It started with a moment I had around noon this morning, then now around 6PM I am fully realizing how much has changed over the last year.

Anchorage is feeling a weekend of “Indian Summer”, that one last shot to feel like summer time.  It’s now 63°F (about our average for any day during July or August), sunny, and not a cloud in the sky.  Seeing the day clear up like that I had just one thought — “Crap, I am going to have to mow the lawn today”.  A year ago I would be packing up, strapping in, and making a run for the mountains.  It was a day like this that I visited Echo Bend for the first time, my favorite place to hike.  I would have gotten deep into the woods, high in the hills, and had me a grand old day.

You would think with all the rain we have been getting that the sun would put me in a good mood, but come on … what does a month of rain do to a lawn?  It also doesn’t help that you need to have dry grass to get a good mow, and that means you need not only a period of sun long enough for it be dry (which we haven’t been getting) but it has to line up when I am able to get the lawnmower out (bigger problem).  The only chance I had to mow since Mid-August was last sunday night, and a completely blue sky when I started was raining 40 minutes later (and I had only finished half of the back and none of the front).

So I had a crappy mood about the lawn, and for that matter what a year has become for me.

My attitude today has a lot of reasons.  Work is one, it’s been as tough of a run of work the last month as I have had since moving here, and having the first ‘day off’ in two weeks sounded really nice.  Plus I had a load of work to do tomorrow to meet a Monday deadline .. and to make my other Monday deadline, Tuesday deadline, two Thursday deadlines, and following week deadline possible.

Part of it is football related.  The game of the century of the week was on.

Part of it was how badly out of shape I have become.  I mentioned it a few months ago in the blog, but I really let myself go up here, and try as I might, I haven’t been able to round the corner.  That corner needs to be rounded or else some other things just aren’t going to be possible.

Part of it, though are good things.  Like I get to take the pup for a walk, something I couldn’t do last year at this time because … well … there was no pup.  So I was more than happy to spend a long morning with my cuddle buddy.

A year ago I DIDN’T have a lawn to gripe about. The bear cave is a great house for me.  I always wanted a good yard and a good lawn, something just not possible in the constant drought of Kansas.  Mowing it today was a pain, and I am sweaty, breathing hard, and covered in dirt — not to mention that the pup will be pukeing up grass he eats from my compost pile for the next couple of days.  But the smell of the fresh cut grass permeates the house, and makes it smell of the indian summer it is.

So yeah, I am not completely happy of what happened over a year, but there are somethings that make it worth it.