Spring Forward
Written by Christopher Pentecost on March 16, 2024
Like Bert in Mary Poppins, right at the beginning after the wonderful Sherman Brothers fanfare, it’s that time of year where I can stand outside, look to the skies, and go, “There’s a change in the wind direction, and things are changing… hmmmm.” It’s springtime, that wonderful point in the life of a year in which everything is sort of emerging from under some snow. Everything looks like crap, as if you just woke up from a midwinter’s nap, and you just can’t wait to get further into it because then buds be sprouting, flowers will be blooming, and we can get to the fun time of Summer.
I’ve always found it interesting too that with spring comes daylight savings time, where we “Spring Forward” because who needs an hour? It’s almost as if Loblaws is throwing their marketing team at us, going, “Hey, if we take away this hour, we can save more money.” And I sort of get it. The end of daylight savings time is in the fall, and we fall backwards an hour. Then we all have to relive another hour. For most people, you sleep through it, so you’re gaining an hour of sleep, that wonderful hour of sleep that you lost in the springtime. But for some of us who worked as a bouncer for 10 years, that’s 10 hours of sleep I’m never getting back, so yeah, not a fan. Just give me my darkness earlier; I’m way happier that way, in a sort of gothy, vampiric way.
I guess the biggest thing for spring for me is that I actually do start to feel happier. Whether that’s the addition of extra vitamin D, who knows? I’ve been taking that supplement all the way through the winter, and yet for some stupid reason, I still can’t be happy. I don’t know why. But the weather is getting warmer, there is more sunlight, I’m being reminded of how much I need to ask you to look after my lawn this year, and you can get out more. So maybe that’s the thing, you know? Me getting out on my bike is what is projecting my energy levels up and creating a better mood for myself. Of course, I say that and I also notice that the shift in my musical taste becomes slightly happier in the warmth of spring and summer. My musical tastes in the winter are mainly alternative heavy metal punk stuff that makes you angry but allows me to channel that anger into something more positive. Now, I don’t need to channel anger into more positivity; I’m channeling positivity into more positivity, which makes the goth kid right in the center of my heart just upset, totally. I always have that one voice in my head that continuously tries to channel my inner Lydia Deetz to create a dark room for myself.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I do not abandon my love for darker things. It just means I can enjoy darker things outside in the light, then inside the artificial stuff from all the LEDs around my office. I am still going to enjoy my Edward Gorey in the backyard on the deck with a quaint beverage in my hand. I still enjoy listening to a lot of the introspective music that I listen to on a more daily basis, but I just tend to do it in the sun more often than at sunrise or dusk.
I will also say that life for me in the spring and summer tends to start to slow down, gives me more time to think, which for a person with ADHD sometimes is a good thing.
The one thing I miss from my childhood that I don’t do now and I wish I could do more of is go camping. I’ve always loved nature, always enjoyed being outside and surrounded by stuff that isn’t concrete, you know? Putting up a tent, cooking over a fire, going for hikes, and taking in nature was always a fun time for me. I enjoyed being able to breathe the fresh air, take my time, and not feel as if I had to get somewhere. If I hiked for 2 km and decided to turn around and go back and just have a sit by the fire, that was fine.
I remember taking camping trips with my family when I was really young. I recall my father renting a trailer which turned into a camper, camping just over the dune from the beach. We went with friends of our family, so all the kids ended up staying in their own tent if they wished but could still go and sleep with their parents in the camper if they needed to. It was nice to wake up and smell the water on the sand in the morning. It’s also the first time I ever saw a snake actually ingesting food, watched it slowly eat a frog that was at least three times its size, and yet it was still able to do so.
Other camping trips I took were mainly with the scouts. We would go for camping trips in the fall, winter, and spring, and maybe we would do a summer trip. They were nice, surrounded by other people sort of your age that you were hanging out with. I remember in 1992, I was able to go to the Canadian Jamboree out in Kananaskis Valley in Alberta. It was a great week, although it rained for pretty much every day that we were there. It was sunny on the day that we arrived and the day we left, but on a couple of times when the clouds did split and you could see the mountains around you, it was awesome to see snow-capped mountains in August, just around my birthday. It was an incredible time, and it’s something that I would love to share with my children, although my wife is slightly hesitant. I think she’s more of a glamping type person, so maybe we’ll try to find a campsite with a yurt or maybe rent a cabin in the woods and hope we aren’t, you know, murdered by some psychopath.
Even though I never went camping when I was a teenager, I went once with a friend and her mother to Cape Croker up in the Bruce Peninsula, and it was a lovely place. It was right on the shores of Georgian Bay, and one night it was to be stormy. You could see the clouds rolling in, the lightning rolling in off the water, the electricity in the air was something to behold, and it was a fun time. I remember going up to Lion’s Head and going to the almost General Store-type deal of Trading Post. I ended up finding this great Grateful Dead shirt which was all covered with what looked to be like counterfeit dollar bills with the Jerry Bear right in the center. I had that shirt up until I was 29; it had holes, but it was still a great reminder of an amazing trip.
It was my first time using a canoe. We rented a canoe and we were able to go around, although the friend and her mom didn’t like to go out on open water because it was bumpier. They liked to hug the shores. But of course, when you’re trying to race back to your campsite before the rain gets there, technically you need to make a shortcut, so I led the charge on that one. There was also a rock climbing path that you could do there that my friend and I climbed up, and it was semi-difficult. You had to climb up rocks; you had massive spaces in between boulders, so they put up makeshift ladders so that you could climb between certain areas. We kept going up and kept going up, and we finally got above all the boulders and got up to the gravel where there was a little bit of a path up, and then there was a big stone there that just in red spray paint said, “This is the End,” to which my mind automatically went to the Doors tune “This Is the End” because that was the CD I was listening to for most of that summer. And we were like, “This is great.” We turned around and we looked over, sort of the cape that was there. We could see where we were camping on the other side, we could see a little bit of the Georgian Bay, and then turning around back because I heard something rattling, we saw a rattlesnake next to a vulture. At that point, we knew it was time to traverse back down because neither of us really wanted to figure out what was beyond that. It was a fun trip, and I’d love to do that again.
There is something to be said about the change in the weather and the shift in your perception and feelings. In winter, I’m much more inclined to burrow into a nice warm place, keeping myself separated from the cold world outside. In spring and summer, I love getting out and becoming more of that extrovert that emerges when comfortable. I think that’s the thing—I need to feel comfortable to become an extrovert. When I’m comfortable, I’d like to get out and expand beyond the four walls.
Even now, I can hear my children playing outside in the backyard. They just got home from Grandma’s place, so I understand what they’re going through—being cooped up for an entire day at Grandma’s apartment downtown and then getting back home where they can run around out back and jump on the trampoline, now that it’s warm enough for them to do so. It really makes me wish that trampoline could support my weight because I’d like to go outside and join them, but as we continue moving into warmer weather, it’ll be nice to have that time to get out and enjoy the outdoors—to feel the wind on your face, the sunshine on your face, to actually need to wear sunglasses, to get on my bike and just explore for as long as my battery will let me.
I plan on including some of my explorations on this platform in the form of video blogs, which will also help me learn how to do voiceovers, so you’ll actually get to hear my voice, which I always find nasal, but that’s just me. It allows me to learn a new medium in which I can share my experiences more clearly (especially in 1080p). I hope to showcase the city I live in and also reveal a bit of the reality of living here, as well as share my own personal experiences and what it means for me to be part of this community. Exploring my city differently and sharing more will be exciting, as what’s normal for me may not be normal for you unless you also live in the city. So, being able to share more and see more firsthand, instead of trying to describe it to you (if you know, you know).
I am excited for these new seasons—it’s a time of growth, and I hope to expand this platform into multiple mediums, growing my experience and knowledge in the process. Another thing I’m growing with is seeking professional help to deal with some of the symptoms of my anxiety and ADHD that are negatively affecting me. I found a therapist who will work with me to develop tools to cope. It’s not about psychotic episodes; it’s more about my brain continuously talking, a constant voice that often talks over me, making even simple tasks challenging. It’s almost as if I’ve created a tiny child version of myself in the back of my head to continuously bother me. And even after writing this, I had to check my previous blog to see if I’d mentioned it before. This one’s just a longer, more descriptive blurb, still getting used to it, trying not to repeat myself. But again, this is how I create things and how my brain works—I’ll beat that dead horse over and over again.
I do hope to get out and go camping at some point. I may have to go by myself the first time, which isn’t surprising to me. I think it would be beneficial to reattune myself to my surroundings.
I should mention, when spring and summer arrive, my musical selections tend to turn back to the time around the Summer of Love. In case you’re wondering what exactly I listen to, here are a few examples to put you in that outdoor, get-out-and-move state of mind: start with Janis Joplin’s “Me and Bobby McGee,” followed by the Beatles’ “Magical Mystery Tour.” Also from that album, try “Flying.” Other songs include “Give Me Some Lovin’” by the Spencer Davis Group, “Nowhere to Run to” by Martha and the Vandellas, and anything by Motown, Stevie Wonder, The Beach Boys, The Rolling Stones, The Doors, The Dave Clark Five, and pretty much anything by the Grateful Dead. When it comes to exploring the world around us, “Truckin’” is probably the greatest song for that. I may make a playlist of songs to enjoy in nature too. I’m currently making a playlist for a post about musicals and show tunes, so be on the lookout for that one. Not to quote or steal from Jim Morrison, but let’s paraphrase it in reverse: “Beautiful friend, this is not the end. It is merely a step through the door… so go experience it.”