Well, it really feels like winter now. The hard frost and temperatures in the teens we had earlier this week didn’t feel like winter in the North Bay. They just felt like a side trip to Wisconsin or New Brunswick or Siberia. (Someplace really cold. That’s what I’m going for.) Today it was grisly and drizzly all day, with some actual raindrops in the afternoon and rain tonight. No snow, though. That doesn’t belong here. It’s not part of our winter.

And it’s only what, ten days early? If spring comes a little early, I can stand a few extra days tacked onto the beginning of winter. Anyway, I’m adapting. I’ll be living in sweats for the next few months, and going out even less often than before.

Winter is here, so I’ll be turning on every light in the house as early as I need to. I’ll keep the furnace on as high as I think I can afford, and run the space heater whenever I feel the chill. I’ll drag down the mud boots from the loft and put them on every time I have to trudge up the drive to the mailbox. I’ll be making soups and stews and using them as comfort food, to replace the cookies and doughnuts I can no longer have. I’m adapting.

The other way I have of coping with the Dark Times is by surrounding myself with family and friends. I know that means leaving the house, since there’s nothing here for anyone, but I’m okay with that. Suzanne and I had coffee together this morning. We have two birthdays scheduled for next week, and then there are the serious holidays, where mirth and merriment override all the bad times and bad weather. If we can make it through what we’ve already endured this year, we can certainly get through the next three weeks, and the three months afterward that it takes for the sun to get revved up again.