Winter blah

pur-ga-to-ry: (noun) any condition or place of temporary punishment, suffering, expiation, or the like.

February sucks. I mean really, really sucks.

January is okay because it's the first month of the new year and bring with it such optimism and excitement and post-Christmas sales and relief at having survived yet another family-filled holiday. March is okay because it brings the first indications of spring and warmer winds and birds chirping and longer days. But February is just this four-week span of cold weather followed by wet weather followed by damp weather followed by icy weather...and on and on it goes. It doesn't help that February starts with Groundhog Day and this optimism about the impending arrival of spring - only six more weeks! Surely we can get through that! Only the bulk of that six week wait time is spent in February, long, cold, gloomy February.

My birthday is in February but that doesn't change my opinion. You try having a fun, happy, friend-filled birthday party in the middle of February when you live in Parry Sound. If (IF) you're lucky enough to even be able to get kids to your house for the party, you can only go outside for about twelve minutes before you're simultaneously soaked and frozen. Then your guests likely have to get picked up early before the twenty-seventh surprise storm of the week blows in. Then you spend the rest of the day watching Disney movies alone. It's only marginally better as an adult. Sure, my friends can make it to whatever party destination has been chosen but it's still bloody cold and wet and icy and let's face it - most people would rather hibernate through February. I know I sure would.

Then there's the injustice of this damned leap year thingy. February is bad enough; I don't need - and certainly don't WANT - an extra day. And we have to have this extra day to keep our calendar in sync with the seasons or some such nonsense. I say forgo the extra day and have summer in November. Is that really so bad?

Today is February 10. Only 19 more days to go. Damn.