Could it been the Kid suffered from SAD? He lived in Minneapolis, after all.

I've quit posting my print column lately. Here's to getting back into the habit. This is last week's. I'll post this week's tomorrow.

The other day, I was snooping around the Mayo Clinic's Web site (as I am wont to do) when I happened upon some information about seasonal affective disorder, or SAD.

I've always been fascinated by SAD. What an incredibly well-marketed disorder! What other disorder comes with an acronym that describes its major symptom in a simple, monosyllabic word? Even the marginally literate can figure out if they have it.

Anyway, if you suffer from SAD, this surely is your least favorite time of the year: Brutally short days, bitingly cold air, leafless trees and parched lawns.

I've never considered the possibility that I might be a SAD-sufferer myself. To be honest, I've never been convinced SAD was a real disorder. I've always thought it was just another dish in the buffet line of imagined afflictions at which hypochondriacs feast.

But I have to admit, even I've been feeling a little down, if not downright depressed, lately. Maybe that's why, instead of dismissing it out of hand, I began scanning the Mayo Clinic's Web site to find out if I might be suffering from SAD.

I quickly learned that whatever I've been experiencing, it's far from the extreme depression associated with SAD. I also learned that there are a couple of other forms of SAD I wouldn't mind getting.

Right beneath the bit about SAD on the Mayo Clinic's Web site there's a list of symptoms for spring and summer SAD, or summer depression. Couched among the usual shady symptoms so vague-sounding that anyone could believe he or she has them (anxiety, irritability, agitation) was one that stood out: increased sex drive.

Things just got weirder from there. Beneath the symptoms for spring and summer SAD was a list of symptoms for Reverse SAD. According to the Web site, this rare disorder results in "mania or hypomania" and includes the following symptoms: Persistently elevated mood, increased social activity, hyperactivity and unbridled enthusiasm out of proportion to the situation.

My first thought: "That should totally be called Richard Simmons Syndrome." My second thought: "How can I catch it?" Throw in the increased sex drive that comes with spring and summer SAD, and you end up with something that should be called RAD -- Really Awesome Disorder.

But to bring things back to SAD: Do I think it's a real disorder? I don't know. The only thing worse than people who claim to have fishy-sounding maladies are people who claim to know for sure how other people feel. But I do know this: I'm done with gray skies, blustery winds and 6 p.m. nightfalls. Wake me when it's May.