January - ugh!

I'm not the sort of person to sit around on the beach. Don't like hot weather, don't like doing nothing, and my Scots & Yankee ancestry pretty much guarantees I end up boiled lobster red after a few minutes. There's a reason the family summer place is in the woods on a lake in Maine....

Oh, I like going to Reid State Park on an uncrowded day, as part of a day-long coastal trip. Time in Portland or at the Maine Maritime Museum, yarn shoip or 3, followed by 2 or 3 hours late in the afternoon (past the sun peak) walking on the beach, swimming (yes, I go in, even if the water is on 58 or 60 degrees), and climbing on rocks. That I like!

So it is a sign of just how I tend to feel through January that I spend a day or two at some point daydreaming about sitting on a Caribbean or Australian beach..... Most years, that happens around the 20th or so. While the days are a bit longer than in December, they are still short and the fact that it is still dark when I get home most days begins to get to me partway through January. Seasonal affective disorder strikes again......

In 2005, the month after Mum died, the daydreaming went on for a week and it started on the 4th. This year, it started on the 6th and lasted 4 or 5 days, which tells me that it was indeed an icky year.

And, like in 2005, the overall blahs extended into February.

But it's February, and even with the various icky things (Dad's diagnosis being the biggy, but there are several others.....), I'm back to my usual non-January cheerfulness/optimism....it helps that the never-ending cold has just about left and that last week's insomnia appears to be over.

Now if we'd only get some actual snow..... we've only had about 5 or 6 inches for the year. If I've gotta hput up with the short days, I want snow!