Sunday, February 27, 2011

My Winter Of Discontent




I won't lie to you.  I'm gonna tell you right up front that I dislike winter intensely.  As you should be able to tell from the photo above, summer is my favorite week here in Maine.  The more I think about it, the more obvious it has become that summer beats winter in every category.  I'll take a heat wave over a cold snap every time.  Why?  Well, for starters I don't have to scrape heat off my car's windshield in the morning.  I don't have to pay some guy to plow heat off my driveway so I can get out.  I don't have to shovel a path through the heat to get to my studio.  I save $3.58 a gallon every time my oil burner doesn't run.  I don't wonder if I'm dressed warmly enough to go out and check the mail.  And speaking of wearing enough clothes; going to the beach is alot more fun in the summer than the winter.

Now, some people say that heat makes people lethargic, that if it's too warm people just stand around and nobody wants to do any work.  That, I say, is just an urban myth started by people watching DOT road crews.  Everybody else is way more active in the summer.  You can actually see folks smile more because their faces aren't covered by ski masks.  Everyone has a spring in their step-- because their feet aren't weighed down by heavy boots.  Really, need I go on?

This winter has been an especially difficult one for me.  Somewhere under the four feet of snow in my yard lies my back.  I threw it out in January while shoveling yet another foot of snow and I haven't been able to find it.  So for weeks I've been walking around like someone who's looking for a lost contact lens.  As soon as I started to straighten up, I got hit with one of the worst head colds I've ever experienced.  Fifteen days of phlegm!  I was looking like a human mucus fountain.  At one point, I went through two new boxes of Kleenex in a six hour period.  (I should have bought stock in the company!)  The skin of my red, swollen, blistered nose had the same texture as pleather.  Every word I spoke had B in it, ie; "I'b jubst trybin' toob breathe-b!"

Needless to say, my work suffered.  It wasn't easy to stumble down to my frigid studio, warm it up, and get to work.  All I really wanted to do was lie crumpled in a corner with my boxes of tissues, a warm blanket and a hot toddy, and just let it pass.  If truth be told, I did just that on more than one day.  But you can only wallow in your own misery (and snot) for so long, so after a while I managed to suck it up and get back to work.

The good news is that tomorrow is the last day of February.  The bad, is that in Maine, March is the cruelest month.  As eager as we are for spring, we will undoubtedly have at least one or two more big snowstorms.  That's OK, though.   I know what is yet to come, and for that I say, bring it on!




                                                                  THINK SPRING!

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9 comments:

Kathy M said...

Whoa, love that picture and totally understand all your feelings. Spring will be here soon... we must have patience.

No Know it all said...

There is still room in Florida for people who hate winter. Come on down!!

lamizner said...

You will play golf in any weather condition and temp

Kay said...

brave to live in Maine..look forward look forward

Susan Roux said...

Oh Kevin, good thing you're coming to visit! Sounds like it's been a terrible season for you. Glad you didn't leave your germs behind on Thursday...

See you soon!

Thanks for the laugh.

Suzanne Roberts said...

I love reading your blog. Your insight into all things art is refreshing. As a fellow Mainer I ..feel your pain, as the winter is now too much for me. I coped out and am now in sunny Florida.

Debbie said...

...summer is your favorite week there in Maine... OMG, I'm still laughing. I hear Ya!! Winter's been a drag, and summer seems so short, but you're right, March starts tomorrow and at least that is a light at the end of the tunnel.

Virginia Floyd said...

Great post! Sorry, but you had me laughing over your misery. I've never experienced winter in Maine, but I have lived in Texas in August. I'll still take our month of misery versus your six months of it.

Stephanie Berry said...

Just discovered your blog--will follow now--very entertaining! I ask myself all the time (well, 6 months of the year) Why do we live in Maine?