We had a very thick frost yesterday morning but I didn’t know it was there until I left the house at o dark thirty for Breakfast Club. At this time of the year it is dark as a pocket until about 7 or 7:30, so I wasn’t quite sure how things would be when I left early. Eddie did tell me there was frost and to be very careful. So I got ready to go, got out my trusty pocket LED flashlight I carry in my purse and set out. One of my many samples – it’s good to be a Promotional Advisor, so many lovely samples. I turn on the flashlight when I turn off the kitchen light – it is across the room from the back door. So there I was with just a flashlight, looking as if I am up to something nefarious. I locked the door and that’s another place the flashlight is handy. As I was going down the porch, I didn’t see much of anything, and the sidewalk was fine for a few steps. Then I saw the frost and thought it wasn’t as bad as Eddie had said. But what I noticed when I came to frost on the walk, was how it sparkled, like tiny diamonds. As I went further down there was more and more, and I saw the sparkles in the grass with white all around the blades. It was also damn cold!
As I backed out of the drive and turned into the street, I noticed the street was completely white. Now that was where I really had to watch it! It was also gorgeous as well. I could hear the crunch of the tires on the frost – it is so much like snow when it is fresh. When I got to the end of the street I had to make a fast left turn up the Top of a steep hill. Fortunately, someone had put thin ribbons of deicer or something on the street, so it wasn’t slick. Let me tell, doing the fast left turn with everything covered in snow is not that easy – it has kept many a driver on our street from getting out to the road. Anytime it snows, I do not go anywhere – after getting stuck on a hill twice in the snow, there is nothing that important that requires me to go out in it.
I had a few slopes, then up a steep hill and down the other side to get out to main road. Those ribbons made navigating the hills no problem. I had no trouble getting to the freeway, the cars had melted the frost so it was bare. When I got off in Kent, wow! There was a stretch of road I thought would be bare and wet, but it was white and as I was driving it looked as if it had snowed, the cars in the dealership were really covered with frost. Then shortly after I had gone farther down, the road was clear again. I wish I could have seen the frost in the day light, but there was also fog, so it was quite awhile before there was any sun and by then most of the frost was gone.
I know there are many people around the country and the world who are having a lot worse weather than we are. I was amazed I was so focused on how beautiful it was that I didn’t really think about being afraid of driving. I had that feeling this morning in the shower, I just felt so good with the hot water falling on me, warming me up and relaxing me. I could spend a long time in the shower – actually spent 35 minutes one morning in rehab. I was doing pretty well at that time and I could get out of the wheel chair and go into the walk in shower. Katrina told I could do my own washing on the bench and she had someone else in the other shower. I was enjoying the water and being clean again – only 2 showers a week. I am used to having a shower every day. I did pretty well, though every once in a while, she would call across the room “Are you washing?”. They were all like mother hens there, they took such good care of me and everyone else. They kept kidding me about wanting to spend time in the hot shower, so this particular morning I got spend more time than usual. So they had a great laugh about it and later when I went to breakfast, some residents were talking about someone who took a 35 minute shower. Sometimes it doesn’t take much to make me happy.
Now I find I am becoming more aware of what is around me, enjoying the moment and what I notice. It is definitely something I want to do more of and be more in the moment. I have spent too many decades focusing on what hurts or what I don’t have that I have taken all the blessing I have for granted.
I wanted to find photos of things that were similar to what I saw but I couldn’t find it. We had frost again this morning with fog, not as thick and I didn’t stop to take pictures because I had to get to my doc. (Good report – he doesn’t want to see me for 3 months. The longer between appointments means I am doing well.)
Tags: appreciation, Awareness, Frost, Shower, Snow
Gift of RA 
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