for Kay Jewelers.  It shows her dreamily painting and designing her open-heart necklace, and telling that her mom always told her to “keep your heart open, and love will find a way.”  I know.  Kind of hokey.  But it actually touched something in me, and made me feel a little happier.  You know; sage wisdom from mom, dreamily designing and creating,  love, hope, and…jewelry.

The second is, of course…drum roll please…Hallmark!  This one is not overly schmaltzy, it just seems regular. Like for us normal folk who actually have lives in which we work, raise families, and keep house.  But something in it is so touching.  A little boy asks his mom who she’s going to give a valentine to…not to dad, but to her best friend who is always there, etc.  The mom tells him that would be dad, too.  The husband is so goofily disheveled, waggling his eyebrows at his wife putting the groceries away.  No candlelit dinner, no walking hand-in-hand on the beach, no gazing into each others eyes.  Just happily dealing with normal day-to-day life.  You can just tell they are warm, genuine, fun, and are a team.  Incredibly romantic.

It’s sort of weird that there is this one day where everyone is “forced” to be romantic.  But who can resist a holiday that is all about love?  We can all be reminded of the words from Jackie DeShannon’s song, which have a lot of truth to them:

What the world needs now,
Is love, sweet love,
It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of.
What the world needs now,
Is love, sweet love,
No, not just for some but for everyone.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

~Marilyn