I may be slow to the draw, but after 44 years of Western New York winters I’m finally beginning to realize how much I HATE February! With apologies to the Presidents, skiers, St Valentine, and family and friends with February birthdays, for I know that those events cannot save me from this month of gray skies, sub zero wind chills and lake effect snow falls.
To the outside world I want to profess my love of the Buffalo weather and prove how we “get a bad rap!” If asked about living here I’d like to wax poetic about being awoken to the steady hum of snow blowers and the piercing sound of ice being scraped off my neighbors’ windshield. I want to throw on some thermals and hold up my head and proclaim how tough these winters make me – because they have, but as I get older I believe this weather has also done to me what was once unthinkable, it has turned me into my parents!
As a devote hater of Florida and all things related – like the palmetto bugs, the stone ‘lawns,’ the boiled peanuts, the hurricanes and octogenarian drivers, for example, I am truly perplexed as to why I find myself longing for retirement and a ‘double-wide’ in ‘Tiki Village’ on the gulf coast!
These thoughts haunt me lately and I find myself wondering if I’m suffering from S.A.D. – Seasonal Affective Disorder – where we become depressed by the weather and lack of light and sunshine – I think all of Western NY must have this. Symptoms are not only feelings of depression, but sufferers also “lack energy to perform everyday activities.” Yes, definitely. I have this!
They say it's treatable with ‘light therapy,’ and evidently I need more serotonin, more melatonin, more ions in my air – but before I sell my house, put my dog in the car, toss my bike on the back and head south, I think I’ll wait … just one more week …for the promise of spring ... for March.
2 comments:
Not the best post for someone who's thinking about moving to Buffalo to read, ML. I'll take it under advisement.
3 weeks till half-marathon in VA!
Couldn't have written it better myself. Yours in snowy, cold, awful weather sympathy, Scott
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