How to Survive the Long Upstate Winters

Brrr…it’s cold outside! For seasoned upstaters, thirty-five degrees is nothing. It’s fine. It’s above freezing. People in Miami pull out their fur coats when the temperature dips below sixty while Dade County newscasters warn listeners ‘Take in your orchids!’ If you’ve lived upstate long enough, you know that after a week of single digit or below-zero weather, if it gets to thirty-five, that’s balmy! It’s like springtime! Guys will wear shorts outside.

After a while though, the lack of sunlight and the freezing cold days may have an impact on you.

How do you survive the long cold upstate winters without going stir-crazy? The winds may be whistling through your Edwardian horsehair walls, but what about the arctic blasts circling the windmills of your mind? How do you survive these long winters without hanging on every comment of every thread in multiple facebook discussion groups or blog posts, waiting for the virtual town drama to unfold?

(Spoiler alert: Regardless of the topic or municipality, the comment threads almost always devolve into locals vs. newcomers. No one ever ends with: ‘Thank you for that perspective. Maybe you’re right. I never thought about it that way!’ If you are spending time arguing to change someone’s mind in an online discussion thread – well, good luck with that.)

What do you do to keep your level of sanity? Here’s some advice from a part-time drag queen/politician/cookie-maker. Take it with a grain of baking soda.

Social Interaction

Get off the computer and stop doom-scrolling video clips (I write this while I’m on my computer – oh, irony). Get out of the house and talk to people. Force yourself, if you must. Join a book club, a knitting circle, or a group that meets for trivia – something. Being part of an ongoing social group holds you accountable. Knowing that people are expecting you to attend, may give you the extra push to throw on some clothes and leave the house.

Plug: TrixiesList.com is a wonderful resource for this kinda stuff.

Even small human interactions help us get out of our own heads. Conversations with friends/acquaintances do not have to include deep and meaningful discussions on Kafka, Nietzsche or existentialism, or even Camille Paglia chastising Andy Warhol about how pop art killed oppositional art and fueled a vacant and derivative art world of academic and corporate greed.

No.

You can simply ask someone, ‘How was your week?’ wait for a response, listen and nod. You do not have to have an opinion on every topic, because, not everyone cares about your opinion on every topic. If you feel socially awkward and do not know how to make friends – even later in life – consider the book “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie. Oftentimes, you do not have to do more than listen and nod and people will consider you a great conversationalist!

If there’s a snowstorm and you’re buried indoors, shovel yourself a path (literally and metaphorically). Snowed-in nights can be the most socially-rewarding times in Hudson. Someone (usually a business owner who lives above their establishment) will open their bar or restaurant after a storm. The people who show up share a common trait – Bravery! They made it out. They put on their snowshoes, dressed in several layers, and made the formidable trek of two blocks for a glass of wine. These are the STAUNCH upstaters!

Fresh Air and Exercise

Get out of the house and do something. As you have probably heard, ‘Fresh air is good for you’. Old-school radiators were designed after the last pandemic to be so hot and effective that people had to open a window for fresh, clean air.

Join a walking group, or start one with a friend. One of the best kept secrets in Hudson is the city’s cemetery. With dozens of winding paths and few cars, the cemetery is a great place for a stroll. It’s always plowed and its long-term residents tend to keep to themselves.

Get out of Dodge

Accept the fact that it’s slow in the wintertime. Unless you work at a ski resort, chances are, winters upstate are slower than the rest of the year. Plan your life around it. I’ve stopped planning Valentine’s Day events after multiple DJ’s were stuck in snowstorms and could not make it to the venue. Winters are the slow season. Don’t fight it, accept it.

Plan your vacation in the wintertime. $300 will get you a round-trip ticket out of Albany airport to Florida. Drive or take the train to Myrtle Beach. Just go anyplace warm. Beg, borrow, or steal if you need the money. It’s worth it. Or, pour yourself a cup of ambition and get another job – I have like five.

A vacation will give your mind the needed reset, even if it’s just a weekend getaway. Break up the long stretch of dreary gray days. Upon your return, wintertime will be that much shorter. You might come back in a better mood with added chutzpah to tackle those stubborn projects that sit in an undone pile or on a To Do list.

Before you know it, it’ll be March. Then April. Then, you’re too busy.

Wintering upstate can be fun – lean into it! I mean, you live upstate, what else are you going to do?