Today is December 29, 2010. As of 5 p.m. I have declared winter over…almost.
Yes, we live in Traverse City, MI. Yes, there is snow on the ground. Yes, undoubtedly there is more to come. But I have declared winter to be over…at least in the sense that hope is on the way. This is due to several undeniable factors.
First, we had sunshine ALL DAY today. It’s a sign…
Second, at 5 p.m. it was not dark. I took a picture of it on my smart phone to post. Unfortunately, I’m not smart enough to get the picture from my phone to this blog. That notwithstanding, it is undoubtedly another sign…
Third, winter hasn’t even started yet. ”What?!?!” you say. Think about it: you can’t count November—it’s late fall and there’s still some lovely days in November. You can’t count December either—Christmas is in December and it’s supposed to snow. It’s Christmas, not winter! Stay with me on this…
JANUARY IS WINTER—all 31 days. It’s a long, cold month. But anyone can endure something for 31 days!
February doesn’t count as winter either. Why? You can’t take seriously a month with only 28 days (29 at the most). Besides, by Feb. 1 we have noticeably longer days and and more days with sunshine. Valentine’s Day is in there too…and love always warms things up. So forget the fact that February days can be bone-chilling, nostril-freezing cold. The sunshine trumps the cold. So February doesn’t count.
Neither does March. Who cares if it snows in March. The winter beast has been slain.
So if you’re tempted to mope about long winters, adopt my philosophy of winter and you’ll be amazed at how well you’ll cope. I am so pumped about this that my wife and I decided we are going to start hosting an annual “End of Winter Party” the end of January. We’ll have summer cuisine, wear flip-flops and short-sleeve shirts and have the Bruce Hornsby station playing pandora (great mix).
Perhaps you should consider an end of winter party yourself. Invite your friends. Have a ball. People may call you mad, delusional, etc. but hey…if it’s 5 o’clock somewhere, it’s probably also summer there too. May as well get an early start on things!
Okay…time to get back to shoveling snow.
