"The Charbor Chronicles": Some Thoughts About This Winter

If you are like me, then you find winters can be a bit stressful. At least in northern New Jersey, winter can be more stressful and annoying than the other seasons. Summer is likely the other annoying season, because it can get oppressively hot and muggy. And autumn can be a bit depressing, especially the latter part of autumn, when the days grow very short, and the conditions come closer to winter. Springtime can be quite rainy, to the point where it gets to be too much. In terms of weather, the best parts of both the spring and autumn are, frankly, far too short.

Still, winter takes the cake when it comes to stress. Having to drive with white knuckles in slippery snow or, - far worse - ice is more than a tad nerve-wracking. That is especially true with all of the idiots on the road, especially those who are overconfident in their own abilities to handle these conditions, and they tend to be in the bigger vehicles, the oversize pick-up trucks and SUV's. Having to scrape ice off the windshield and making sure to warm up the engine for several minutes while you wait in the frigid conditions is also u\quite unpleasant. So is shoveling snow. Treading very carefully as you walk on ice patches and perhaps slipping or, worse still, not seeing the ice until it is too late, and either falling or coming close to falling, is yet another of winter's charmless aspects. Hell, even needing to bundle up every time you go out when it is too cold not to can grow tiresome. Sometimes, you miss the lightness with which you can go out without worrying about forgetting a jacket or hat or gloves, and regretting it later.

Here's the thing: I actually can still enjoy the cold, wintry conditions. Even the very short days. They have a certain charm to them, especially leading up to, and right around, the holiday season. You expect the cold, and it can actually add quite a bit to the magic and charm of the holidays when they are at their best. It feels good and natural through the holiday week, and perhaps a bit past the New Year. But then, as January gets on, it starts to grow a bit tiresome. Yet, you still have all the rest of January to go, and there is still February and March to go. It can feel just way too long.

Now, that is true of winters in general. But I must admit that this winter has felt particularly annoying and stressful. At some point, we entered a phase - one that is still going - where it will be intensely cold, well below freezing, for a number of days. Then, we will have a day or two where it is well above freezing temperatures (although it is often rainy), and it feels like a bit of a break. However, it inevitably gets to be intensely cold again. Perhaps one way to view this, a more hopeful way, is to think of those warmer days and periods as a break from the deep freeze. Yet, it is difficult sometimes not to think of it in a very different way, as the intensely cold, subfreezing wintry conditions inevitably returning.

That is how this winter has been going. It just feels like it keeps going on and on like this. Just deep freezes and temperatures well below freezing and, too often, this is accompanied by bitter winds. There may be days when we have cold temperatures like that, but at least without the teeth that the winds can add. Then, we have these teaser days, often not lasting more than a couple of days, quite literally. But we then return back to intensely frigid temperatures, often well below freezing. This winter, I regularly have to traverse a driveway that was never shoveled (because nobody lives there to take care of the snow and ice regularly), and where the snow turned to very hard, packed ice. That makes walking across this short distance tricky and potentially dangerous. A source of stress and annoyance, in other words.

So yeah, you bet that I am looking to a break from all of this, once the springtime returns.

Still, it is really only early February as I write this. We are approaching mid-February, but not quite there yet. That means that we have the bulk of February to go, and then there is still March, which feels like it should be spring, but often is not yet quite like that once it actually arrives. March is one of my favorite months, though. The light is clearly visible at the end of the tunnel, and usually, you get some days where warmer temperatures by late in February and early in March.

Also, it is too easy to get dispirited and discouraged about winter if you focus too exclusively on the negative aspects of it. There are some positives. Again, it can have a certain charm, and this is especially evident,as mentioned earlier, during the holiday season. You can breathe better, and the breaths feel fresher. You really feel them more when it is cold, then when it is hot and stuffy. Finally, winter can be beautiful in it's own right. The snow falling is undeniably beautiful aesthetically speaking, as is a world suddenly made quiet and pristine under a blanket of freshly fallen, soft white snow. In fact, some of my favorite pictures that I have taken over the years were after some kind of a snowfall. It just makes the world look a bit more exotic and peaceful, almost.

Also, let us not forget the thought that had been expressed before that the excesses of winter allows us to appreciate the milder temperatures all the more. By the time spring comes, the season of new life and new birth, we can truly appreciate it. That is how I personally try to approach things.

So with that in mind, and to try and conclude this piece on a more positive and appreciative note, I am posting some pictures from years past of winter scenes. Most of them are from in and around Hillsborough and Princeton, which are fairly near to one another. There are also some pictures from Wawayanda, which is the northern part of New Jersey, and among the foothills of the Kittatinny range. With higher elevations, generally, comes more snow. Enjoy these pictures, and hopefully, I do not get either in an accident or some kind of slip and fall that causes injuries to make me regret posting these pictures, and trying to finish my winter piece on a positive, more hopeful note.

Winter Scenes From Wawayanda, New Jersey