Ok so it is almost time for Blue Monday, apparently the most depressing day of the year, this year it is calculated to be on January 16th. This non-scientifically formulated date is not on the same date every year, but calculated to be around the third Monday of January (by "the winter/mental health experts") , it could be the forth or the second Monday. But the variables are calculated with 2017 Weather - Debt - Time Since Christmas - Time since failing New Years Resolutions - Low motivation levels.
So I did some of my own calculations… well if you live in Perth County it could start the minute it snows (if you don’t own a snowmobile). If you have to wake up and drive to work while it is dark it could start in November. Unless you work at Disney Land (no one gets depressed who works at Disney Land) however that would be a long drive from Perth County. Time since Christmas can be variable as I am still on holidays since Christmas, (Ok well I love my work so not really, I'm still gigging and teaching, but yes kind of) so this amount may vary for everyone (retired people, is it actually post-Christmas or pre-Christmas?) Debt.. Well if you went all out and racked up your credit cards (and still haven’t learned) well then this part can almost start prior to the unwrapping! But if it doesn’t, then that calculation will certainly be depending on your billing date of your next credit card statement. I think hand crafted gifts, made out of recycled items (left behind by my kids) could be a creative possibility next year to shopping and spending. (it would be the gift that keeps on giving:) I can see the "one lost sock coat" in my mind that I could create… look out Pook Touque!! And then there is the broken New Years Resolution. Well this year I decided to be pro-active and not make one! This way I can not break it! So that variable is not in my calculation, but really could start as quick as one minute after midnight to one day after for most resolutioners? Clearly this non-scientific calculation is just a guess. However it is pretty safe to assume that around the middle of January someone is going to be rather depressed… here are my calculations…. It has now been cold for at least a month, you have had to dig your car out from more than one snow bank and possibly driven though a white out or two. You wake up in the dark and most likely come home from work in the dark. You are lugging around another 10 lbs of fat after the loads of food you indulged in over Christmas. There may be turkey, stuffing and gravy coming out of your pours. You need to count the change rattling around in your pockets to buy a Timmies coffee because of all of the bills you threw around during the holidays, like confetti, like an excited child screaming WEEEEEEE…. Now a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday (Maybe not Friday, Saturday or Sunday because you can hide inside on these days) in mid January may all be the most depressing day of the year! You are slumped over (because it is more comfortable in your too tight of pants) watching the snow, bury you car yet again for the fourth time today. You wake up and look out the window into the darkness of morning, scrambling for that change in your pocket to freeze your buns off while silently praying "please let my window unfreeze before I get to the drivethrough window... to grab that coffee (which is most definitely the only thing that motivates you to even consider getting out of your warm bed on a cold January morning and into the not so great outdoors). This my friend is one of the most 31 potentially depressing days of January. Followed by hopeful February? Ummmm I don’t think so! My word of the month is patience, which fits in perfectly with a South Western Ontario winter... and Action, which means I may not be out walking in the blizzard but I have dragged my rower out of the back garage and it is now being used each morning for 20 min followed by Yoga for my aching body and guitar shoulder. Which leads me to my third word of 2017 Commitment! Oh ya! I’ll be fit and limber and patient by spring! Well of course unless I can have my January 2017 wish of being a bear!! Then I will see you when I am done hibernating!!
