Is it the winter doldrums.....?

Or just the weekend blues? The day has been long and ever so dreary. The hours tick by, one by one, the clock hands move as slow as the proverbal molasses in January. I've run and ducked. Sewn up 4 patches, cut scraps and taken a nap and still the drearies linger. It set me to thinking about time spent alone, quietness, solitude and the things we use to fill the gaps. The tv has been on quite abit of the day, some CDs have filled in spaces. But I find myself longing for Monday morning and the business of living. While I was thinking I realized I need color!Life was suiting me just fine when this picture was taken. Not hard to understand why I kept it *VBS*.
I was at peace with the world and everything in it when I snapped this early summer picture. This is what I need today, sunshine, shadows and the ability to open a window. My spirits rise as I look at this picture. But to get back to what I was thinking about....
There was a man who lived alone in a cabin not so very far away in miles or in years. It was a very solitary cabin, certainly lacking nearly all the things we take for granted. While there was electricity, there wasn't running water. I feel that would be a challenge indeed. To haul all the water you need home from somewhere else. But apparently it's do-able.
I know for certain that there was no telephone. If you needed to get a message to him, you needed to call his brother who lived several miles away. The cabin sat alone on 2 acres of land. Very sandy land indeed, where little to nothing will grow but Jack pine. It is however excellent for sand burrs and wood ticks. And a few red oaks that seem to like sandy soil. The man had a dog, maybe two. He couldn't abide cats, calling them sneaky creatures. He cooked for himself on a hot plate altho not often and not much. He did his laundry at the laundramat. He had an old oil burner to heat the cabin in winter. It was a dreary place in my eyes. Gloomy, sparce, barren beyond what I could have tolerated.
I can do simplicity but I can't do poverty of that type. It made me wonder what mattered to him. What was important. Was there anything he was passionate about. I wondered alot of things, but never why he lived there.
Today I find myself thinking of his life, which seemed more like an 'existance' to me. I wonder what the long dark hours of each day were filled with? He didn't have a tv, but I think he had a radio. Without a telephone to receive calls with, and being several miles out in the "sticks", with no close neighbors....did he sit and wonder how to fill those hours? Did he see those hours as being empty, as I do? I think maybe he read books or magazines...that would be something at least.
And what conclusions have I come to, or solutions? Color to start with. I've only recently turned off the christmas tree lights and that is probably part of the gloom I'm feeling.
And I'll light a few candles, that will help. A bowl of red apples and bright oranges on the table or counter. Some new throw pillow covers to brighten up the couch. I'll give those things a try before next weekend...*VBS*