Coldest night of the year

I thought I'd start this with a little topical Bruce Cockburn:

I got the chance to see Cockburn on tour a couple of years ago, and it was one of the best concerts I've ever been to; I think he's probably the best guitarist I've ever seen live, even at 70. I was introduced to him by my college freshman roommate, who was a guitarist, and Cockburn was on the downslope of his career even then. He wasn't somebody I had ambition to see, but when the chance came up I jumped at it, and I'm glad that I did. We weren't even the youngest people at the show, which still happens a lot at the sort of concerts I prefer even as I'm getting ready to hit 40. Which is worrisome.

Anyway, it's cold here - colder than it has been since two years before I first heard of Bruce Cockburn, though I remember that week well, and we regularly have a January week here when nobody wants to go outside.

I haven't been doing too well at the "trying to keep the latent depression from crystallizing" part. As I predicted three weeks ago, my productivity has seen a sharp decline, and I'm basically at a point where nearly all of my energy is going just to getting from one minute to the next. I have a little hope that will ease off as the cold does; we're supposed to have a brief respite of above-freezing temperatures this weekend, which might help.

But realistically I'm going to continue to be pretty out of it through February, and you shouldn't expect to see me around very much. I'm going to be focusing on necessary maintenance rather than advancement - I'm keeping up with any @cryptogamestrat signups, but adding to that program will have to wait a bit. Otherwise I'm going to be using my minimal energy on things with necessary deadlines like taxes (the first set of which are due on Friday) and renewing my drivers' license. I really don't enjoy having my birthday in the middle of seasonal exhaustion.

Anyway, I just wanted to make a post since it's been more than a week, and it might be a while before the next one. I'm not leaving, just away for a while coping with reality. I'll be back when it's warm, if not before. (That being, like, over 50 F here. Probably not warm to most of you.)

(Posted on SteemPeak using Keychain, which they recently added. This makes me happy.)