Things I Hate About Winter

I know this day is all about love, so maybe I should delay this post until after midnight, when we can go back to being grumpy and unlovey.
I am done with winter.
I am making lists in my head about the things I hate about winter. Here it is, version one:

1. Chapped lips.
2. Not having any Carmex to treat #1 and realizing that cherry chapstick just makes the irritated lips sting more.
3. Ice so persistent that it gives you insight into how the glaciers must have been formed.
4. Wearing your boots so many days that they lose their novelty. (I am contemplating new fun ones, but not sure that these might seem too 'Nanook meets Pocahantas.')
5. Losing a mitten.
6. Needing mittens.
7. I miss my deck, sitting outside with my laptop on a warm day with a glass of iced tea.
8. Windchills that fall double digits below zero.
9. So little sunlight. Sunshine is just 19% of normal this month.
10. Driving is so much harder. (Fear of black ice spinouts.)
10b. Potholes.
11. Something weird is going on with our back door that it seems to swell as the temperature drops and it's nearly impossible to close, at least with just one arm. This defies reason, since I thought heat made materials swell, but our hypothesis is that maybe some moisture got into the wood and it freezes and therefore expands the door. Perplexing.
12. Today was the first in six where the temperature went above freezing. We were giddy with how "warm" it was, a definite sign we've lost touch with reality.
13. Bundling up for the cold walk to the train station, then getting on the hot passenger car and trying to get all the bundling off before I start to sweat like crazy. There must be a trick to proper venting. I haven't learned it yet.

I know that not so long ago I might have given the impression that I was enjoying winter. Ice skating. Pictures of snowmen. I didn't mention it, but it is kind of nice that our fireplace works this year.

But this is too much. It's like snowstorms don't even make the news anymore. I wake up with the snow is falling and I say to myself, "Huh, SuperSever DopplerMax StormTracker didn't tell me this was coming. Why didn't my meteorologist ask me to panic?"