Now it's the time of year where it really start to suck living in a city like Chicago without a car. You get home from work between 6-7, the sun's already down for about an hour, and it's so damn cold an windy out, once you feel the warmth of home, you don't want to leave it. So you spend the entire night cooped up in your tiny apartment.

Of course, you get bored out of your mind after a couple hours and something as simple as going to the bar down the street for a pint seems adventurous. But once you realize you've got to put three layers of clothing on just to step out the door, and that four blocks that was a leisurely stroll in June is now — with a below freezing wind chill — a frightful journey. So you end up not doing shit but lying around in sweatpants watching Family Guy re-runs, which seem to be aired non-stop between 6 and 10 p.m.

And if you do manage to make it out into the cold towards the bar down the street, you're cursing the decision the entire way.

If you think about it, you're kinda shit out of luck in the winter in Chicago if you're not a bar person (which might have a lot to do with the fact there are so many bar people in this city). There's really not a lot of places to go in the evening in the middle of winter. What kinds of indoor public places are open after 8-9 p.m.? Grocery stores, Borders and Barnes and Nobles, a few coffee shops and restaurants, of course (but you can't really entertain yourself at a restaurant for more than an hour without drinking). If you've ever wondered why there are so many bars in this city, or why there's so many old buildings that look like they used to be bars, winter has a lot to do with the answer.

(Here's an idea; somebody should build a giant indoor social area where, for a small fee, people can walk around, exercise, socialize, read a book, play catch, etc. Like a mall without shops that's open all night. Brilliant!)

The bottom line: you've got to find something to do, or else you'll turn into an atrophied recluse. A condition which I fear has already began to settle in.