It’s the first day of December when I write this, and I’m feeling blah. SAD? Well, maybe just a little. (I recently heard a wag somewhere point out that when we whine about SAD, we’re really just talking about the bloody WINTER!)

It gets dark so early nowadays–at least in the northern hemisphere. It is the very lowest point in the baseball year, as well. The World Series finished over a month ago, and the winter meetings have not yet begun. Spring training is still many weeks away.

My Nationals did make a trade with Florida for a couple of decent players. Scott Willingham will swing a decent bat and probably play outfield (left?) for the Nats. Scott Olsen may well be the Nats de facto pitching ace now. If he can stay out of trouble (the kind of thing everyone was saying about Elijah Dukes last year), he’ll be good.

I have a new desktop/screen saver on my iBook laptop which is reminding me that it’s winter. It’s called EarthDesk. It shows a more-or-less real time image of the earth, centered on whatever spot you want, and showing the world map in whatever projection you choose. It also shows the sunlight and the darkness–which has made me very aware of the difference between winter (in the north right now) and summer (in the south).

It’s a bit depressing to see how short the days are in North America right now. But looking at the very long days down in southern Argentina and Chile reminds me that summer will come once again.

I am oh-so-very ready to return. Not because I look forward to rising at 5:15 AM, or even to having responsibilities to students and administrators in three different schools. Rather, I am looking forward to having some structure to my day.

The last ten days of Christmas break have been days of sloth for me. True, I completely produced two half-hour podcasts and recorded five others. But I’ve also spent the whole time sitting on my bottom, causing the discs in my lower back to compress further. I should have exercised–instead, I took too many naps. My wife and daughter and I all have acid indigestion this evening from all the junk food we’ve eaten the last several days. And above all, my motivation level has dropped to zero or below.

There are plenty of things I should have done during the break. I have checkbook registers to balance, bills to pay, midterm exams to write, tax records to prepare, and general cleaning, filing and straightening to do. Yet I’ve watched old movies on TV and slept very late every day.

Ah well. I should let it go. I think the worst thing about the break, really, is the guilt I feel now for not being “productive.”

I know I’m not the first one to complain about all the panic and consumerism around this season–I’ve been hearing this all my life, in fact. But Penne L. Restad’s piece gives me a nice, clear perspective on this history of my own anxiety.

(I think you have to register to read the Post online; sorry. But it is free.)