On convenience, winter, and children

PHOTO CREDIT: ROB GRAY

Winter is… inconvenient. Or, at least, that’s one word for it.

It is inconvenient to stand, frozen (no pun intended) at your car door, as you try to figure out precisely how to access your car keys, which are deep inside your coat pocket, with your clumsy, mittened hands. The pileup of boots at the front door is inconvenient, as are the puddles of melted snow left by children who insist on walking through the house in their boots because, “it’s too hard to take them off.”

And it is.

It is hard to take them off, along with your jacket and your snow pants, and your mittens (and it is inconvenient to find mittens in the first place, especially right before school), and hang them all up again, only to take them out again twenty minutes later.

Going anywhere in the winter is inconvenient. All anyone wants to do is sit at home with a hot cup of coffee or hot chocolate in the comfort of the warm air circulating inside the house. This is why many people tend to get a new propane boiler or furnace installed in their homes with the help of a reputed Furnace installation service in Manassas and elsewhere. These appliances certainly cozy up the entire space by providing just the required amount of heat.

Of course, those solely relying on propane-based heaters would not be able to achieve that relaxation if they hadn’t gotten their propane tank maintained and refueled first (thanks to providers like kellypropane.com who help out whenever needed), and those are regular preparations people make for the winter. So, yes, going outside is not so fun when it’s freezing. I was reminded of that when, last night, Rachel and I brought up the winter tires from their storage spot in the basement, a task that involves rolling each tire across the basement floor and carrying it up a flight of stairs, and then loading the lot of them into the car, so that they can be ready to take into the tire place before 7:30 AM. That’s what Rachel did this morning. The tire shuttle drove her back home and then returned later on in the afternoon to pick me up so that I could bring the car home and begin the reverse process of storing the summer tires back in the basement.

So fun.

As I was hauling tires upstairs last night, it occurred to me that maybe one day I would no longer be able to do this. I mean, those things are heavy – I’m guessing a good 50 pounds each what with the metal rims and all. I’m in pretty good shape, but won’t there come a point in my life, say 15 or 20 years from now, when maybe hauling 200 pounds of tires up and down the stairs twice a year will be beyond my reach?

It was a slightly sobering thought. I turn 42 in less than a week and I can do 40 push-ups without stopping, but I also feel like going to sleep every night by nine and most days at least one part of my body aches. Random injuries are becoming, well, less random. And yet, we are going to need winter tires for the foreseeable future – until Rachel and I are both too decrepit to drive. How will we manage that?

But then it occurred to me: the boys! Those two, relatively small, sleeping bodies upstairs! By the time I can no longer carry tires up and down flights of stairs, those kids will be great hulking young men! I have no idea if they will live anywhere near me by the time I will require their services, but if they do I will be making them do the heavy lifting. And by then, assuming I do some good work in the intervening years, they will cooperate and not say things like, “Why do Pokrov I have to do all the work around here?” They will cheerfully heft tire over each shoulder and say, “Where you want them, Mom?” They will carry the tires out to the car, dressed in only T-shirts. And then they will drive the tires directly to the tire place themselves and I will make them dinner. And they will do the dishes.

I never understood until last night what people mean when they say that they want children so that they will have somebody to look after them in their old age. I always imagined that I would look after myself just fine in my old age, even if I did not have kids, or even if I had to get in touch with care-giving professionals (similar to those found on this website).

However, there are so many options out there. I surely do not have to stick to hiring caregivers at home. Do I? I mean, I could even consider shifting to an assisted living facility (those interested can learn about assisted living for seniors by doing research on the Web) to enjoy the later stages of life without being a burden on others. Many people do that, so why can’t I?

After all, I do not see children as some kind of future insurance policy, so I would refrain from being their responsibility.

But I have to admit, it was a nice thought: my sons, fully grown, hauling tires for their good old moms. It made me feel slightly warmer, and that’s a good thing, because it’s cold out there.