Our first summer in Dillingham I took on a side job, writing novel guides for teachers to use. The company that I worked for gave me a demanding schedule to complete the work. Thus, I found my otherwise open summer interspersed with a number of deadlines.
The deadlines and the Dillingham weather did not always cooperate. Numerous times that summer I found myself sitting inside writing when it was a nice day outside. New to Dillingham, I told myself, “Oh, well there will be plenty of other nice days. I’ll get out exploring then.” I finished the novel guide at the beginning of July and was itching to get outside… just as the weather changed to rain for three weeks straight. Stuck inside, hardly knowing anyone in town yet, I got a mild case of cabin fever.
It took another year for the lesson to fully sink in, but I learned that when the weather is good, I should drop my to do list and get outside.
This lesson informed my actions this weekend. Temperatures have been quite low this past month. It was -20 for two weeks straight. At zero degrees, I can bundle Will up and get out for a walk, at -20 I get a bit nervous about the cold. Last weekend we stayed inside nearly the whole weekend. By Sunday cabin fever was creeping in and we were all a bit grumpy.
Luckily, this past Thursday night we got three inches of fluffy snow. The sun came out and Friday warmed up to a balmy 30 degrees. With Kyle out of town this weekend, my to do list was quite long. Will and the two dogs need to be looked after. The chores that Kyle usually does over the weekend (vacuuming, cat litter, snow removal. etc.) all needed to get done. I had brought home a bag of materials to do some lesson planning. However, when I saw that it would be warm and sunny with fresh snow, I decided that I could squeeze the to do list in after baby bedtime. Friday night I went out for a sunset ski with my friend. Saturday afternoon I traversed the tundra with another friend. Sunday holds plans for another ski.
There’s the expression, “make hay while the sun shines.” I’m living my own version, “Ski when it snows and stroll when there’s sun.”
Beautiful pictures and wonderful post, Erika! So happy that weather is easing so, outside activities are possible. We should all find our own personal version of “make hay while the sun shines” and incorporate it into our lives, we would all be much happier. Love to all!