Crap, January is a bleak month!
During December, people smile. I take transit to work every morning, and on the train you see the happy faces of strangers discussing plans for the month. Meals they will eat; surprises they have in store for loved ones. All those smiling faces you see out during the holiday season are now hiding behind scarves as they quietly go to work and come home. It is cold, the days are short, and while people do feel joy and togetherness during December, the stress of getting together also takes its toll. January is basically society’s hangover from the house party that is December, where we long for warmer days, that are months away.
We thought we were getting off easy this year. All signs were pointing to a mild winter, a nice green winter. Now, it will still probably be a mild winter, but it hurt over the course of the weekend when the temperatures went from above 0 to below, turning an annoying (but welcome) January rain into snow. I know I shouldn't complain. Even with the new found snow, it is still much warmer than usual. And I live in Southern Ontario, where it is always much warmer than the rest of the country. But it sucks. I was actually outside in a t-shirt on the weekend. Not for long, mind you (after all, it was raining), but if I needed something from the car, or if I had to take the dog out, I didn't bother donning layers. I just went
.
I felt like I was getting away with something. I felt we had escaped Mother Nature’s wrath for a season. And now with snow, it feels like I got caught with my hand in the cookie jar. And it is so ridiculous that I am writing a blog complaining about the weather. Worse yet, I am a Canadian, living in the Toronto area, complaining about a winter that isn't really that bad to begin with.
Right now I am actually whining about the cold, and it is -9 Celsius outside. Most years I would kill for that kind of weather, but I was spoiled by the first few weeks of winter, and now I am stuck here bitching about a good thing; all because, up until Sunday, I could still see grass. Part of the reason this month is so bleak is the lack of colour (this said by a colour blind man). The colour green vanishes from nature. For a span of a couple months, it is just gone. The sun mostly disappears too; I leave for work before sunrise and the sun sets well before I get home. The days are too short, and even when it is daytime, the sun hides behind the clouds.
Also, the simple act of going outside is a pain in the ass. I recently read ‘The Martian’ by Andy Wier, which is a novel (and now a movie) about an astronaut who gets stuck on Mars. It’s a great book, by the way, but one of the things that comes up often, is how hard it is to leave his ‘space house’, because he has to put on a ‘space suit’. (Seriously the book is a lot more interesting that I am making it sound here). He hates the spacesuit because it takes forever to get on, and it is cumbersome once he does get it on. That is exactly how I feel bundling up for winter weather.
I can foresee the ire that this post may draw from friends and family in other parts of the country. I can see angry Facebook posts coming from Calgary, Winnipeg and Montreal. People saying I don’t know what a real winter is, or that it’s not really cold unless it is -30. All I can say about that is screw that weather. I find people from colder cities take way too much pride in how cold it gets there. You don’t need to tell me about how wimpy my winter is; I believe you. It doesn't make me like the snow anymore.
I think the trick to surviving winter, is to take it one day at a time. Groundhog Day is around the corner. If I can make it until then, I can try and overtake Wiarton, by force if necessary, and I will have to make Wiarton Willie an offer he can’t refuse.
…Yep, my plan is to coerce a rodent into ending a season…
Something tells me I need a new hobby.
