Happy New Year(?!)

Happy new year!

Right, you're thinking 'well, this nastyass season has done him in. Ol' Rog' has snapped his twig this Winter'. (And who's to say he hasn't--especially referring to himself in the third person like this..) But still-as far as I'm concerned, the year begins in March. Meteorological Spring is my calendar January, regardless of whether we have Spring-like conditions. 

The month of March has always been when the year starts to take shape. It's when I start planning things, mapping them out for the year ahead. I can't seem to do that in January or February, even if they're mild months. They still belong to Winter, the dark season. They're just months to get through. 

I've always hated the Winter- the cold temperatures, having to wear multiple layers of clothing and still freeze my ass off! Having to take an extra 15-20 minutes every morning to warm up the vehicle, and usually scrape ice from the windows. Then negotiating out into the snow and getting stuck. 

Let's see- did I leave anything out? Oh yes(my mind is already starting to file this stuff in a back drawer, but..)2 items: a nasty cold for about 3 weeks this Winter; and an equally nasty fall on the ice in January, which left me very sore on my right side for a couple weeks in there. 

So yeah,  those are not enjoyable months for me. It's a grit-yer-teeth-and-just-get-through-it sort of time. Survival mode. Thus the year begins for me when I can slide up a notch on Maslow's Hierarchy of Human Needs. Until then I'm just putting one foot in front of the other. 

After working a series of dayjobs(as we musicians call them)--3 months as a Fast Food Worker, 4 1/2 years as a bank employee, and 22 years with the State--I retired from all that last June. It's been nice, particularly the Summer and Fall. 

The thing about working a dayjob is that it's just that: a job worked during the day because you're not making enough just playing(and/or teaching)music--or whatever your Art is. You're doing something outside your field, and you've got someone telling you what to do and how to do it. And it may well be something you'd really rather not do if you didn't have to. So, with all that going for it, your dayjob is often something you want to get over and done with. You want to get through it. 

I can't tell you how many days I just wanted to get through in my working years. Days I just wanted to crawl in one end and out the other , and then out the door. Each week after awhile was a Pilgrimage to Friday, a quest to the weekend. And every weekend consisted of Two Sacred Days, days I'd have waited for all week, and once they were here, hoarded like a little kid's new toy. 

So many days in there just traversed through, so much time just clocked in and out of. Looking back at it, I guess it was less-than-ideal in that I worked a job I didn't love(even though I made the best of it, and did have some decent times in there) but I do accept the trade-off that not doing what I wanted for all those years enabled me financially to break free of its shackles at a relatively young age. And a resolve from here on in not to half live any more days if I can help it. 

Not that one should turn into a carpe diem zealot and try to pack all the intensity one can into every day. You become like that nut on the commercial for--well actually there are too many examples for this one! Best to let your days be what they want to be. Some will be better than others of course, but they're still all Saturdays. I try to take 'em one at a time anymore. 

Must admit, though, this works best in Spring, Summer and Fall. I tried to apply this approach to our soon-to-be-preceding season, and did enjoy a few days in there. But it's still something like the old work-week, which I just wanted to be over and done with. 

So that's my conundrum I guess. Winter still sucks.