Wednesday, August 10, 2022

Pushing Boundaries - Welcome to Life

It's Wednesday, laundry day, my "day off" and my next day of getting some cleaning done before Sharon arrives. I know that my major cleaning days are my Fridays because I have less scheduled items to do on that day, but I'm still going to spend some time in an attempt to get the house looking good before my Bestie arrives in three weeks. THREE WEEKS -- OMG! I find it hard to believe that the State Fair opens in two weeks, and that my summer is coming to an end so quickly. 




Which of the four seasons is your favorite and why? For 
me, although the heat can be oppressive, it's Summer, 
followed closely neck-in-neck by Spring and Fall. Winter 
falls far behind for me - I'm not fond of shoveling and 
the cold temperatures. 


It's odd, but I suspect it's true for all of us. When we look back on our personal history, we couch it into terms of the season(s) we love the best. For me it's always been the summer. Even though I was an ice skater (never that good, but quite enthusiastic), my skating was primarily done in the summers, while I was in Aspen. The rest of the year I was occupied with school and even though I had a membership (for a short time) at my local ice rink in Denver, it never felt comfortable to me the way my rink in Aspen did. 




Looking at a map, it doesn't look as if the skating rink I 
used in Denver is still open, but that's not surprising. It 
wasn't well managed, and we are talking 50 years 
ago. I just remember it as an unwelcoming place, quite the 
opposite from my ice skating rink in Aspen. 



When I think back on things, it's quite obvious that my parents made every attempt to give me access to the things I truly enjoyed. I got a variety of memberships to swimming pools in the summer months and to places such as the ice skating rink in the winters. I even had a few trips out to Aspen in our "off seasons" or after we had sold one or both of our houses up there. On those occasions I was living with my Aunt who moved up to Aspen permanently in the late 1960's. 




I learned to ski on Buttermilk Mountain in Aspen, 
Colorado. It's a great mountain for that - some 
really nice beginner slopes. My Aunt gave me an 
old set of her skiis and boots. They were REALLY 
old and I probably would have enjoyed skiing a 
lot more with a better set of skiis. But, these were 
what I had, and we didn't have money for rentals. 



The visits, of course, were wonderful and I loved spending time with my Aunt and cousin. I was only up there in the winter once and had the opportunity to learn how to ski (I skied VERY poorly), but it was my summer visits that I still remember best, especially one where my boyfriend/fiance Seth came up and joined us for a few days, then we hitchhiked back to Denver together and I caught a bus home from the bus station so that I was telling the truth and right on the schedule for when I was due back home. I was naughty that way - always pushing the boundaries. 




I don't think I was much different from any other 
teenager trying to push their boundaries, but having 
Seth meet me in Aspen for a few days while my 
Aunt was out of town and I was visiting my 
cousin was VERY naughty of me. Still I planned 
it out perfectly and my folks never suspected at all. 



So today, ask yourself. Have you ever pushed your boundaries? What was the result of that push - did you learn something about yourself? Was it a positive outcome? If not, did you learn something from the experience that turned it positive despite the negatives? That, my friends, is life. Welcome to the show. I'll be back tomorrow, hopefully with a slightly cleaner house, as I progress towards Sharon's arrival on September 1st. Slava Ukraini. 




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