Winter doesn’t officially arrive until Dec. 21 at 10:19 P.M., yet you’d have a hard time convincing some people that it didn’t arrive yesterday. Some areas got walloped with quite a bit of the white stuff while other areas, like Regina, didn’t seem to get a lot that actually stayed on the ground.

It’s odd that we always associate winter with snow, and not the actual arrival of winter. If we have a snowy and cold October and November, we’ll often complain about how bad of a winter it’s been, even though winter doesn’t arrive until December. If we get some warm weather in April or May, we never comment on what a great summer it’s been. Hey, we know summer doesn’t arrive until June. Up until then it’s “Wow, what a nice spring we’ve had.” If people complain about winter in November I’ll always point out, “Hey, it’s not even winter yet.”

The one thing I really dislike about winter is the fact that we seem to live in perpetual darkness. A lot of people go to work in the dark and come home after work in the dark. It’s all somewhat depressing.

I’ve never been a “winter person,” but I’ve definitely become less of one as I’ve gotten older. When I was a kid my friends and I would think nothing of shovelling the snow off an entire street in minus 30 degree weather for a good old fashioned game of street hockey. Now I hate having to go out in the cold weather to shovel what little sidewalk we have in front of our house.

The only winters I’ve enjoyed were the ones when I lived in the Caribbean. A sunny, 30 degree Christmas Day didn’t bother me at all. Visions of Santa arriving in a speedo to drop off gifts for the boys and girls might have been a little unsettling, but like they say, you can’t have it all.

Enjoy this winter weather with the knowledge that winter won’t even be here for another 3 months!