As Florida residents, we’re accused of having no change of seasons. This is far from true. In the Spring, we definitely note the rise in humidity as we approach hurricane season. Fall brings some color changes to certain trees although they don’t drop leaves. The morning air gets cooler, and the autumn scent is in the air. Summer is our rainy season with daily showers and high humidity. I love the smell of impending rain and the march of angry clouds across the horizon. But winters are why we live in Florida.
I don’t complain if morning temps start out in the low sixties and rise to eighty by noon. Other transplanted Northerners may whine about the lack of cold, but not me! I grew up in New Jersey, and you can have the ice and snow. Winter here is delightful when it’s mild. In South Florida, you can smell orange blossoms as you stroll past manicured lawns. Brilliantly colored flowers grace the landscaping, and palm fronds wave in the breeze. So why would we experience doldrums under these ideal conditions?
It’s not as though we live up North where the days are short and so are the tempers. Some folks, I understand, love winter. Skiing, sledding, skating—you name it, they love bundling up with the sting of bitter cold in their nostrils. Other people hate the tedium of shoveling snow and sloshing through slush for endless gray days. But the one thing we all face is that the holidays are over and now it’s business as usual.
Yep, we have to get back to work after a hectic month of parties, gift exchanges, and feasts. The long winter stretches ahead. How can we make it through? (And how can we lose the weight we gained?)Here are a few suggestions:
- Stack up a pile of favorite books to read. Maybe you asked for them on your holiday gift list, or loaded them into your new ebook reader. But each evening, you’ll have something exciting to anticipate.
- Look for a new author who has written several books in a series you might enjoy. Try one, and get hooked on them all.
- Cozy up on the couch with some movies you’ve always wanted to watch or a television series that you can view from Season 1.
- Play with your new technology and learn how it operates. Cell phone? iPad? Nook?
- Take a class in a new subject.
- Start an exercise program or buy a new workout DVD. Use a Wii with exercise programs.
- Determine to eat healthy and try out new recipes, maybe take a cooking class with a friend.
- Join a book club, sewing circle, or knitting group, or volunteer your services, anything that gets you out of the house and into the company of others beside writers.
- Plan a vacation or a dinner party. Either way, figuring out the details will keep you busy in a happy way.
- Share the love. Shower your pet with affection. Call a friend you haven’t contacted in months. Do something special for a loved one.
- Set your goals for the New Year. Having a purpose will drive you forward.
What advice would you offer for beating the January jitters and the winter blues?
Nancy, I love each and every one of these. In Ohio, we DEFINITELY have seasons and one of them is called winter. Any and all of your suggestions work and work and work well at this time of year.
One thing I started doing long ago with my sons is to drive or walk down a street that we would frequently pass but never use. We learned and found some pretty interesting things. I found on one such street a cottage, nestled between two bigger, younger siblings, that had been built in 1878. And so it goes. Anyway, thank you and Happy New Year.
Great list, Nancy, and a terrific description of why eveyone wants to be in South Florida this time of year. We’re having a few chilly days this week (it’s 45 this morning), but by this weekend, the highs will be in the 80s. Some of my favorite sounds of winter in SF: the thumping of fresh grapefruit or coconuts hitting the ground outside my window.
16 degrees in the North Georgia Mountains this morning and I have a vacation planned to go fishing on the gulf coast of Florida lingering on my horizon.
I want to hibernate this morning, but Nancy, your list has inspired me.
Inshore Snaggle-toothed Trout, Snook, and Cobia – vs – Grouper I just know are hanging out on those sunken ships under all that turquoise water…
Hmmm…I’ll bet there’s a story out there.
Thanks Nancy!
Toughest thing about winter is that I hate to be cold so it’s hard for me to motivate myself to get out and walk. And after the holidays and all that food–I DEFINITELY need to get out and walk!
I’m currently opting for the “take a class” option. Taking CSS/XHTML. It’s making my head explode, but that’s a good thing. 😎
And of course, trying to pace myself and write consistently each week.
Now I want to move to Florida.
Lovely post. Makes me want to clean out a neglected closet. Too bad I’m such a procrastinator.
Happy new year!
Joe, exploring a new street sounds like a cool idea. Joe, oh yes! I hear the coconuts plopping to the ground outside my office window, too. Paula, it’s a bit chilly in Florida right now even for fishing.
BK, you touched upon my problem with cold weather. Aside from wanting to hibernate inside a blanket, I gain weight. And I can’t go walking outside like I normally do. To compound matters at the present, I stubbed my little toe to where it’s quite bruised, and now I can’t do the exercise bike, either.
Jordan, come on down! We wimpy Floridians turn on the heat when the temps in the house drop below seventy. I’m too cold to clean out closets. Hot toddy, anyone? If you a have a Keurig coffeemaker, they have an apple cider that’s pretty good.
My new technology to learn is a Rokhu box–it lets you watch internet shows and content on your TV. I believe this will be the cause of many “lost” hours for me in 2012! Happy New Year, all!
Kathryn, we haven’t learned yet how to stream shows from computer to TV, although we have accessed the Internet on there. There’s always something new to learn with technology!
I was in NY for the Holidays . . . BRRRRR!!!!!! I realized again why I moved to south FL. I’m one of those folks who ceases to function under gray skies. And the cold?? Holy smokes. I’d end up one of those smelly old people who never budges from the fireplace. Taking clothes off to bathe just is not an option when the windows are frosted!!
That said, I see January as a genuine opportunity to create a whole new world. I might repeat activities from the year before, but you know what? I’m living my dream. This knowledge rocks me right into my computer chair and gets the muse flowing no matter what the weather. (I’m wearing my typing gloves with the fingertips cut off from my NY winter days as we speak cuz it’s brisk down here today. My kind of winter!)
BTW– I have a real estate license if any of our chilled northern friends want to relocate. Call me!
Kathleen, now you can understand why people didn’t bathe so often in the old days without central heating. Brrr! But gloves at the computer, really? Turn your heat up!
How quaint to talk about a “stack” of books! I used to gaze at my TBR pile when it got to be ten books high, and sigh. Now I’ve got 150 titles on my Kindle, from the complete works of Charles Dickens to the Hunger Games trilogy to e-books by indies. It’s a good thing I can’t “see” that “stack”…
Last week I spent four days at a youth camp enjoying temps as cold as -20f with a hundred teens and fifty college kids. And yes, we played outside a lot of it. Being back home in Anchorage where it is a balmy high of 9f is positively tropical.
I’ve lived the vast majority of my life in Alaska, but have been around a lot to warm places as well. As much as I really love the fireplace, playing in the snow, and feeling ice crust in my hair when I leave the gym, there are times that places like Florida, San Diego, or even…gasp…Hawaii sound really really good. Times like now as I recover from camping in the snow with a hundred teens and fifty college kids.
the camp Victory Bible Camp, 50 miles or so east of Palmer Ak. No cell service, no city lights, no traffic noise. Peaceful. Find it on a map and stare in awe of the off the grid remoteness to which we take our kids.
James, that’s exciting about your “stack” of ebooks. However, I have so many print books in my house that they’ll last a lifetime. Plus I have a Kindle. Too many wonderful choices these days! Do you delete a book from your Kindle after you’ve finished it?
Basil, that camp sounds like the setting for many a movie I’ve seen. Like disaster flicks, where the gaseous emissions from the earth go unnoticed by the innocent campers until the earth cracks and…you get the picture. OR the monster comes out of the woods. Or the campers see a fiery light descending from space. Or…you select the story. Sounds like a great setting. Oh, and you can have the cold!
Of course, in Australia we are in the middle of summer but we still all get the post Christmas slump…and it’s our long summer break here so parents get a bit desperate:). My boys are learning horseriding for a few days and then we are heading to the beach – assuming I can get my draft manuscript edited in time! Since we just had our first mini-heatwave we are also bracing ourselves for bushfire season. We live in a highly prone area so January spells a lot of anxious checking of weather forecasts, conditions and the bush around us… no time for the doldrums here! We’ll get those come July and August (when it’s winter for us!) For me, beating the winter blues involves reading lots and lots of books and watching BBC dramas on DVD:)