Is anybody else tired of this winter yet? Come on. It’s OK. You are not alone.

It isn’t like this particular winter has been all that cold, but it has been exceptionally difficult for some reason.

In one sense, it is hard to believe that the calendar says it is already a week into March. But on the other hand, January and February were tough to slog through.

Has it been the weather? The economy? Something else? Maybe a combination of all of the above?

For me, I think winter has been unkind on a number of levels. Energy costs feel like they have been on a continual rise the last few months. Filling the old gas tank up is costing a little more than it did six months ago. Then, there is the power bill that has been inexplicably high the last few months. But we pay these things. We pay them and we carry on.

Then, there are the weddings. I was an usher in a wedding in February, am set to be a groomsman in one next weekend and then again in yet another wedding in April. For a 28-year-old single guy who dislikes weddings and hates getting dressed up, that is a painful run. There is the discomfort of wearing the suit combined with the awkwardness of being around all sorts of people you don’t really know or want to know all set to the soundtrack of the nagging voice in the back of your head that is telling you in an incessant stream that everybody you know is well into their life’s second act while you’re still trying to figure out if your script is a comedy or a tragedy and whether or not it calls for a leading lady or simply a run of side characters that are on stage just long enough to connect with the audience and the main character before exiting stage left.

For me, weddings are an unsightly tapestry of celebration and self-loathing. Don’t like them.

But soon, winter will lift. March 20 is the first official day of spring, and better days can’t be all that far behind, right?

Well, at least I hope they aren’t. My bank account, my mood and that suit that doesn’t fit as well as it once did could all use the relief.

Jeremy D. Smith is the sports editor of the Demopolis Times.