It’s not really winter yet, in the strictest sense of the word. Really, “winter” isn’t all that fuzzy a concept, but today I felt winter hovering over me like a threat. And that’s without ever stepping outside, except to put one foot on the porch and gauge how wintry it actually was. Pretty wintry, as it turned out, for the North Bay in late October. The breeze snapped like winter, and the sky certainly had the look of it.

Even with the disjointed sleep pattern that the end of daylight savings time brings, I found a burst of energy in the middle of the afternoon. Where it came from I have no idea, because I slept badly (and briefly) last night and woke up way too early this morning. Somehow I managed to finish all of the quarterly taxes that I hadn’t done earlier, so I can head into Monday morning with a clear conscience and a much-shortened to-do list.

When all of the Sunday sports I’d been using to keep me occupied ended (at least, the ones I was interested enough in to sit and watch), it was only 4:30 pm. I sat in the recliner and opened the novel I’ve been reading, but I couldn’t see the pages very well. I moved to the bedroom and sat on the floor in front of the westward-facing window, so I could let the last rays of sunlight help me get through a few chapters. But it didn’t get any later than 5:00 before I couldn’t see well enough to keep reading.

I’ll get used to the time change, but the shorter days don’t really agree with me. Yes, I’m a night person, but that doesn’t mean I want night to be endless and everlasting. I don’t want night to start at five o’clock in the afternoon. The extra daylight in the morning does me no good at all, since that’s the only time I can sleep. Something tells me I’ll be taking some midday naps for the next week or two, though. That’s what I do in the winter, to get myself through it.