Happy New Year!

Wow, another year is upon us. Seems like only a few months ago that 2017 began. As we get older, time goes faster and faster. And I can feel those years in my bones and joints!

It might have something to do with the spill I took outside the office a couple of weeks ago. Ice hidden under newly fallen snow ... on a banking. Down on my derriere I went. Already suffering from chronic back pain, I added a new pain – my coccyx, or tail bone, got bruised. Not much you can do for that except for taking some pain medicine. It’s getting better but now I am walking gingerly wherever I walk. I don’t want to go down again. I can’t even take my dog on her usual walk because my driveway is a sheet of ice — time for the sand man!

So where is this column going? It certainly isn’t a cry for pity over my aches and pains. I think it’s my annual “I hate winter” rant. And, unless you have been hibernating since Thanksgiving, you know that winter has arrived full force. Lots of snow and this week, temperatures are dropping to single digits, with a nice wind chill to boot! 

Winter coats, hats and gloves, boots on and off, shoveling, uncovering the car from snow and ice ... and when do I make my first trip up the ladder to clean off the roof? Will my car battery go dead? When is the next heating oil delivery? Are the roads safe to travel? How many times has my plow guy been here and how much do we owe him? Oh yeah, better call the sand man!

Questions like these don’t pop up during the spring, summer and fall. The spring mud dries eventually, the summer grass can go weeks without getting mowed, and the fall leaves can stay on the ground through winter if you don’t mind.

But in winter, you can’t hesitate. You have got to get out to work, you have to stay warm and you have to keep your house and vehicle running well. And you have to keep yourself safe by keeping your surroundings passable. What a pain. All that extra work because of the precipitation that falls and the temperatures that drop for four (or five) months.

Like my aches and pains, my distaste for winter grows each year.

A little over 80 days until the first day of spring.

Someone find me a couple of good books to read; they might help me take my mind off of what’s outside these days.

Be safe, be warm and, really, I hope you have a happy new year; I know I will once we get rid of this winter thing.