Counting Down The Days To Spring
The calendar reads mid-January which means we are still weeks from spring.
Granted Old Man Winter has not arrived in full force yet and hopefully he will not. As of this writing we have not had temperatures in the teens or lower. Yes it has rained a good bit, too much for my liking, but if the temperature reads somewhere in the 60s in January then I will take it.
The temperature actually reads 67 with a blue, clear sky as I write this on a Sunday afternoon. I will take that any day in January. In fact a neighbor even got out his lawn mower on this day. I told him “Welcome to May!” which we both got a good laugh out of.
Perhaps the only down side to the one like we had Sunday is the fact that it will not last and will only make us hate the cold and rain even more when it returns.
Georgia’s four seasons often are bi-polar though. We can jump from summer directly in winter, bypassing fall in the process, and often we go from winter to summer with a couple of weeks.
Winter is clearly my least favorite. My father often tells me we need winter. It takes care of pests and helps prepare things such as trees and our yards to return to life when the weather does get warmer. These are the months when we get needed rain for the upcoming dry months although rain for two weeks at a time is a little much I think everyone would agree.
I certainly understand the need for winter but I just can’t help bring myself to like it.
This time of year it rains too much (yes I know we need rain), the days are too short and the sky is often gray rather than blue even when it is not raining.
For those of you like myself who suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder (ironically known as SAD), winter is tough each year. Cold is part of it. Another element to it is the overall lack of sunlight. When it is dark by 5:30 p.m. SAD sufferers don’t get the necessary sunlight needed to fight back the winter blues.
A recent check showed that we will start getting longer days on March 8 which is actually less than two months away. That will help as long as we don’t enter a lengthy rainy spell, which seems to take place quite a good bit where I live. In fact we have already passed the shortest day for this time around.
My former college colleague who has braved the frozen lands of North Dakota since we graduated in 1993 checked in with me recently. He said they are having the usual deep freeze although he seems to thrive on it.
My former college colleague has always been an avid outdoorsman and covers hunting and fishing for his paper (along with some North Dakota State football for good measure.) In fact he recently spent several days in Texas covering the Bison football team playing for and winning another national title. He didn’t have much of an escape from his weather as the game this past weekend was played with snow on the field and temperatures in the 20s.
“Come up and I’ll take you fishing like we used to do,” my friend told me many times. “At times it actually gets to be 10 degrees above zero in the afternoon. We’ll go fishing and camp out for a couple of days.”
“Yeah right,” I replied. “The days would be bad enough but don’t even mention the nights.”
For me I am looking forward to April and May in the South when the temperatures climb once again and stay at a decent high.
Until then I am worried that winter is really going to give us a right hand to the head. I try to lose myself in my interests from favorite television shows or movies or being with family or friends. Often even getting a text from someone you know can help make the day better.
I have been thinking a good bit in recent days that high school baseball is just around the corner. While those first games are often brutal in terms of the weather, by mid-season, at least, the temperatures begin to warm up and if we are lucky the sun will be bright overhead.
And of course college football really doesn’t have an offseason anymore. In a couple of months spring practice will be here and fans are already anticipating the 2019 season.
In addition to that we actually have XFL games beginning in February. Having football year around is always nice. I just hope the XFL can make a go of this time.
Winter arrives each year and its severity differs. I just keep saying “spring will return eventually.” After all, it always has. I trust this year it will be the same.
Monticello native Chris Bridges has been a community newspaper journalist for three decades. He welcomes feedback from readers at pchrisbridges@gmail.com.