Where’s Mr. Heat Miser!

And just like that the Christmas holiday is over, the decorations have been put away, January is almost over and February is knocking on the door.

January is a strange month for me. I grew up loving the winter months, mainly because it meant the chance of snow and getting a snow day. (I hear now that thanks to the pandemic and working virtually, some schools have taken away snow days. In any event, I loved them because what it meant for us kids.)

Of course, I went off to college and ended up hating winter because it meant I had to traipse across the snow to get to class. During my freshman year, we had to walk across a wide open parking lot that gave you little if any protection from the wind and that we appropriately enough called the “The Tundra.” I’ve never been to Arctic, heck I’ve never been further north than Toronto, Canada, but thanks to my college experience, dealing with our version of the The Tundra, I’m pretty sure I know exactly what it feels like.

Yes, winter and I don’t mix. Oh, I love the first snow fall of the year, I love looking out from the warmth of house and watching the snow come, but once the storm is over, I’m done, I’m ready for summer. We haven’t gotten much snow this year, just an odd dusting here and there.

In my perfect world, we’d get snow this week and the next day the temps would be back up 70 degrees and I’d be out on my deck laying comfortably in a hammock, sipping a Pina Colada, and listening to the Beach Boys singing Good Vibrations or the Go-Gos sing Vacation. Yo, Mr. Heat Miser, think I can order that up? 

You remember the Heat Miser, right? He’s the brother of the Snow Miser and son of Mother Nature, from the 1974 animated TV show The Year Without a Santa Claus. If anyone could help out, he’d be the guy. But sadly, the Heat Miser doesn’t seem to be much help.

No, my biggest problem with winter isn’t the snow, it’s the slush and yuck that comes after it. I hate the gray and and the mud that winter bring. If there was place that was permantently autumn all year long . . . I would be there in a heart beat. 

For now, I need to get through February and March. And yes, I need all the help I can get.