Anyone else feel just plain blah?
The holidays are long over, winter is here, and the temperatures are frigid.
All this wouldn’t be so bad if, say, the Red Wings were worth watching, you know? Or the Pistons even. At least Tigers spring training is approaching. When did the Lions’ season end?
Alas, these are the dog days of winter when the routine is seemingly get up, get the kids off to school, head to work, put in your time, head home for dinner, enjoy family time, then hit the hay.
Rinse. Repeat.
It’s tough to stay motivated this time of year. What do we have to look forward to? Spring Break is over a month away and Memorial Day weekend even further away.
Is anyone else like me where you look at your schedule and when you see nothing is planned for a certain night, you instantly think, “Ooh, that’s a great night to jump in bed and just stay there?”
Yeah, same here.
Winters in Michigan – and this is my 42nd – are always doom and gloom. People forget how to drive in snow flurries, other people whine that it’s “so cold,” and schools now close more often for the weather. Nothing new, really.
Some weekends go by where we only leave the house to let the dogs out to do their business. Talk about cabin fever, you know? It’s tough, but as is life, it’ll get better. I promise.
Our family has recently delved into board games to take up time when we simply look outside and say, “Nope.” We played Monopoly as a family a few nights ago and before we knew it, two hours had passed. There’s one way to make time fly.
We also try and have a movie night once or twice over the weekend. Sometimes it works, sometimes we all crash on the couches and wake up at 3 a.m. with whatever movie we had on either on the menu screen if a DVD or a Roku, Hulu or Netflix main screen.
Yeah, we live on the edge in the Mackinder household. I mean, we have three kids with two dogs (sadly, it was three until last Friday. RIP our dear Eddie, who would have been 17 in July) and three cats. The animals used to outnumber the humans. What were we thinking? Anyway, although winter may get worse before it starts to warm up (in May), we’ll be fine.
Just stay warm, don’t eat the yellow snow, and keep your fingers crossed for sunshine.

— Matt Mackinder