We woke up on this Saturday morning to overcast skies releasing a gentle flurry of flakes. Already, more cream cheese frosting snow covers the angular icy sharp edges of the landscape, and the weather channel announced a winter weather watch through Monday. I was a bit surprised; guess I’ve not been paying much attention to the weather lately. But last week, the temps seemed warmer; I could smell spring as the snow melted and revealed the flat brown mashed terrain of early spring earth. And the snow melted really quickly with daily doses of sun, even through the temperatures stayed below freezing for the most part.  But it’s Wisconsin and it’s still February, so truly, anything can happen. Time continues to accelerate — seems to me that winter is speeding by and in a flash the tulips and daffodils will poke through. But we’ve had nice-sized storms in March before, and even April. Once we had a weak snowfall on May 1st some years back.

It’s an odd day because there is nowhere to go and nothing special to do — nothing on the calendar. No one has reserved a time slot to view the house, so we don’t have to vacate for an hour here or there. We have no excuse to go look at condos or small houses for sale. No social engagements scheduled. It feels strange. Our lives are usually so programmed and busy. It feels good to just hang out. So, I opened the box containing my new table-top computer and am spending the day transferring files. I spent some time on the treadmill this morning; we ate a lovely big salad for lunch; I’m making homemade bean soup; and I have some work to do on the taxes. We are having a quiet companionable day at  home. What a treat! And we’ve decided probably not to go see Scorsese’s new movie which is getting lukewarm reviews — Shutter Island. We might go see Avatar in 3D; we’ve already seen it once. But I’ve never seen a 3D film so today might be it. Or later today, we might just watch a movie download from Netflix or amazon. And I might do another LOST episode on the treadmill.

Watching DVDs while I walk motivates my treadmill time.  I’m watching LOST5 this week, and have arrived at the part in the storyline where several of the Oceanic 6 realize that they are back on the island as they had hoped, but not in present time — they have somehow ended up in 1977 when the Dharma Initiative is in full swing. I noticed the embroidered peasant tops, the 70s hair, and heard the 70s rock music in the background. I began to wonder what it would feel like to end up back in the 70s if you weren’t planning to do that. In the 70s, I was in my 20s, some might say in my prime. Wouldn’t everyone love to relive that chunk of their lives when they looked the best they’ll ever look, when they are as free and unencumbered as they’ll ever be? My gut response to that question was NO… I would never want to go back, to relive any of those old bikini years. As much fun as I remember it was to be really thin and agile, energetic and able to backpack, rock-climb, hang-glide, and dance on tables… no thanks; I’m fine in the present, limited to remembering the past not returning to it.

Compared to the number of books I’ve read in my life, and the number of movies I’ve seen, there is only a very tiny percentage of books I’ve read more than once, or movies I’ve seen more than once. There is so much else to see and do that returning to something I’ve already seen and done holds little appeal. That doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy looking at my photo albums. Quite the contrary. But thinking about moving back to West Palm Beach or to Niamey, Niger, or anywhere in Africa, or returning to any of the towns/villages/cities I’ve lived in in the past… is not something I’d consider, I guess. Except maybe Syracuse NY, but that would be another post. And traveling back in time – there’s a lot of that in fiction and I really cannot imagine why it would be interesting to anyone. Because anyway, they say you can’t change anything when you go back in time. If you could. Go back in time.