Where has the summer gone?
Seems just yesterday I was seeing the first green on the trees, planting starts in my garden and waiting for those first flowers to break through the crusty soil. This summer has been a short one, in my mind, but I hear that time feels shorter as you get older, which I'm about to do in about five days with my big birthday milestone, when the 40's begin.
I don't feel 40. Heck, I don't feel 30. I don't know what age I feel, really, but I do know that 40 isn't as scary as everyone makes it out to be. I guess the next one to look forward to is 65, when the senoir discounts kick in. I'm going to milk that for all it's worth.
In other news, I'm still looking for a great full time job in the Boulder, CO area, and the market seems to be bouncing back a bit. I've had some interviews, at least, and some positive results. If I reach Christmas while still unemployed, it will have been two years without a job. Two years of being reaaalllly frugal, and creative at finding enough income from freelancing, selling off some things and trading garden vegetables for whatever I can use.
I'm so grateful that I wasn't already in debt when I got laid off. I can't imagine what stress it would be to have mortgages, car loans and credit cards to pay every month. I am lucky to have a partner who also has no debt, and is as crafty as I at finding income, and also loves to cook from scratch with our garden produce, and preserve some to last us through the winter. Sometimes I think we're just practicing for the zombie apocalypse/2012/end of the world, in which case we've got another couple of years of this before it all goes to hell.
Sometime in the next few days, I need to harvest all of the remaining food from the garden before the frost hits. Our little indian summer here has extended the season a bit, and with the help of some plastic and PVC, our hoops are keeping some of the plants warm and safe long past when they'd normally die off. So the climate change has been good to us, at least this year.
And even if next spring brings too much rain again, or the dreaded hail, the same hoops will protect them again. It's amazing what a thin sheet of plastic can do for your survival in hard times. I feel like losing my job took away a layer of protective coating, and I'd like it back, so that I feel safe again from the storms. I've said that my garden is just a metaphor for my life - at least I've learned patience and planning are neccesary to get through the hard parts. It's the grasshoppers and gophers I still have trouble with. But the coming freeze will put those to rest, at least until the new green shoots arrive in six months.
Time to rest the garden, and focus on other things for a while...like chopping firewood. Soon the first fire will be lit to warm us, and we'll switch from mostly gas cooking to wood. Strange, but I'm *almost* looking forward to the first snow. Not yet, though...after my birthday will be fine. Just another couple weeks of sunshine, please!
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