I Can’t Wait for Winter

The cold never bothered me anyway.

We had a fire to celebrate the Fall Equinox this week. My partner and I aren’t particularly religious, but the bits and pieces we have tend to lean more towards the pagan end of things. Having a fire on the Fall Equinox and Winter Solstice are some of the minor traditions we adhere to most years, assuming that we can.

These traditions were originally a group activity, where we would get together with friends and light a fire for the Winter Solstice. We would all write down wishes for the new year, fold them up however we wanted, and ceremonially burn them. This makes it sound like we all stood around chanting in robes, but it was more like sitting around a fireplace or fire pit and chatting.

Since work has been stressful this year, my partner and I decided to do it this year. It was a nice evening: partly cloudy, cool but not cold with only a light breeze. My kind of weather, honestly.

My favorite seasons are fall and spring — the cool, crisp nights are accented by warm but not hot days, which makes going outside a pleasure. If I had to pick one, I’d go with fall, since I like the thought of all of the mosquitoes and other obnoxious bugs dying soon.

That said, I really do like winter a lot. The cold weather is sharp but nice, and now that I work from home and don’t have to drive in the snow unless I want to, it’s nearly perfect. I can take or leave the holidays; there are a lot of bad memories associated with Thanksgiving and Christmas, but now that I’m free of my family obligations, it’s been improving.

It didn’t used to be like this. When I was young, my favorite season was summer. Summer meant vacation, pool time, and not having anything to do. It brought vacations and Boy Scout camp, things that I looked forward to with gusto.

Of course, after I became an adult, summer didn’t mean much of anything to me. I had to work regardless, so I couldn’t enjoy the hot weather as much. It didn’t help that I had a job at a grocery store that involved pushing carts around a hot parking lot regularly.

However, that job did bring me one bit of respite: I eventually got transferred to the Produce department with its two coolers, one kept at 42F and the other kept at 34F. My job was to cut fresh fruit for the fruit bowls that were put out each day, and my workstation was in the first cooler. As such, I spent about seven hours literally chilling at refrigerator temperatures.

At first, I had trouble with it and would wear long sleeves to do my job. However, between the sleeves getting in my work and getting used to the temperature, I eventually stopped wearing them, opting for the short-sleeve uniform polo with no jacket. The cold just stopped bothering me.

So, as time went on, I transitioned into a cold-weather person. Aside from snow, which I hated driving in, I tended to enjoy the winter season much more than I had. Sitting in a cool house, bundled up in blankets and drinking hot coffee or cider became my go-to seasonal activity. Wearing warm sweaters and fleece-lined pants are some of the things I look forward to. I’ve even started wearing flannel shirts.

So, now that we are moving into the fall season in the northern hemisphere, I sit eagerly awaiting the onset of the colder weather to come. Celebrating that weather with a fire seems like a nice thing to do. As my partner and I sat outside, watching the fire burn in our tiny fire pit, I commented that we need to do this more often. She agreed.

We’ve turned off the air conditioning for the moment to open the windows, and I’m looking forward to playing “furnace chicken,” the game where we see how cold it has to get before we turn the heat on. It helps that the ambient temperature in the house is 69F during the day and 65F at night.

Yes, soon it will be winter, and what a joy it will be. The cold days and colder nights; the snap of frost on the grass; and the sight of my warm breath in the cold air. These are the things that I look forward to.

Oh yeah, and the dead mosquitoes. I can’t wait for that.

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