SAD (Sylvester Affective Disorder)

Do the winter months get you down more than you think they should? If so, you might have seasonal depression, also known as seasonal affective disorder (SAD).

Or, in our house, Sylvester affective disorder.

SAD is a kind of depression that tends to occur (and recur) as the hours of daylight grow shorter during the fall and winter months. In a nutshell, the disorder seems to be the result of inadequate exposure to bright light during the winter months.

There is a cure.

I'm not sure if I was a cat in a previous life or Sylvester was a Robyn in one. We both must have sunshine!

You can see from the photo above that her solution is to grab every drop of sunshine possible as often as possible. At this point in the winter, I am not opposed to getting down on the rug and sitting next to her either. We are solar sisters, after all.

With the snow, freezing rain and fog out of the way, we had some real sunshine finally. Temps got into the mid to upper 30s which meant three things: ice was melting, school was back in session and there was no need for a winter coat!

Yes, for real we are that brainwashed in the Midwest that temps reaching close to 40 mean no jacket required. Since I have a crazy cold and runny nose this week, however, I did wear a jacket! (No worries, Mom.)

The melting ice helped our hired hand make progress on the driveway, though.

Not hired hand, just ambitious nephew! We now have a good third of the driveway cleared and you see how much ice is left to get chipped and shoveled out or maybe just pushed aside as it melts. Sylvester and I are pleased to report the temperatures will be warm enough for a meltdown the next few days. Plus we are gaining 2 minutes of daylight every day this week!

Unfortunately, it is also supposed to start raining tonight and rain every day in the foreseeable future. There goes the sun.

That makes us SAD. How about you?