well, you could.

people keep telling me they just don't know what to do. this is a general statement to which i nod and smile in equal parts agreement and laughable conundrumism. you don't know what to do, i don't know what to do. it's remarkable. it's kind of funny. it's kind of absurd. it's pretty true. but i think you could figure out something.

for example, several people specifically told me they don't know what to do about it being 55 degrees out in minnesota in january. with no snow on the ground. all winter. they just don't know what to do.

i told one lady we couldn't complain. i think she thought i was telling her to stop complaining. i felt bad, a little. but i don't know about you not knowing what to do about it being SPRINGTIME weather in january. so in case you told me that, and you are still stumped, here are some options.

you could go somewhere without a winter jacket [you know we dread the first cold day of winter on which we have to don them]. but maybe it's a security thing. we are minnesotan. we wear coats. we may choose not to zip them but that is our free choice! i think we also become overly accustomed to having large pockets in which to store all sorts of bulky goodies. use your hands! put the mittens back in your pockets and leave the coat behind! or leave the junk behind. or both.

you could go somewhere fun. to my knowledge, there have been approximately two days this winter where the weather posed a slight-to-middlin' threat for driving. i do not think i have seen a snowplow yet this year. we spent last winter driving what seemed like thousands of miles a month, in the worst winter weather i can remember. and this year, we don't go anywhere, and we don't even check the weather. because there is none. no winter weather advisories for us. no sir.

you could also do something fun. like going to the state park and hiking with a friend for three and a half hours. [that was last week's adventure day.] you could take your brother up on his offer to go for a bike ride, for example. [a bike ride? like riding a bike? no ice? no wind? no frostbite? no snowbanks? no vision-impeding drifts? no polar bears roaming around? this just doesn't happen here.] YES, you should definitely get your brother and your bikes and head out for a wild forest biking adventure. because you can. [and we did.]

that's the thing, you see. there are things you can do, which are really options, and there are things you can't do, which are really not options. it's easy to get sidetracked by the things you can't do, or the things you wish you could do, or the things you wish you were doing instead of the things you have to do or find yourself doing. but there are things you can do which do not break your heart, and those are the sort of things you should do when it's sunny in january. it's fifty-five and we're alive, kids! you could make puns, for example.

honestly, you could do nothing and keep complaining. but that is definitely the option we are trying to avoid.

or you could do one minorly awesome thing and sit back down in your house in amazement while the sun still shines, and glory in your singularly singular thing that you did. and write a blog about it.

nah.