There are other kinds of worst days, but today is the worst one of the regular calendar year for me. We turn back the clocks AND we have the first frost tonight.
I'm not totally grumpy. Older son is singing to himself while making breakfast which is actually cheering me up. We usually have breakfast with him before he goes to sing in choir (oh, I'm not singing today,even though I hoped to be back in choir in November, because it's a feast day and there will be incense. I can manage breathing incense some of the time (I never enjoy it), but I've had really bad allergies and asthma the last two weeks so there's no way I can go sing).*
The other three of us that are home (daughter is at her church), had breakfast an hour ago. We woke up at the same time as usual - by the sun, which means that, clock-time-wise, we woke up an hour early. We ate breakfast at the same time, sun-wise, because we were all getting hungry and didn't want to wait for the right time.
I know all the stuff about changing the clocks back for the farmers and the kids at bus stops. I was a kids at the bus stop back in the 70's when we didn't go off of Daylight Savings time for one winter.** I understand it for that. It doesn't mean that I enjoy it.
I really hated it when I worked in insurance. I could only exercise while taking walks during lunch. Jogging after dark wasn't safe so I didn't jog during the week unless I drove to one of the universities and jogged there. It's much better now - I can arrange homeschooling around a mid-day walk or go to dance/Zumba in the evenings. However, there won't be any weekday walks, even in the twilight, with dear husband until the time changes back in March. He doesn't get home early enough. We do lots of wintertime walks in the dark - pretty in its own way, but not really good for people with seasonal depression. I also hate doing all the evening driving around totally in the dark - particularly on rural roads with psycho deer: "Look! It has lights! It will be my friend!"
The first frost just makes today worse. Instead of planting pansies this afternoon, we'll be putting away most of the clay pots and yard ornaments, although we'll keep some of the pots of annuals in the garage. After tonight, we'll have another week until it gets this cold again. I should pull up the impatiens and the nasturtiums in the flower beds because they turn to disgusting slime when they freeze. Right now, I'm typing this at the kitchen table while glancing at marigolds, nasturtiums, cleome, geraniums, tithonia, argeratum, hyacinth beans, two new annuals whose names I don't remember, and a bounty of morning glory flowers - all in pots on our back deck. We'll try to cover them tonight, but, even if they don't freeze, they'll be damaged by the tarp.
Today has its excellent points, however - it's sunny rather than rainy & gloomy, and, most importantly and happily, all five of us are going to my Mother's house for dinner!
[Later]
Here's the deck the way it looked while I was writing this post this morning:
The morning glories grew all over the deck and climbed up the tithonia all summer - then they started blooming beautifully in October. I'm glad I left them.
I planted these two for the hummingbirds - who loved them.
* Older son is busy with a show the next three weekends - move in next weekend and then two Sunday matinee performances. If I go to choir those Sundays, I'd go by myself, which is very lonely so I'll have to see. :P
** It actually wasn't that big a deal for me, and I just looked forward to the sun coming up during Social Studies, but I can see that it could be a problem for kids who are in more dangerous situations than standing on a suburban driveway.