[dogscoff]

Some ways of dealing with winter darkness and cold:

-It's easy to get blinkered by Christmas at this time of year: There's so much focus on it in the media and from families that you can completely forget about anything beyond it, and the autumn/winter months become a painful slog toward this one day (that you're already sick of by mid-november) with absolutely nothing on the other side.[1] Therefore, spend the next month or two making plans for fully appreciating next year's spring and summer: Get online and look up local summer festivals and events to attend. Buy tickets for gigs. Contact friends and relatives and arrange visits. Then, whenever winter gets you down, you can think about what a great 2006 you will have when it's all over. Also, watching less TV and deliberately avoiding/ ignoring all mention of Christmas until at least December 1st will help you actually appreciate it when it arrives.

-Keep busy. Nothing feeds depression like having nothing to do or to achieve. If you have nothing to keep you active, find something. Work on your cooking skills. Volunteer at your local homeless shelter. Learn to play the trumpet. It doesn't matter, as long as you feel you are getting something out of it.

-Go for long walks in the cold (even if you live in a city), to get that fantastic "coming back from the cold into a warm, cosy home" feeling when you return.

-Find yourself a local pub that contains a roaring log fire and an eccentric, talkative old man with a pipe and a wet dog. Have the old man tell you his rambling and improbable stories. [2]

-Finally, if you have the cash, cheat: Fly out somewhere hot and tropical. I know for a fact that Sri Lanka is utterly glorious at this time of year. From the US you might even be able to drive to a different season- you could go visit some of our south american shrapnellers.

[1] My local supermarkets are already selling Christmas mince pies. They have an expiry date in early november.

[2] If you find the pub but not the old man, then clearly there is a vacancy for you to become the old man. Grow some crazy whiskers, develop a taste for earthy old beers and pipe tobacco, and purchase a wet dog. Plant yourself firmly at the bar, invent some rambling and improbable stories, and inflict them upon any stranger who comes within range.