January Blah Busters

The dogs just kept sitting there on a snowbank next to the lane.  

Every time I walked by, I'd notice they had hardly moved a muscle since my last pass.

Finally, I said, "You two must be just as bored as I am."  

They just stared at me, still not moving. 

Usually, they are at least fiercely growling at each other over who owns a tiny piece of wood bark or maybe even a gargantuan piece of firewood, which Liam has dragged from the pile in the shed.

Heck, last week after a new snowfall, Liam had even figured out how to roll his piece of wood in the snow.  

He actually had a good start on a wood-filled snowman.

As one would expect with their "smartness," the dogs are usually pretty innovative at finding ways to constantly entertain themselves.  

Not yesterday afternoon----no, it had become very evident that these two dogs, Liam and Kiwi, had pretty much reached even the Border Collie point of January blahs.  

Meanwhile, Foster, who's decided playing in the slop is for the dogs, was lounging on one of the beds in the garage up at the house.  

Those mini-Aussies don't particularly like water, as Foster has clearly demonstrated when summer-time garden hose chasing/herding starts.  

He leaves.   

Plus, Foster's turned into kind of a wuss in his old age of 6. He prefers his comforts. 

Anyway, I just kept walking pretty much the same route over and over again. 

I'm pretty much restricted to walking the lane or the driveway or on the path around the house when outside with dogs. Woods are off limits for dogs.  

So . . . 

. . . Up the lane.  Down the lane.  Then, back up the lane I go.  I've also beaten down some paths going into the shed.  Those slight detours provide a mini diversion from my lane travels.  

And, there's a path over by the Meserve fenceline, but it ends abruptly where standing water under the snow begins.  

Yup, I had pretty much reached my point yesterday.  Winter and its gray and its slop are starting to get to me.  

Up to this point, I've fended off the perennial feelings of typical North Idaho LONG-winter frustration rather successfully this year, thanks to outside activities and to my new little horse. 

Nonetheless, two straight days of rain on snow has revived the annual feeling of endless imprisonment.  There's the house.  There's the barn.  There's the lane with the dogs. 

Occasionally, there's a trip to town to get supplies for the next eating fest. Yesterday it was gonna be chicken-salad wraps. 

Like a fool, I took my camera along in hopes of taking a photo or two.  The camera saw no action yesterday.  

Too ugly everywhere.  

Once home, I put away the salad supplies and headed outside into the rain.  I knew the Grammy's were coming around 4 p.m. and that I'd be sitting on the couch a lot longer than usual.  

So, the need  for this lifelong outdoor addict to get out there and exercise pushed me onward.   

Often, for some variety, I can lock the dogs in the garage and escape for a walk down the road, but this year, as I've mentioned frequently, the road has been so yucky that enjoyable walks are not an option. 

Speaking of down the road, while I was walking up and down our lane, my friend Janice organized her spices in alphabetical order. 

I know that she alphabetized her spice supply because we had some brief excitement in our long January afternoon.  

Someone had posted in "Selle Valley Neighbors" that a water main along Forest Siding road had broken and that water would be turned off at 5 p.m.  

Since neither of us knew if it would be the whole system shut down or if it would involve just the Forest Siding residences. 

So, Janice contacted me via text, and, as a "responsible" citizen, I also called a couple of other neighbors. That took up some time. 

Twas a lovely but brief diversion, albeit unnecessary.  At 5:04 p.m.---I know because I took another momentary diversion by looking at the clock----our water was still running inside, and it was still raining outside.  

I don't think we would have died of thirst yesterday.  Plus, we had taken time out of our busy schedules to fill our containers. 

I'm assuming after Janice and I texted back and forth about how ugly it was outside, she went back to her alphabetizing while I watched the end of a good movie about two young women imprisoned in Thailand. 

By then, I knew I'd made it through yet another blah-filled day.  Less than an hour remained for the Grammy's, and those wraps were gonna taste mighty good.  Plus, I would use up that hour preparing them----slicing lettuce, frying bacon, slicing bacon, etc. 

Once all the items went into the bowl, I took time out to put the horses in.  

With just seconds to spare, I loaded up my plate and headed to the Grammy's.  Bill wasn't far behind with his wrap. 

Thanks to the "Grammy's," I took a virtual escape to New York City and spent the next four hours enjoying the program.  Who cares if it's raining outside, and knowing we had running water----how does it get any better?

My most favorite performance of last night's program, among many, had to be the lady singing "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina."

What a voice and sung with such emotion but with such ease!  I will be thinking about that moment of incredible and beautiful music for a long time.

When the song ended, Bill commented that opera singers and Broadway singers certainly do have the voices. Yup, they do. 

This morning, it's dark and gloomy out there once again, but so far, it's not raining.  Plus, Bill and I have plotted a contingency plan for this afternoon if the rain starts again. 

In the meantime, I'm sure the dogs and I will take up where we left off yesterday, trying, sometimes in vain, to amuse ourselves out there along the lane, but the practice does lessen the blahs a tiny bit.  

And, at this point in this endless month of endless North Idaho winter, every little bit counts. 

As does a strong dose of resilience or a whole lot of spices!

Happy Monday.