January 21 13

Blue Monday, you say?

I get it. I so get it.

Blue Monday

Yes, yes. I know of late we have been a wee bit spoiled weather-wise, and I don’t have too much reason to complain. It has been mostly mild around these parts, with weather reaching all-time winter record high temperatures. But something has shifted over the last week or so, and as my children constantly run outside to check the skatability status of our backyard rink, I sit in front of the fireplace and beg them to close the door behind them, chilled completely to the bone.

BRRRRRR.

Honestly, I mostly just want to crawl under the covers and hibernate until the spring, which in Toronto, really doesn’t show up until the first week of June.

We pretend, of course, when March comes around and then April and then May and the calendar (and Facebook and Twitter) tells us that we should be able to take off the turtlenecks and pull out the cute sundresses and the flip flops. But in reality, it’s cool and cold straight through the entire month of May.

My geriatric circulation and I live in the wrong climate. I want to spend time outside, frolicking. I want to use my camera. I want pedicures to be worth the time and money. I want to skip the vitamin D supplement. I want to NOT need special gloves that allow me to use my phone when it’s cold.

Instead, these days, I’m doing everything in my power to stay indoors, under many, many layers of wool.

I bake—because the heat of the oven warms my old bones, and because the delicious carb-filled goodness provides comfort. See also: grilled cheese.

I voluntarily do the laundry. Poorly.

I have surfaces littered with half-finished hand-warming tea and coffee mugs.

I laugh in the face of winter activities on account of the possibility of hypothermic extremities.

I embrace the winter blahs instead of trying to beat them. And I count down the days until March April May June.

-
  1. It’s -31C in Ottawa preset much all week. So don’t you be complaining, Toronto! 😉

    Comment by Loukia on January 21, 2013
  2. I swear I would never go outside.

    Comment by ali on January 21, 2013
  3. I was pushing my grocery cart across a wide open parking lot last night and the ice and freezing wind (that was BITING my face) made me think I must have driven all the way to Winnipeg for milk. I grew up in the snow belt. This is nothing compared to my childhood experience, but still…..waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

    Comment by Louise on January 21, 2013
  4. I feel like kids don’t feel it. I grew up in Wisconsin, and I don’t really even think I noticed the cold. Now, it’s ALL I notice.

    Comment by ali on January 21, 2013
  5. Never visit Manitoba except for July and August. -45 here today

    Comment by Dawn on January 21, 2013
  6. GOOD LORD.

    Comment by ali on January 21, 2013
  7. I will not tell you what the weather is like here in San Diego, but I will say I love your Old School reference. In my house we quite that movie nonstop. (A hint about our weather right now: If by chance we decided to go streaking right now, we’d be plenty comfortable.)

    Comment by Alison on January 21, 2013
  8. My cousin has been trying to convince me to move to Winnipeg for years. She keeps trying to tell me that it doesn’t FEEL as cold there. FAIL. What can I say – I’m a bad Canadian!

    Comment by Cynthia on January 21, 2013
  9. Hahaha. Doesn’t feel cold. That’s funny.

    Comment by ali on January 21, 2013
  10. Today is the first COLD, real winter day here in Chicago. There is a wind chill advisory! I figured it couldn’t be that bad so I walked from one of the farther train stations. That was like 2 hours ago and I’m still trying to warm up.

    Comment by Kristabella on January 21, 2013
  11. I’m am soooooooo with you. Our wind-chill factor was -42 this morning. WHAT THE HECK?! I put a cheesy countdown ticker on my blog yesterday. THIS MANY DAYS UNTIL SPRING. Which, in Saskatoon, like Toronto, does not start until June.

    We need to start a commune in some place that does not dip below 10 degrees Celsius.

    Comment by Jen Wilson on January 21, 2013
  12. It is so cold here in the ourskirts of Montreal, that I drove my son to his bus-stop (it’s a 7 walk) and the drove another mom and her dog back to their house because the dogs feet were frozen! It was -22 (without the windchill factored in) Yikes – why do we live here??

    Comment by Sarah on January 21, 2013
  13. I do not live in a cold climate now, but grew up in Minneapolis, similar to your WI climate, but colder I think. Anyway, I would recommend an electric blanket. Even if you’re warm enough at night, you turn it on an hour before bedtime and you get to climb into a warm cozy bed and it is heavenly. Also, in the middle of the day if you just need to get warm, you can go sit in bed with the blanket on, tucked around you, and read or compute or whatever, and it’s warm.
    Just saying.

    Comment by monstergirlee on January 21, 2013
  14. And I think DC is too cold!

    Comment by Corey Feldman on January 22, 2013
  15. On a positive note it’s the perfect day to try that turning boiled water into snow thingy.

    Comment by Sharon on January 23, 2013
  16. I did something really SMART. I volunteered to go to the Kortright center (OUTSIDE) with Isabella’s 2nd grade class. OMG.

    Comment by ali on January 23, 2013
-

Allowed tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>