January 45th

By Lou & Kathleen Pastina

Is it me or does it seem like January has 45 days in it? I mean it’s dark every day, sometimes it rains, sometimes it snows, it’s always cold, and did I say it’s dark every day?! The dunes at the beach seem to be getting larger every week, even the seagulls seem depressed. It feels like when we leave the house, we rarely see anyone because everyone is in Florida. Occasionally someone will call from Florida and let us know how nice the weather is down there. Oh brother!

When you get older, time is supposed to go faster to remind you that the end is closer than you think. But January is an anomaly, time goes slower in January, kind of like we are stuck in some Alaskan town where it’s night for three months, and no one knows when the sun will ever shine again. No wonder why depression is so high in Scandinavian countries. Which, by the way, I can never understand, everyone who lives there, men and women, look like super models. Don’t they have any ugly people there?

Of course, we do have February to look forward to, but wait, oh yeah, this is a leap year, so we get an extra day in February. Maybe that’s why January feels longer, like there is a backup in February backlogging January. So, in addition to January feeling like it has forty-five days, we get a February with twenty-nine, terrific! I wonder if daylight saving time plays a factor in all this, I mean every year we hear, “this is the last year of daylight saving time.” Maybe we are just in an extended version of Groundhog Day, and we are going around in circles. Where is Bill Murray when you need him?

Maybe if Rockaway had an outdoor winter festival, it would bring some light and laughter to these long winter months. After the holidays, all the lights come down and everything goes back to being drab. We don’t have any mountains here, so skiing and tobogganing are out. Ice skating maybe? Perhaps a big ice-skating rink in Riis Park parking lot with stuff for kids on the weekends in these months leading up to spring might cheer us all up. I mean how many polar plunges can one do before you realize that the water is cold.

The weekends in January and February are a good opportunity to get away, but you must make reservations or get in a car or on a plane (hopefully one that the doors stay shut); just too much to do! I know, I know, seems like I am complaining a lot here, and in all honesty, I certainly am. I just want this month to be over already, so we can get a little closer to summer with sun and warm waves. But I shouldn’t count my chickens before they are hatched, this could be the big cicada year when all those annoying bugs make their appearance and disturb the summer quiet, leaving me pining for fall and winter.

I guess I just feel time more. There are no good shows on the ridiculous number of different streaming networks that I now seem to pay for but seldom watch because I don’t know what’s coming on when. Or maybe I finally have become my cranky old uncle who used to yell at kids sitting on our stoop to go sit on their own stoops.

There are some great signs of life around though; music in places like Pico, Tap That, Adrienne’s, and opportunities to explore new foods and craft drinks. There are yoga workshops everywhere, even popping up in the former Coastal Yogurt place on Beach 109th Street. There is sunshine around, you just must look harder to find it.

If you see me around town, just give me a conspiratorial wink so that I know you feel the same way too! We will get through this winter together, like we always do! See you around town!