in the dead of winter

This is the worst time of year. Its way too cold outside and it keeps me from doing all the things I love to do.  I love hiking, beekeeping, birdwatching and wandering around in gardens. All of things things are really unpleasant in the winter. Its two o'clock in the afternoon on a Saturday, 9 degrees outside and I'm bored out of my mind. This is the time of year I feel like I am going a little crazy. I am either depressed or angry and always for stupid reasons. I am not like this any other time of the year and I am one hundred percent certain its because of the lack of warm sun. I cannot watch my favorite channels on tv  (discovery, animal planet, food network, travel channel) this time of year because I am so emotionally sensitive that every every time one of those "feed the children" or "save the puppies" ads come on I am rendered to tears and I seriously consider emptying my entire bank account. I often catch myself picking fights just to have something to do. Last night I actually was offended by Greg when he said he would cook his own bison burger. I thought he was insinuating that he didn't like my cooking. When in reality he was just trying to make less work for me. All I want to do this time of year besides complain about the weather is sleep and eat. Its ridiculous. Perhaps I have this seasonal affective disorder (SAD) everyone talks about.

In order to help me combat this disease, I bought an elliptical machine. I've been working out about 4 days a week and it does temporarily make me feel better. Its also making my jeans fit a little better. One problem I do have is that I can only be on the elliptical machine for a half hour or so. What do I do with the other 23.5 hrs of the day?  How many of you out there get the winter blues too? What do you do to stay sane when you can't get outdoors?