Do you have post-holiday blues or blahs?

We all live structured lives and after a month of buying presents, wrapping them, putting up decorations, eating and drinking too much and going to parties, our lives are out of wack.

After all that ends on Jan. 1, our lives are back to normal. That can cause blues.

I have a way of getting out of them.

We are half way through January and we will be into the shortest month of the year.

After zipping through February, we will be into March.

That means spring will be just around the corner.

The Cards will be going to camp, and hopefully heading to another championship.

While I'm waiting, I will be keeping a close eye on our tulip tree in the front yard. A friend, Ray Siebert, suggested we plant it several years ago. He had spent years in the gardening business.

The tulip tree buds early and is gorgeous in full bloom.

Soon I will be able to go into the backyard and enjoy my swing. Friend Wife gave it to me years ago as a birthday present and it has afforded me hours of pleasure.

Hobo, our dog, may even sit on the swing with me. He does not like to be outside alone.

Friend Wife may join us.

There is only one down side. Spring, the lovely season, goes by too fast and moves into another hot, steamy summer.

I have already shot the year and we will be going into fall.

That means the holidays will be coming again.

So if you have the blues now, take heart because, spring will soon be here.

I'll be going for long walks on Grant's Trail, enjoying the tulip tree and sitting on the swing.

God must have known what he was doing, for no matter how blue we get, He always knows a way for us to get out of them.

So He made a poet ask, "if this be winter, can spring be far behind?" The answer is "no," so hang on for a few weeks and your blues will go away on a spring breeze.

Jim Fox, a retired newspaperman who lives in Affton, writes a weekly column for the Journals.