Memory - It Waves To You

Yesterday's post was number 2950! I'm getting towards post number 3000 and should hit that before the end of the year. Maybe I should bake a cake? LOL No, of course not. I'm just rather amazed that despite life and all it can throw, that I start my day out by jotting random thoughts down and putting them out there in cyberspace just for the heck of it. Crazy! But it's a good way to start the day and at least I'm still writing something, even if it is random thoughts of the day. 

Since today is my "day off", I have a thousand things to do. That's the way it rolls. One of the most important things, however, will be settling down for some serious research and comparison of health plans for DH's Medicare. Although prices won't be live until mid-month, the plans themselves went live on October 1st, so I can finally compare plans with more information than I could earlier. Himself is chomping at the bit - he wants this figured out and resolved. No problem, but it does take some time and a clear mind. Today I have some time - not sure about the mind's clarity, though. 

Wavelengths of time and the seasons in my mind
are like this quick drawing. The top is winter - slow
and seemingly never-ending, the center is the
fall and spring seasons - even keeled and
hopeful, and the bottom is summer - rather
frantic, but lots of fun. 

It's hard to believe that it's October already. The summer seemed to just fly by. Although time progresses in marked segments - one second, one minute, one hour, one day, etc - at a time, when you look back at time, it's wavy. Good times compress in memory, they have the same length, but instead of stretching out interminably, they bunch up and the length becomes sine waves instead. 

Winter is cold here in the Frozen Northlands. Here's an Ice Palace
from 1986. We don't get an Ice Palace every year - some years aren't
cold enough and in others the funding isn't there. They are pretty
when they are built, though. 

My winters are like the top line. Things happen - Winter Solstice, DH's birthday, the New Year, and lots of shoveling and snow blowing the driveway to get to the gym on time, but winter is rather boring, and it's cold. Spring and Autumn are like the center wave - it's interesting, it's changing and speeding up (or slowing down in the case of Autumn), and there's just a bit more urgency. For Spring, we have to plan the next summer's goals for the garden and start getting things in order. Fall requires a lot of leaf blowing and raking while enjoying the skeletons of the trees. 

Summer always ends with the Minnesota State Fair and the Renaissance
Festival (which just ended this past Sunday). Summer is heat and sweat,
travels and people, food and sounds. Summer rushes by like a train
at high speed, barely stopping to allow memory to make notes in her book. 

Summer rushes by in a frantic huff of air. It displaces schedules, changes habits while creating new ones, and offers lots of opportunities. The trick is getting through the summer safely so that the upcoming slower seasons will be smooth and easy. No pointed or jagged waves for summer. Smooth, easy and fast-moving is the key for that season. 

Life is like that in memory. You don't remember things as a single straight line. You remember groups of things, you jump from highs to lows, and the time itself compresses. It's actually really hard to remember events from start to finish without your brain pulling you forward to other memories or backward to older ones. Try it sometime - those sinuous lines of memory try to trap and trip you up every time. Too often you'll meander from the memory to find yourself on a path less traveled in a totally unexpected memory. 

On that note, I'm calling it a done deal for today's post. I have tons to do today, so I'd better get started. Have a wonderful Wednesday and I'll return tomorrow - hopefully a bit wiser about Medicare plans in my area. *sigh*