Sunday, October 25, 2009

Two word boycott - won't you join me?

We live in Upstate New York, about 60 miles or so from Niagara Falls. While I'm sure there are some areas of the country that have well-behaved, evenly spaced out seasons, that is so not the case around here. Let's see: 12 months divided by four seasons = about three months per season. Unh uh, not here. We get spring for about six weeks, summer for about 12 weeks, fall for eight weeks and the remaining 26 weeks are given over to that bully of the calendar: winter. That's about six and a half months or more than half a year. Not fair.

So, while it probably won't help make the cold and gray season go any faster, I'm going to strike two words from my vocabulary until next spring. The words I do not plan to say for the next several months are winter and snow.

I don't have to give in to acknowledging either one of these and it will be interesting to see how long I can go without uttering either of these. Heck, there are lots of synonyms and ways to make myself understood without sinking to their level. I don't want to give them any more attention and perhaps they'll just slip way quietly in a more sensible time frame than we previously have experienced.

Before moving to this area 18 years ago, we lived in Minnesota for 11 years. While it was colder than anything I had ever experienced before, it was beautifully sunny most of the "W" season. All crisp, crunchy white stuff under foot and bright blue skies above. I was fine with that. Here we exist in a dull gray cocoon of unending clouds that stretch across the horizon. Ugh. Pretty soon the news reports will be filled with stories of Sun Affective Disorder and how getting sunshine is so important to people's well being and moods.

Anyway, I'd be happy to sign you up to help with the boycott. The more the merrier and maybe -- just maybe -- if enough of us don't use those two words for the next 6.5 months, we can survive the season with good humor and better cheer!

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