January 31, 2004 - 11:00 am
This is not the most wonderful time of the year.
It seems that once Christmas and New Years are gone, winter just loses all of its novelty. Part of it is because those holidays are so important to me that through some sort of classical conditioning, I get happy when winter starts to come. But once I know its over, the wind takes on a new chill and I brace myself for months of misery.
I just feel restricted by winter. For me, someone who hates the cold, winter means a severe limitations on travel. Snowstorms aside for a moment, let's talk about foot travel. In the summer, when I'm at work and have an errand to run, there's no problem just hoofing it 8-10 blocks. In the winter, however, I have to fuck up my whole day, get in my car and drive that distance, and perhaps have to deal with parking issues once I get there, since half the spots are filled with snow.
And snowstorms. We've already had a few, and it's fucking up things big time. Grrrr to snowstorms. I was lucky that my car was in the shop during the last really big one, so I didn't have to drive, but even walking during those babies can be torture.
I. hate. snow.
Also, it's expensive. I spend much more money in the winter because of things like parking. First off, the residential spots becomes limited as snow is plowed into them, making parallel parking impossible in the tighter spots. Also, the fact that it's 7 degrees outside (though with windchill, they say, it feels like -14) means I'm sure as fuck not walking for 15 minutes to and from my parking spot before and after a day of hiking my ass around campus all day. This means an expensive habit of parking in the meter lot or even, dare I say it, the parking structure. I won't tell you how much it costs me. I'll just shudder instead.
And then there is just the long list of things that you have to do in the winter, like warming up and brushing off your car, shoveling sidewalks and all of that other crap that requires increased time spent outside, and direct result of winter and only winter. Sonofabitch!
So yeah, I hate winter.
The End.
