April!

Touch Me Not

It's April. More than just taxes or the end of winter tourist season. April is not spring flowers if you live in the mountains. April is suppose to be beautiful but it is not. One day winter and the next spring. And winds through it all.

No place you live can be paradise every day and if it were I am sure it would be boring. The New Mexico mountains suit me most times. I even enjoy winter mostly. And summer is never too hot. But I hate April and November. It is not just the weather or I would conspire like many of my friends to vanish during these two pivotal months. It is maybe that they vanish when so much needs to be done. Or that so much needs to be done I cannot vanish.

Or maybe that I feel there should be nothing to do in April and November. Not the case. There is taxes. And rotation of art in various exhibits. Or getting another painting done for the next show. Or no money left after the taxes, getting prints for the last show, etc.

Diets begin in April and November - let's get rid of that winter weight or not put any on this winter.

In April we realize nothing has changed in spite of the results of the last election and in November we realize our votes meant nothing.

April and November are mud and flood seasons.

This April I have looked out over my property and the surrounding hills and realized there is no snow to melt. And am reminded it has been so long since a flood down my little creek I question its survival.

To this April fate has added the cataracts. I think I would have preferred the slow growing types but I have never done anything normally and nobody gave me a choice.

April seems to be about no choices. Death and Taxes conundrum. For the rest of the world the death rate goes up in February. Here it seems to be April. As if everyone was just going to make it through winter. Mardi Gras did. I remembering looking out on the property in November and wondering if I should did a hole before the ground froze just in case. She is 14 and in ill health. I didn't and now the ground is thawed. I should begin garden prep. But Monday my dentist of twenty plus years had a massive stroke. They are closing the office.

That is the other thing which happens in April (and November). Businesses close and couples file for divorce. Our three mechanic town is now down to two. It was a poor ski season and no doubt many of our business owners on their April escape with taxes are debating whether or not to continue. In a good year they are hiring contractors to make improvements. No doubt summer will mean fewer contractors too.

Yes, we survived the winter. But will be survive April.

Comments

  1. Ien in the KootenaysApril 11, 2014 at 5:24 PM

    Breakup season. In serious snow country it deserves a name of its own. Ground clear, where we are, can be any time from early March to late April. I am with you on skipping breakup or November. Dana Stabenow makes it a factor in one of her great Kate Shugak crime novels, set in Alaska. Do you read her?

    ReplyDelete
  2. JBinford-BellApril 11, 2014 at 6:33 PM

    No I have not read her. Will look her up. But I did read a novel after visiting Alaska which dealt with the tension caused by the ice before it broke up. The writer was great with descriptions about the sound the ice made.

    ReplyDelete

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