Welcome to February, the shortest, and yet often the longest month of the year. February falls in the doldrums of winter before the days have started to get longer consistently and while temperatures are still frigid as can be.
This universally maligned month is also home to the commercial nightmare of Valentine's Day and President's Day; but otherwise no holidays or days off scattered throughout to break up the monotony.
Everybody has had enough of February. St. Louis reporter Kevin Killeen described the month perfectly in a 2016 news report that has begun resurfacing.
Killeen noted the overall bleakness of the month that seemed to permeate the very soul of the city.
“Look around downtown on a February work day,” Killeen said, panning across a segment of downtown St. Louis.
“This looks like a place where people who are being punished are sent.”
Killeen also captured something difficult to put into words: the very struggle of simple things like crossing the street when you are battling your third month of cold, dark, winter despair.
“Nobody is tap dancing or breaking into a Rodgers and Hammerstein song,” Killeen sardonically observed.
“It’s their lunch hour and they’re just barely able to get across the street and hunker over a bowl of chili.”
Eight of February's endless 28 days have already passed, giving all hope that February of 2022 will pass and once again be a bleak memory in the back of everyone's minds, not to darken our doorsteps until the following year.
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