Each year at about this time, a good friend says to me: “It won’t be long before the days start getting longer!”

She, like me, doesn’t like the long nights of winter and can’t wait until the Winter Solstice has passed.

It is not the weather so much that I dislike about this time of the year… it is the short days and long nights. I really don’t “count-down” days to the Summer Solstice in June. I just lay back and enjoy the sunshine and live in the euphoria of summer like it will never end. But, the long nights of winter are, to me, a “bummer” and I can’t wait until the days start getting longer.

Of course, they get longer very slowly–only a minute or two a day at first. It isn’t until March that they really start getting longer so that you notice it much. But, as my friend, I am glad to put the Winter Solstice in the “rear view mirror,” so-to-speak, and start looking forward to Spring.

As Americans, we are a bit spoiled because we have Florida.

Not only are the days longer there in the winter, the sun is out and the temperature is warmer. But, I have a hard time getting excited about Florida.

It seems to me that most everyone there is from somewhere else, and they become just temporary neighbors during the winter months. After a couple of weeks in Florida, I start missing the Lake and the people at home and am ready to head back north.

In a nutshell, I guess you could say that by default, if nothing else, I am a Chautauqua County homebody. I don’t like the short days in winter, but I can put up with the snow easier than I can the glitz and impermanence of Florida… so I tend to hang around here.

Then you also have to have perspective. How would you like to live in Alaska or Norway where the sun barely comes up at all this time of year?

Though I have been to both places, I have gone there during their long summer days when the sun barely goes down.

I have no interest in “wintering north of 60.”

When you think about it, wintering here at 42 degrees North Latitude isn’t that bad. Before air conditioning, not many would have thought of living much further south. Here in the Southern Tier of New York was as far “south” as anybody needed to be.

Still, it is nice to be able to head down in that direction when the nights get long. Let’s face it, it is like most of life. There are “trade-offs.” We are fortunate in this country to have places to go that range from northern Maine to Key West.

Yet, as the robins and snowbirds go south this time of year… I think that I will stick around here with the chickadees and blue jays and wait for shorter nights and warmer days. They are coming.

Rolland Kidder is a Stow resident.