Time for Vitamin D

Along with an image of the upcoming weather forecast, showing "rain," "rain," "rain," "rain," a Facebook friend suggested last night that it might be time to get the Vitamin D bottle. 

While walking through the barnyard this morning with the pitchfork loaded with flakes of hay, my boots broke through the once hard surface a few times and sank into some soft, squishy ground.

It's always nice to have those wide boards out there in slop land when this time of the year comes.

Before sitting down at the computer just now, I opened the window really wide.  First time in a few months, I've had to do that.

Heck, I may even take off the sweater I'm wearing before this post is completed cuz it's warm up here. 

Looks like we've reached that transition season where we like it to be warm, but then again we don't.  We like the rain cuz it washes away the snow, but then we hate it because everything turns to that squishy mud. 

And, of course, when it rains for four days straight, we won't be seeing a lot of sun.  So, Vitamin D might be a good idea.  

Or, in my case, I've always got the happy lamp which my Seattle-ite daughter gave me a few years ago, based on her own gloomy-day experiences.

Haven't had to use it for a couple of years, but it sits here, ready for when the gloomy, dark, wet days weigh heavily upon my moods.

Yesterday, I found a way to spend a good block of time outside of the house while the rain fell steadily.  We have a covered deck, which has been pretty messy looking all winter. 

So, cleaning the deck, including the barbecue grill which had been loaded down under its lid with Christmas cookies and pumpkin dessert from October,  kept me breathing fresh air and happily busy for about an hour.  

While working on my deck project, I enjoyed watching wet dogs slogging back and forth through the standing water or sitting on top of that diminishing pile of snow that falls off the roof north of the deck.

Why don't dogs know enough to come in out of the rain?

I also did a little work in the greenhouse, preparing another tray for potting soil and some transplanting. The card table in a space between the kitchen and the dining room table will serve as a potted-plant area with light coming through the sliding-glass door.

Word came yesterday that my geranium seeds are on their way.  So, there's a tray, ready and waiting for their arrival.  From now on until everything moves to the greenhouse in early April, the card table garden and the window garden will get a lot of attention. 

Of course, this need for Vitamin D will be short-lived as next weekend my sisters and I will be in the land of sun.  I'll save the details until later, but from what I've read, we should be dealing with dry weather, bare ground and low 70s for a couple of days.  

That will be nice. 

I'm sorta happy about this weather because of some stacks sitting down there on the kitchen counter, waiting for my attention.  That would be the income-tax preparation stacks! 

Fortunately, this year we have only one business (my writing business) eligible for deductions. It won't take long to tally up the Staples/Wal-Mart receipts and computer/photography/travel expenses. 

That's the good news. The bad news is the unknown:  how much will we pay this year?

Oh well, simplicity of preparation has a way of diminishing one kind of stress, while sticker shock presents another kind of absolute stress with no time needed for thinking about it except for how to fit that large amount of numbers in the small space on the check.

Owe. Owe. That's when I'll probably need the happy lamp.  

So, here we are on a wet February 6 in the full-throttle mode of slop season, but we still have reasons to smile and no need for Vitamin D this morning, thanks to that nail-biting win last night when the ZAGS took on a hungry-for-upset Santa Clara. 

At times, I could hardly take a breath while watching that late game where the Broncos gave it their all in an intense effort against the ZAGS.  

We could watch a lot of those kinds of games down the stretch, but so far, so good.  And as the rain continues to fall, let's hope the ZAGS brighten our day with another victory tomorrow. 

Happy Friday.