Tell Me Now How Do I Feel?

Today was Blue Monday, reputed to be the most depressing day of the year.  This is based on things like weather, time since Christmas and debt thereof.  Of course it's really just a concoction in which a company creates a self-serving news story.  In this case, it's a travel agency that wants to make us feel bad in the middle of winter.  And apparently the company in question isn't even in business anymore, thus demonstrating the power of viral marketing.

But today didn't really seem that bad.  In fact, whenever I've been made aware of Blue Monday, it never is a worse-than average feeling day, at least for a winter day.

I suppose part of the reason is that the concept comes from Britain, so there are going to be different factors involved.  For one thing, the British seem to get a lot of their winter melancholy from the limited daylight, while we in Canada get most of it from the cold, which reaches its peak a month or so after the winter solstice.  The Americans surely weren't depressed, as this was Martin Luther King Day, which - while solemn - is a day off for many.

So I'm wondering what factors you'd use to figure out a saddest day of the year in Canada.  I would suggest the following factors:

• Accumulated snow on the ground
• Remaining road-salt reserves
• Time until Leafs' playoff elimination
• Number of times The Weather Channel has used The Red Screen Of Death
• Snowmobiles at the bottom of average lake
• Percentage of TV ads that are for sunny vacations
• Average Number of times a snow plow has blocked the end of your driveway