I’m Asking The Oxford English Dictionary Board To Add More Words To Describe Gray
There is no sunshine here.
I live in Wisconsin, and we’ve had a particularly brutal winter this year. I’m not talking about blue-finger cold, but the smothering cloud cover that obliterates any chance of the golden liquor breaking through and rinsing your face with light. My sister has a solar-powered Xmas wreath and says it lit up two nights during the holiday season.
Don’t get me wrong; I expect glum in the Great Lakes region. Wisconsin is a cloudier state and living in Milwaukee by the lake is foggier yet. It’s typically gray in November and about half of December. Then January and February roll in, the temperature drops, and the sun appears, radiating happiness and cheer upon us. And even during the cloudy months, there were always two or three sunny days sprinkled in each week.
But this year, all of December and January have been entirely gray. When the sun teases us with a five-minute showing, I dash to our picture window, close my eyes, and stand in the glow. My SAD light just isn’t doing the job; too much concrete gray to cut through. It’s dreary.
Here are a few typical exchanges between my husband and me:
