WEEP AND YOU WEEP ALONE!

I felt quite lethargic during the first part of the week.  Having spent most of Sunday not doing very much at all, I realised that I had to pull myself out of the 'doldrums' that come with the first crisp leaf of autumn; the leaf that cancels summer!  The clocks had 'gone back' at home, but we had another week before ours officially denounced the long days, and brighter nights.  The chill in the air was enough to let us know that 'this is it' for the lazy weekends.  


Why I bemoan the end of a season is bewildering, as it does not take long before the year heads towards its completion, and another one starts, bringing forth spring, and ultimately summer.  The circle of life.  Perhaps I am bemoaning my own mortality!  This was a troubling realisation.  However, I decided that mirth would be more fitting than despondency, and an effort to regain my youthful sense of merriment should be reconstituted, despite the inevitable demise of another twelve months and my equally inevitable aging!

Sarcasm is not usually understood in these parts, and humour is definitely different.  We decided to 'push the boat out' on Sunday evening, and treat ourselves to some barbecue.  Pok-e-Jo's is quite the Texas smokehouse and retains the traditional atmosphere and equally important menu.  When we walked in and the man behind the counter announced they were "All out of meat", I believed him. People around these parts don't mess with barbecue!  My face must have been quite the picture, as I looked at Dana, and made a 'hmm' sound.  After all, where would I go, dressed in jeans, cowboy boots and a Stetson!  "Only messing with y'all", added the carver.  "What d'y'all want?  We have everything!"  A smile was back on my face.  However, the unusual joking episode had thrown me, and my speech became rather confused.  "A two plate meat please", said I to a confused server.  "A two meat plate", came the voice of my husband.  "Sure thing, ma'am" was the response; to me, not Dana!  "What kinda sauce, ma'am?" asked the lady who is usually the cashier.  Again, my usual ease of linguistics became tainted.  "Not the spicy kind", I answered.  "Regular?" asked the lady. I nodded.  I had spent too long indoors on Sunday, and the lack of exercise, and 'end of season' sluggishness, had produced a very disorientated me! Viewing the options for 'sides', my decision was even more surprising than my speech.  "Cherry cobbler, please", I announced with a sense of shock.  I do not like the choice of desserts, especially cobbler, as it is not crumble, nor is it pie, but Pok-e-Jo's does a great cherry cobbler!  

Food is something that always comes up in the 'great divide' set of differences.  "What do you miss?"  This side of the Atlantic it is Yorkshire Pudding, fish and chips.  Coronation Street. (A British soap opera that is the same age as me!) Sarcasm! (Not that I was being sarcastic about missing Coronation Street!)  When I am home, it is Texas barbecue, Tex-mex, swimming!  Now, I shall have to add Pok-e-Jo's cherry cobbler!  Of course, not all Texans are meat lovers, and for them, there is the Catfish palour!  Fish and chips it aint, but then I am not a born and bred Texan!  However, I digress!

We stood at the counter, and the lady who posed the 'sauce' question, once again became the cashier.  Dana commented on how the 'banana pudding' was 'just like momma used to make', and the lady said that no one makes anything 'from scratch', anymore.  I announced that I did!  I told her the story of how someone was asking me how to make a cake, and did it require oil.  I said that some cakes were made with oil, but I used butter.  The conversation continued with said person telling me that they wanted to make a cake 'from scratch', and the recipe included oil.  "We looked at the recipe on the side of the box....".  The lady at the till looked, then realised what I had said, and without cracking a smile, or changing her expression said, "I get it.  That was their idea of 'from scratch'.  That is just too funny".  Was my lethargy catching?  Not a glimmer of a grin?  Is 'too funny' no longer funny at all?  Oh dear.  Winter is upon Texas!

All lethargy aside, it was a wonderful meal, and I was ready to go 'another round' on Monday, which was possible due to the Texas size portions and inevitable left overs!  

There were a lot of 'left overs' in the office on Monday.  Samantha had brought in some cakes from her party.  We were actually late for work again, mainly due to the lack of commitment to leave my house by the two quadrupeds who have found that chasing each other around my living room is far preferable to sitting in the back seat of the car!  Dachshunds are fast! They also mimic cockroaches in their ability to change directions, in that they can 'turn on a dime' in an instant!  Impossible to catch, distraction was our next alternative but this, too, was ineffective! Eventually, we caught one, and relied on the older dog to think he was being left behind, by us exiting the house, causing him to run to the door and failing to realise it was a trap!  If nothing else, it provided a bit of well needed exercise for me!

My lunchtime walk was completed in record time, as the wind and rain set in just before I set out. Ponchos were donned and a quick sprint made me feel as if I had earned my small portion of cherry cobbler that awaited me when I got home!  Comfort food is never more comforting than on a cold day.  Cold it was not, but neither was it hot.  

Lethargy was in full swing by Tuesday morning.  I did not feel like doing anything!  I thought about preparing a dessert for Wednesday, but decided that I would make an apple pie, which needed little advanced preparation.  I stood over a cup of coffee wondering what I should do.  Eventually, I pulled myself together and set about cleaning my fridge, and checking the contents of my freezer.  No wonder I felt lethargic!  I could not even find the energy to 'create'. It was a sorry state of affairs, and I desperately wanted to break out of the rut I had imposed upon myself.  After all, I am constantly telling everyone how I have a 'new life' and new 'sense of adventure'.  If everything had been reduced to an 'adventure around the inside of my fridge-freezer', my 'new life' does not solicit much interest!  Things would have to change.  My attitude would have to change.  I wanted 'too funny' to be funny again!

Freezing, literally freezing, overnight temperatures came with a vengeance on Wednesday.  I covered my plants with a sheet, came back inside and turned the air conditioner to heating.  Although I knew it was going to be a temporary measure, I still felt a little sad.  It was still October.  Perhaps our winter would be in October this year!  In fact, the overnight low dropped to below freezing, and Thursday morning we noticed that the grassy areas were covered with frost!  

Samantha was dressed very warmly.  It was Halloween, so she had on a onesy, which was a full Buccee Beaver suit.  She joined me for a walk, where I wore two 'hoodies', and she a tail!  "Do you think anyone will laugh at me?" she asked.  I replied that this is Austin, and even if it was not Halloween, no one would laugh at her!  However, they may laugh at me!  Most everyone we met were dressed as something.  We encountered witches, and fairies and wizards and goblins.  I looked something of an outcast!  Amazingly enough, we did not see one child on our travels, just adults who thought it appropriate to go to work dressed in fiendish attire.  Where was my sense of fun?  It had died with summer!  Most of the pumpkins that had been put out on the lawns of gardens we passed had been eaten, presumably by the squirrels, and the decorations that had been slung around trees, had been detached in the high winds that had caused the minus temperatures to feel even more minus!  

I do not think anyone knocked on our door on Thursday evening.  We are the 'killjoys' and as the original plan for the condominium complex was for that of a retirement community, I believe we have a clause in our bylaws about no 'trick or treat' calling.  Of course, the 'retirement' community faded away, being mere mortals, and the original plan died with the original occupants.  Still, the bylaw remains in place.  However, as the evening was so cold, it appears that not many ventured out.  Samantha had fewer callers than usual, despite last year's thunder storms.  Costumes cannot be seen under thick coats, and thick coats would have been needed to be worn!

Friday was again cold.  Freezing in fact.  A fact!  However, I was starting to come out of the straight faced, lethargic mood.  I wanted to laugh at 'made from scratch' stories.  I wanted to feel like summer was back again, and embrace humour as if it were not the end of the 'world', or is that merely 'year'.  The sun was at least shining.  

Dana was in good humour on Friday morning.  He started to tell Grant about how the reindeer was called something else, but he was adopted by a Russian family and called Rudolph.  I seized the opportunity, and corrected the tale.  It was fiction.  Of course!  He was called Bartholomew, or Bart for short, but Santa, who went by his known name, Christopher Simpson, could not register him, as the name 'Bart Simpson' was already taken!  The actual reindeer was from Sweden.  His name was Rood Ulf.  The Russian connection came in when people thought it was 'red' Ulf.  Again, fiction!  Also the story that Bartholomew was actually a 'rude elf' that was made to dress up, was also fiction.  Grant laughed heartily. I laughed too.  In fact, I could not stop, and it felt good!  "How does she do it?" Grant asked Dana, regarding my ability to make up a story 'on a dime'.   I was back!  Lethargy was as dead as summer, or at least for another year!

By Saturday, I felt as if I was ready to take on the world, before it ended, or at least the rest of the year!  Steph had requested we look for some 'sale' dressing up clothes for the boys, as Ollie had grown out of his, and anything 'super hero' would be appreciated.  We spent about an hour in the 'costume' section of Walmart, loading up a trolley and then transferring what we actually wanted into another cart.  We then headed for a second Walmart and did the same!  Ollie will have super hero clothes, if not powers, once more!  Our trip to the warehouses were full of joy and laughter, and by the time I came home, the merriment had returned in full swing!  

An extra hour's worth of sleep really is not an hour gained!  After all, what do we do with the extra hour.  Sleep!  Dana and I enjoyed breakfast, and then I settled down to type, after spending a long time watching Ollie, through the phone, set up his racing track, and explain how the helicopter was going to rescue people from the fire station!  A five year old's imagination holds no bars!    

Cherry Cobbler will probably never be on my list of favourite recipes to make 'from scratch', but I shall certainly have something on my list for Tuesday to prepare for Wednesday.  Despite resisting sarcasm, (which I am told is the lowest form of wit, but when you are the perpetrator and not the receiver, it seems funny,) my sense of humour, no matter how odd it appears at times, does appear to have returned, and my energy levels restored.  I doubt that I shall be off for a long walk, or even a short one this afternoon, but I shall not be sitting bemoaning my existence, or sitting at all!  Life is for living and I plan to do some of that, somehow, somewhere, this afternoon.  As for what, well, that is ........... another story!