The Grumpy Old Man version is “Standard; if you want another hour of daylight in the evening, get up an hour earlier.” (I’m of the mind that if you have a business and it doesn’t open until 10AM, it’s not a business, it’s a hobby. Most of the world around you has been up and moving since long before 10, you should be, too.)

As for “the cold,” I’ll – partially – agree with Neo; “regular” cold, not the bone cutting 20-below-zero stuff, is, indeed invigorating……right up until you realize that you’re condemned to suffer it for another 4 months. Flying in to an arctic wasteland, like Boston (more wasteland year ’round, than arctic, in my opinion, but….) for a several-day mid-winter sojourn can be a nice counterpoint. Day in, day out cold for months, though, can easily be mentally fatiguing in the extreme. Which is why God invented Spring.

Daylight Savings Time Delenda Est.
I wish DOGE could find some way to pronounce it Uneconomic and shut it down.

Regarding daylight and dark: a new German Shorthair Pointer came to live with us in May. We live in the country, so she has plenty of space to run behind the house, but being young she is attracted to the road in front of our place. So I try to let her out only with me, and keep her relatively close to me as we walk.

This was not a problem in May, when I could rise at 5:00 and walk with her. I’ve been able to do that regularly since then, but with later mornings this has been a problem. And now that I can no longer see my footing even as late as 6:30, I try to convince her to stay in until about 6:45. She is not affected by the dark, and does not understand. First World Problems.

That will make you SAD.

On dark days: My daughters gave me a “Happy Light.” If I sit with it about 20 minutes a day it helps with SAD. In our new location we’re up on a hill, with sky and hill views from every window, and that’s helping a lot.

Inadequate directions: My husband, with a handyman who has very tall ladders, installed a lift in the garage for canoe storage. They worked on it all day one Saturday, and finally gave up, leaving it dangling like a strange exhibit in a modern art museum. On Monday, they called the seller’s help line. Miraculously, they got a live tech to talk them through the installation. The tech said, yeah, their instructions were “for shit.”

Defeating the Demoncrats and making them look bad are good things!

https://commoncts.blogspot.com/2025/11/breaking-house-passes-bill-to-end.html

Been there done that bought the tee shirt [hoodie in winter]. Not the printer, but the poorly composed form. Good that you managed to get it right.

Best wishes on the books; congratulations (and I’m with ya about the sad aspect).