This past weekend I went out to get some retail therapy and ran into crazy traffic no matter where I went to the extent I had to find a new route to get to one of the stores that was on my list to visit.
"What in the world?" I wondered to myself. I knew with it being Saturday that more people would be out and about but it was just abnormal in comparison to previous Saturdays I'd been to these places in recent months.
After I got done shopping and went to pick up lunch for Mom and me, I called my sister (who lives over an hour away) to catch up for a bit when she mentioned out of the blue that she was seeing a ton of extra traffic and shoppers at the places she went to that day.
After noting that I'd had a similar experience, I asked her "What is going on?"
"Probably spring fever" was her answer, and I suspect she was right on the money.
Over the last couple of months, my area has seen three winter storms that were for the most part mild in comparison to what other parts of the country have been through. Along with them, of course, was much colder weather, the kind of weather that makes you want to tuck in for the evening with a mug of hot cocoa or tea, a warm fuzzy blanket and slippers, and some flannel jammies.
But things warmed up over the weekend as part of a warming trend that will see it get into the high 60s and low 70s for most of this week, which no doubt was part of the spark behind the extra shoppers we encountered Saturday.
I admit it - I've got spring fever, too. Ideas for refreshing and remodeling certain rooms in the house have sprouted up in my mind. I even went so far as to get a new home office desk (for me) and a new recliner (for Mom), both of which will be coming in later this week. The desk will require some extensive reconfiguring of the current office layout (not to mention how long it is going to take me to put together - oof!).
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Along with the spring fever has come yet another unwelcome reminder about how expensive things have gotten. One thing we want to do is put in a single interior French door in between the office and living room so I can have it a little more quiet when I'm working.
It's a project we attempted to get started in October but we had a bad experience with the door installation estimator so we put it on hold for a while, pledging to pick it up after the holidays were over.
Since then, the door we want has gone up another $15 (in the year or so we've been mulling over getting the door, it's actually gone up about $50) and labor costs no doubt have increased as well, though we haven't gotten that far along yet in the re-planning phase.
We've also got to get a minor amount of roof and gutter work done and need some trees removed. Have been hesitant to pull the trigger on those projects because of cost but as everyone reading this knows, putting things like that off only causes them to go up in price by the time you finally get around to making those calls and getting those quotes.
That said, I'm looking forward to what the spring holds in terms of fresh starts and the sights and sounds which, of course, includes the cherry blossoms:
.... and the dogwoods:
Haven't seen any blooms yet. But soon, hopefully soon.
