They happen swiftly and early, these winter blues. No sooner is the Christmas tree down, the boxes of decorations stored and the house picked back up than the winter blues set in. In summer, we experience over 15 hours of daylight. In winter, it goes down to just under 9 hours a day. All fall, I don’t notice it. It’s my favorite time of the year, after all. But once the tree is down? Yep, I’m already checking out the daylight calendar and I quickly set up milestones that I watch out for. For example, on January 19, we’ll be at 9.5 hours of daylight; on February 2nd, we’ll be at 10 hours. It gets really good starting February 24th when we hit 11 hours of daylight. On March 14th – coincidently my birthday – we will be just shy of 12 hours and in Daylight Savings Time.
What looking forward helps me do is to understand that this time of the year is short. And while it may seem like an endless parade of bad weather and dark days, the reality is that it’s over soon and I really shouldn’t be wasting my days dreading winter. Each year, I try something to make winter more palatable for myself. Last year before the pandemic, I tried snowboarding. (Spoiler alert: 50-year-old women who haven’t skateboarded since their early teens should not be snowboarding.) The year before, I stocked up on jigsaw puzzles and committed to going to the gym daily, until both of that stopped. This year, I signed up for a Coursera course on finding the purpose in life. Not sure I really need that – my purpose is to live simply and enjoy this little plot of land and its inhabitants – but I figured it would help make January go away. I’ve also signed up and made a quilt one winter, took yoga twice a week instead of once a week, binge-watched the television series, “The 70’s Show” and have had other various schemes to make winter go away. The most effective way I’ve learned to deal with winter? Planning a vacation to somewhere warm to escape winter.
This year with the pandemic, heading south wasn’t an option either of us wanted to exercise. While we certainly could have, the risk of getting sick didn’t make it attractive to us. So, we elected to stay home. But now I’m stuck with what to do to make this winter go by faster and to distract myself.
Now interestingly enough, it hasn’t been a bad winter. Currently, the snow is largely melted and it’s above freezing. A few days ago, the sun was actually shining. Outside of some snow around Christmas, it’s basically been a green winter so far and its evidently supposed to stay that way. You would think, then, that it makes it easier. I certainly was hoping so. But, it could be just the first Monday after the holidays, the gray skies, the slight drizzle or the combination of all three. The verdict is still the same: I hate winter and I’ve got the winter blues.
Now, we do have one thing arriving on Friday that should hopefully start to eliminate my winter blues. No, it’s not my husband’s Flaviar subscription that I got him for Christmas which ships hand-picked whiskey to our door. Instead, it’s the treadmill we bought ourselves for Christmas. I’m hoping that once the treadmill is here and I have the opportunity to take myself for a walk – rain, snow or shine – I will actually do it. In the back of my mind, I’m also planning on running a half-marathon this fall. That means I’ll need to make the transition from walking to running to running distances pretty quickly. If nothing else, fear at the starting line should motivate me to get up and get moving. And getting up and getting moving? I’m hoping that doing so will release endorphins which will in turn make winter easier to bear.
In the meantime, I’m recognizing that as soon as this pandemic is over, I need to restart my sunny vacations every Christmas and spring so that I can bookend my winters into a more finite chunk of time. To do that? Yep, you already got it. I’m planning my next Florida vacation. We’ll go to New Orleans next Christmas, which will give me a break in late December. A late February/early March trip to Florida will then shut down winter after just two months. When I get back, it may still snow and be miserable, but I’ll have had enough “good sunny will” to get me through until spring finally breaks through.
And that, folks, is how an avowed winter hater gets through winter. We simply escape it. This year, there’s no escaping. But next year, I’m all over it. In just a few minutes, I’ll hit “reserve” on my Florida rental and I’ll be all set for 2022.
Oh, and by the way… 68 days until Daylight Savings Time!
The Yuppie Homesteader 