Is "brey" a color? ...

... or how about "bran"? Or "greytanandbrown"?

That's the only semi-quantitative thing I can say about the Minnesota landscape this time of the year - the pervasive color pallette of dead vegetation. Everything else that pops in to my mind is more qualitative: drab, dreary, dreadful and my favorite in the alliteration parade, depressing.

I definitely know I have a little SAD in the late fall and early winter, and I think I did an okay job this winter by working out regularly and trying to soak up what little sun was out there to combat it. I even took some Vitamin D to help boost lowered levels caused by living in this northern wasteland.

And, I thought I was doing fine ... until Daylight Saving Time ran me over like a truck full of anvils going 90 mph down an incline. It completely f'ed up Peter's schedule too, much to Laura's (hi, honey!) and my chagrin - he's still not back to his pre-DST bedtime.

Don't get me wrong, the increased daylight is a small joy in my heart these days, but the newest bee in my bonnet is the horribly bleak weather and the dead landscape. At least the snow covered all of the imperfections (like the leaves and trash in my backyard) and made everything look clean and bright. Now, with the snow cover caput, everything has the run-down, weathered and deflated look of a neglected compost pile.

arrgh. Can't even muster a capital "A" these days.

To paraphrase one of my favorite movie lines: "This is our most desperate hour. Help me, spring; you're my only hope."