Winter Survival

February 16th, 2010

For the first winter in many years I actually feel as though I’m going to survive it – I supposed that’s partly because the amount of snow we’ve received this year is negligible compared to other recent years and partly because I’ve been forcing myself to go outdoors for at least 5 days out of every week – no matter what the weather.

You all know by now that I simply hate winter (you'll see those words pretty often in my writings, so I'll apologize now for being repetitive), and cold, and snow, so forcing myself outside so often is quite an accomplishment for me.  During winters where we have continuous and copious amounts of heavy snow, it's easy to make yourself go outside ... someone has to shovel. Since I suffer from S.A.D. (Seasonal Affective Disorder) and part of the treatment for that is "light therapy", the most preferable type of light is natural sunlight, which means going outside.

Certainly we don't always have sunshine, but natural daylight is light provided by the sun anyways, so getting outside into the daylight is important to keep myself from being a winter long grinch. But seriously ... I hate winter, and if it weren't for winter I probably wouldn't suffer from S.A.D. either.

I've been pretty busy over this past (2010) winter. A few portraits here and there,  a couple of commercial photography contracts, and a new website, along with a couple of new blogs have been taking up my time.

Part of trying to force myself into the outdoors also gives me an opportunity to photograph some winter scenes, which are pretty plentiful up in this neck of the woods. I don't like the cold, and the cameras don't perform as well in temperatures that drop to -22 C (sometimes even colder), but spare batteries kept warm in the car help. About all I can take is an hour or so, and I'm ready to head home again. Still ... winter scenery can be beautiful (particularly when it isn't something I have to shovel).

I’ve also taken on some volunteer work in one of the forums I used to frequent – and if you let it, it can take up way too much time. Winter sucks ... what more can I say? Most of you already know just how much I don't love winter, which leaves little for me to elaborate on, but a picture is worth a thousand words (or so they say).

There really isn't much more I can say about this ... it's what we usually get for winter, and why I dislike winter (I'm sure I was born in the wrong hemisphere!) And why (as soon as we are fully retired and can afford to) I'll be turning into a Snowbird come winter, and fly away to the sunny south. It doesn't have to be the usual snowbird destination, as long as it's warm, sunny and and has lots of beaches and sand ... and absolutely no snow!

author: J.Gracey Stinson

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