Prologue
I have already written about the holidays. I will write in a couple of weeks dedicated completely to Christmas. I will also most likely do a “post holiday” journal in January some time. However, I wanted to ruminate (perhaps?) briefly on the general overall joy that winter brings me.
Journal
I never used to like winter. I didn’t actively dislike it either. Mostly, I just fell into a weird hibernation state for the months of December, January, and February. Some of the people around me who love and care about me wondered about seasonal depression. While there might have been some of that as my father apparently suffered from it and depression tends to run in families, I don’t think that’s an accurate description of what I was feeling.
Sure, I had bouts of what you might call the “winter blues”. It’s hard not to with 3, and eventually 4, other people in the house for days at a time because of cold temperatures and occasional blizzards. Add in that one of those people vehemently hates winter and the cold and, sure, there were a few moments over the years that cabin fever set in and progressed every now and then to the winter blues that I mentioned earlier.
Generally speaking, I’m a fairly positive and “go with the flow” kind of guy. As long as there are things to do and places to see, I’m happy. It has taken some others in the family some coercing to feel the same way about winter. My conversion started about 4 or 5 years ago when I went disc golfing for serious, for real with our friends. It was at the Tully course that I visit at least twice or three times every summer now, but that was the first time that I’d actually ever been out to throw discs with the intention of making them into the basket.
And it was in the middle of winter, and there was about a foot to a foot and a half of snow on the ground. And I loved every minute of it. I don’t remember if this led to my purchase of snow shoes or if it was one of our trips after I purchased the snow shoes, but they have gone miles (pun fully intended) to helping us come to terms with the fact that it is dark, cold, and snowing 3 to 6 months out of the year here in Massachusetts.
I originally got the snow shoes to inspire us to take more trips during the winter. They did for a while, but then the kids got too big to carry/drag along in the sled for very long and they started to develop some of their own anti-winter biases that have prevented us from getting use out of the show shoes in that fashion. Instead, we’ve found that we can strap them on for quick trips into the woods behind our house or through the trails behind the schools near where we live. We can leave the whiny kids at home (now that our oldest is 13 and able to watch them without much incident) and go out for a quick 30-45 minute hike through the snow. Admittedly, the trips get old, but maybe we can start to branch out a bit to other local hikes. Heck, we were even able to slip away for a couple of hours to go to a wine tasting at one of the local inns, so we might even be able to head up to one of the mountains. We are starting to get our lives back!
Okay, maybe that isn’t completely fair. Now that the boys are getting older, they are tolerating the cold much better. Another reason for this general winter post, even though I haven’t had a chance to get out and enjoy the actual winter yet without the specter of holidays, is that we got our first snowfall of the year over the weekend. We got a bit more today and there is snow in the forecast for the weekend, but no big storms yet. In any case, January and February are usually our big months for snow, so expect a full report of our adventures in the snow coming in the next month or two.
The reason that I bring up the snow is that the boys, who have mostly been moping around the house on weekends, went outside to play in the snow every single night and they were even out there doing chores and helping out with shoveling and brushing off the cars. Sure, they ended up coming back into the house fighting and crying, but that’s what having brothers is all about.
Look, I’m not positive that my childhood and relationship with my brothers is typical in any way, shape, or form. As an adult, I haven’t exactly talked with friends about growing up with brothers. And, as often happens, that just inspired something inside of me. I should discuss these issues with friends. In spite of any of that, I grew up in a house with three boys just like our boys. There were times that we fought to the point of hurting one another on more than one occasion. So, at least as far as I know, that’s par for the course as long as they kiss and make up.
Epilogue
Winter is long, cold, and sometimes depressing. It has taken us a few years to finally come to grips with the positives of the season. However, we have been able to open our minds and branch out to new and different things. As a result, winter doesn’t feel quite so depressing. Sure, it is still long, cold, and dark most of the time.
But, when you can travel back in time to Sturbridge Village and see with your eye and your imagination how things were, it makes me smile. When you can strap on snow shoes to stomp around in the back yard (either literally or figuratively), it goes a long way to making you appreciate that hot cocoa at the end of the day that much more.
College football and then hockey viewing parties with a friend in his shed or closed porch are a reason to look forward to a random Tuesday or Wednesday near the end of winter when you can smell spring, but can’t quite feel it. There are other activities that we’ve added to our winter fun as we’ve gone along, but I will save those for the next post when I write about how much I love Christmas.