*On the I LOVE LUCY SHOW Desi Arnaz used to say to Lucy Ball after a typical Lucy-type fiasco, “You have some ‘splainin’ to do, Lucy!”

I haven’t been writing so much.  You (all three of you) may have noticed?  Don’t feel the same urge, ya know?  And I think I have it ‘splained’ enough (to myself) that I can tell you why:  I am not really off-the-grid right now!

I mean, of course I am.  But I am not.   Antigua is pretty rustico at the very least and certainly a long way from the Canadian grid.  Hell, it is hardly well founded on the Guatemalan grid since most things break down or are in an advanced state of ruin.  So, technically, I am off the grid.

I am definitely off the sanegrid.

Chicken Bus

But I don’t mean these entries in that sense of the term, ‘the grid’. When I write this blog I mean (as a rule) living like a retired, out-of-the-lower-mainland-of-BC type guy.  A guy-in-the-forest carving a heroic frontier lifestyle out in the wilds with his trusty, loving partner at his side (or me at hers, whatever).  Ya know?  I am supposed to be the guy in the blurb at the head of the blog.  This isn’t that.  This is tourism.  Hiatus, at the very least.

Since I do not wish to start another blog (I did for China and Mexico), I am going to stick with this one.  But, just so you know, it feels a bit ‘fake’.  The next few weeks of entries – as is obvious, of course, – is not OTG in the rural islands of BC way.  It is a winter diversion……………..

…..which segues nicely to a point more germane to the blog heading: How to live off the grid in winter.

First suggestion: know in advance that winter can be bleak.  Plan for it.  We do.  We figure to ‘get away’ two winters out of three and, if we could find a real nice place to return to more often, maybe three times out of three.  Ideal time out?  Two months.

K enjoying a typical Breakfast

‘Snowbirding’  is a Canadian tradition and, for many Canucks more northerly or at least iced-in a lot, it is a necessary trip to ward off SADs or depression or ‘getting bushed’.  So, first off, know what you are up against.

For those of us in the temperate-if-not-balmy Gulf of Georgia, the pressure is not so great but it is still bleak to some extent.  Plus we are not as hardy as the real Northeners.

‘ Course, knowing what I know, I could make more of an effort to make the ‘bleakness’ of our local winters less so and, to that end, I have taken a step.  And that is: a hobby

Suggestion #2:  Have something to do indoors that can occupy your time constructively in the winter.  It has been proven beyond question that drinking heavily doesn’t work. Trust me.  But trials continue.

Whatever you do, it should ideally not just be more of the same ol’ stuff that you do all year around.  It really should be a ‘winter activity’.  I like to write but just doing more of it because the weather is bad is not a solution.  I need something different.

The woodworking shop is, I hope, going to become a significant winter attraction.  We’ll see.

Not convinced?  Just so you know, Valentines Day holds second place as the most popular suicide day of the year after Xmas.  Yes, love and the lack of it can do that to a person (remember NOT getting the valentine from the cute little red-headed girl, Charlie Brown?).  But it is more the effects of winter, the lack of sunshine, the confines of the artificial environment that really do it. January is tough.  February is tougher still.

Plus, of course, the bills from Xmas are due.  February is when we crack.  It is the month-of-choice for those voluntarily checking out.

So suggestion #3 is gettin’ the hell out of the old neighbourhood, the old rut, the old same ol’ same ol’.   And that usually means (for us) going south although, when we were cul-de-sacing it with the kids, we often just went skiing and that worked. Doesn’t matter how you do it, February-at-home should be avoided.  But that’s just my (and a bazillion snowbirds) opinion.

Suggestion #4 doesn’t work well enough to really count but it is a balm nevertheless.  I say ‘get in touch’.  T’is the month to reach out.   As we age (especially men), we lose touch with the people in our lives that we were once more involved with.  Parting, of course, is natural.  So being apart is also natural.  But it is just as ‘natural’  to reconnect and February is a good month for that.  Actually, January is the best month so that you then get responses by February – when you need them.

“HEY!  Is this blog post just some cheap trick to get e-mails you pathetic old geek?”

“Unh……….well, it didn’t start out that way………honest………… but, now that we are here………why not tell me how you feel about it?