The heat is on!

This, the fourth day of the tenth month of the ..well, today, was when the central heating came on in my house for the first time in over four or five months. I was dreading this day. I HATE winter, especially since I started driving last winter. I mean, having spent 22 years of my life thinking winter was when I sweat a little less than normal, this has been by far the worst part about my US experience. (Other than missing friends, family, and vada-pav!) Living most of the year (try 8 out of 12 months!) with the windows shut, heating on, socks on, early nights, brown and bare trees, wearing the same old boring coat every day, clunky shoes, ice-capades and skidding tires, shoveling, waaaaah!! Talk about being SAD! There's a documented disorder, by the way, called Seasonal Affective Disorder, which strikes several people in the colder regions of the world during the colder parts of the year. It has something to do with low levels of light and decreased production of serotonin in the body etc.
Last winter, a neat thing happened..it snowed and snowed till May, so I could sing the Eddie Vedder song "Man of the hour" from the movie Big Fish, and really mean the line "A snowflake falls in May"!! And that, is one of the few happy snow memories I have. I have tried the snow angels thing, the drinking hot chocolate thing, the Christmas shopping thing...none of it works outside of the movies, believe me! One other happy snow memory I have is that of watching snowflakes on my black coat...they really are BEAUTIFUL! Each is hexagonal but with a different pattern, but they dissolve sooo quickly it makes me sad again. Oh, well...that's life, I suppose..enjoy it before it melts away!