Jul
27
It has been raining a lot here this summer, as it has in many places across the country from what I gather. The rain makes it hard to get motivated to do anything. It’s dark, and overcast, and the gloomy light makes it very tempting to just curl up under the covers and go back to sleep for a day or ten.
But we can’t, because of That Baby over there. *points*
It’s not easy for her either. She’s used to going for walks outside and getting some fresh air and diversion in the course of a day. And recently, I have strained the muscles in my shoulder or neck, or pinched a nerve or something, which makes the use of my left arm a painful proposition — so where I would normally get up and dance around with her, or play ball with her, or just roughhouse around on the floor, I can’t do any of those things with her very much. So she’s been a bit of a couch potato, with endless DVDs on to entertain her.
And she’s bored.
I don’t know any other stay at home moms locally with whom I could arrange play dates or the like — at least if there were other kids to play with or other places to go, being inside would not be so bad. Stinkerbelle’s only just starting to get to the age where playing with other kids is interesting to her, but she likes to be around other kids. Mostly right now she just sits and shouts excitedly at them. Or gets WAY too far into their personal space. But it would be nice for her.
And me — well, I’m not the sort of person that does well with the whole neighbourhood chatty mom thing. Around here, it seems to be a lot of the “Oh, hi, aren’t little Kaitlyn/Katelyn/Katelynn/Caitlyn/Caitlin/Emma/Emily/Emmalee/Emmaleigh and Aiden/Caden/Brayden/Jaden/Jackson/Jaxon/Jaxxon ADORABLE! I LOVE your stroller! Is that a Chariot? It fits great in a Ford Subdivision, doesn’t it? Aren’t Ford Subdivisions GREAT? We have TWO!!” kind of thing. There’s some money, there’s conspicuous consumption, and there seems to be a lot of talk about it. And we have neither the money NOR the conspicuous consumption, which would make our chats run more along the lines of “Oh hai…” as I tried to shove our ratty Kijiji-bargain stroller — which, of course, does NOT fit into the trunk of my rusting 12-year-old beater car — behind my back.
(Note: If we had buckets of money, rest assured I would be THE QUEEN of conspicuous consumption. I mean, I would buy EVERYTHING. AND another one in BLUE. And then? I would talk about it ALL. THE. FRICKING. TIME. So, you know, if someone out there wants to give us lots of money, I would TOTALLY rock that. I’m just sayin’.)
Plus, our house is fairly tiny, and all vertical spaces instead of horizontal spacious rooms — so inviting a group of kids and parents over here to play is not going to happen. Our playroom, containing toys, a TV, and a chair, and our kitchen are both fairly small, and comfortably would hold maybe another mom and a couple of kids — provided we took shifts on the chair. So playgroups will not be happening at this house anytime soon.
So it’s just the two of us. And we’re getting tired of the rain.
The constant threat of rain in the forecast has really dampened my enthusiasm for going out. Right now, it’s bright and sunny, but the forecast is partly sunny, with increasing cloudiness and calls for the possibility of rain. So, does that mean if I start out on a walk with That Baby, the clouds will roll in as we’re walking, and we’ll get an hour from the house and suddenly get rained on? If it were 25 degrees out, the rain would at least be warm. But when it’s 16 degrees, the rain will be cool, and That Baby getting a chill is NOT my idea of a good time.
Because being stuck indoors with a baby with a cold is SO. MUCH. FUN. Um, I’m hedging my bets, thankyouverymuch.
And also, with the constant damp, I have to ask — Is there anyone else out there who is totally fricking paranoid about the mosquitoes and West Nile virus? No? It’s just me, then? Damn. Oh well.
There are things I actually quite like about the rain, though. For example, it’s not stiflingly hot and humid like it is most summers. It’s still humid, so we are still running our A/C bytimes, but we can set it much higher and save ourselves money compared to much summers. Also, I don’t have to water my garden. And if we were at a cottage, it would actually be quite restful.
But we are not. We are in our tiny house in the middle of Suburbiaville. And the rain is bumming me out.
