Gloomy weather brings up queries

The weather’s uninviting, the days are gloomy and the post-holiday questions pile up like calories from all those Christmas treats.
Questions like:
•When’s the best time to unplug the holiday lights? I tend to want them on 24 hours a day from Christmas Eve to New Year’s Day, but sometimes I’m overruled. Still, they look festive even when February is approaching, so why unplug them at all?
•When did New Year’s Eve become a boring event? Or is that simply a function of my age?
•Am I the only one who remembers the first artificial Christmas trees? I’m talking about the shiny aluminum ones that came with a spotlight and a rotating wheel of colors. What were folks thinking when they bought those?
•Did any Christmas present ever feel better to give than the first one you bought with your own money that you’d earned yourself? Wasn’t that the moment you understood what they mean by “the joy of giving”?
•Isn’t it only a matter of time before some marketing genius comes up with a snappy name for the period between New Year’s and the Super Bowl? Something like “footballia” or “NFLius” that would require buying more nachos and cheese dip?
•Wasn’t that eggnog you bought in December kind of a goofy impulse purchase? How long do you suppose it will be before it goes bad in the refrigerator? Does anyone really, truly like eggnog? And whose idea was it anyway?
•Have Amazon wish lists made Christmas shopping easier? Or have they taken away the magic of surprise? Or is it a little of both?
•Don’t you still feel guilty about the first time you learned what you were getting for Christmas in advance?
•Monday night’s game aside, don’t you have fond memories of the old college bowl game system, before the bowls all had corporate names?
•Isn’t it a safe bet that the halftime show at the Super Bowl will be overblown, overrated, over-criticized and a waste of time?
•Do you still get nervous when the weather in January gets a little freaky and begins to resemble the period around the ice storm of 2005?
•Wouldn’t it be a safe investment bet this winter to buy some stock in the company that makes SmartWool socks?
•Isn’t one measure of the quality of a neighborhood determined by how well the walks are shoveled after a snowfall? Shouldn’t I be outside right now clearing away the stuff that drifted in late last week?
•Which is more irritating: Having a visitor from the South tell you how pretty the snow is or hearing from a buddy in Florida or Arizona in January?
•Do you take a certain guilty pleasure when The Weather Channel runs footage of people driving badly on ice in Atlanta after a snow that wouldn’t slow down the Midwest for a second? Of course you do.
•Was baseball spring training invented just to give winter-weary people something to daydream about? Can it come soon enough?
You know the answer to that last one: Nope.