O Grumpy Night O Crabby Night

The sixth graders at Hutton Elementary School had noticed it, too. In a writing workshop, the students wrote about the phenomenon. Listen to the words of Carl: “People have been grumpy lately. My sister has been very demanding and my father has been complaining about everything. Even my cat has been mean to my dog and me.”

Did you have a tough week? Did co-workers act scratchy in your workplace? Did a driver honk at you for hogging a lane? A shopper crowd in front of you and make you feel like screaming? Is your family irritating the kindness out of you? Take heart. You are not alone.

We have anecdotal evidence only, but the crabbiness level seems quite elevated right now in the Inland Northwest. No scientific studies have been done, but we offer some unscientific reasons behind the phenomenon.

For starters, it’s the holiday season, always a stressful time. Mix in the relentless weather. Normal winter? Fifty inches of snow. Winter just started last week, and we’ve experienced 40 inches already. Yikes. Every morning, we awake to a new, wonderful weather gift. Snow. Ice. Fog. Mush.

Then, the flu hit families, schools, offices. Ah, that amazing flu. Headaches, fever, a cough that leaves your chest aching. It takes about two weeks to get over the worst of it, but the fatigue lingers about a month.

The real clincher was Ice Storm ‘96. It stole two weeks of routine. Holiday stuff got postponed and then squeezed into the already short time between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Most people behaved well during the crisis, opening their homes and hearts to others. Now, the crisis has passed. It’s payback time.

We even came up with a name for the emotional aftermath of ice storm. We call it Post Ice Storm Trauma (PIST).

So what are some solutions to this problem? Hey, we’re not offering any. We’re sick of all those newspaper and magazine articles that tell people how to reduce holiday stress.

Example: “Simplify, simplify.” Another example: “Eat only the low-calorie foods at Christmas parties.” Hah!

Instead, we leave you with words of wisdom from another Hutton sixth-grader named Hannah: She wrote: “I think we should be more patient and not just think of ourselves, but of others.”

We’ll try, Hannah, we’ll try.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Rebecca Nappi/For the editorial board