Tuesday, March 8, 2011

By far, this has to be the worst time of the year

At least for me, it is.

You linger in some kind of suspended half land between winter and spring. The ground is covered in snow that used to be white but which has turned into this soiled, brown mush. It really opens your eyes to how much filth we actually expose ourselves to when we walk along roads. The only reason we can't see it during summer and autumn is because there's no white snow there for it to get stuck in. It blends into the soil and grass the rest of the year, but in winter/spring it's visible for us to marvel at.
It's not only the horribly off-white, filthy colour of the snow, it's the roads and their condition. It's almost impossible to take a walk. I went for a walk with Kelly this morning and we were both slipping and sliding all over the place and Kelly didn't even want to walk. Then as the ice starts to melt, the gravel takes over and you end up dragging it into your house. The vacuum cleaner tube sounds like maracas when you vacuum.
It's difficult at best to cross-country ski, because the track is so iced over you look like bambi on ice when attempt to enter it. You either end up sliding back and forth like a moron or you slide to easily that it barely takes no effort to ski at all, and that defeats the whole purpose.
Then the sun starts to peek in through the windows and you're mercilessly faced with just how dusty your apartment really is. Everything just seems so much messier in the March and April sunlight. What was previously masked by the comfy darkness of winter is now brought out into the daylight, and the result is not good. The winter/spring sunlight is brutal.
It starts to get light out earlier and earlier in the morning. Most people see this as a good thing. I'm not one of them. For the past few weeks I have started waking up painfully early, even though I'm still in need of more sleep, and I lay there unable to go back to sleep. I eventually manage to catch some more sleep, drifting in and out of restless sleep, and when I get up I still feel tired and headachy.
The pressure must have changed too, because I have a headache pretty much every day.
It feels as though I start each morning with getting clubbed over the head and face the after-effects for the rest of the day. March for me is zombie month. It's the month when I walk around dazed and disorganized, like I'm perpetually stoned, but not in a good way. I'll take any month over this month, with the possible exception of September which always seems to bring with it some form of drama, such as family members dying or horrible public scenes.
April is no party either but at least here we have Easter to break the monotony. I would love to be able to head up to the mountains this Easter but for some idiotic reason Easter falls at the latest possible time this year and it'll probably be impossible to go out on the ice, or even to ski. I don't do downhill skiing but I do cross-country, and it's usually very hard to do as of early April since the quality of the snow will have changed. Considering the warm weather right now, I'd say it's going to be damned near impossible to ski in April. So unfortunately it looks as though Easter will be spent in the city, which sucks ass. I would still like to go to the mountains but since nobody else does it doesn't seem to be in the cards.
No, at the risk of sounding like a whiny bitch, I have to say that I dislike this time of the year. I know I'm in a minority here, I do tend to go against the grain. While other people love summer, I prefer winter (but not in Vancouver) and absolutely love autumn.
Although, nothing beats a Greece summer, or even a Vancouver summer.
No March though, please. If I could hibernate until June, I would.

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