Sir Freaksalot took to the high-ground in order to catch the warmth of the early morning rays.
We replaced our ~18-year-old furnace a couple of years or so ago with a brand new in-kind model. Our house is not large but it is just big-enough that we do benefit from running the fan 24-hours-a-day, year-around. The ultra-high MERV filters labor the fan, the heating system, and the cooling system too much for year round use. As high as I can go for normal use is a MERV 8 filter as shown on the left. In order to get better heating (and lower the stress on the furnace) when it gets SUPER COLD outside I move to the old fashioned, high air flow, low MERV blue spun fiberglass filters as shown on the right.
Whatever the weather, I change the filter at the end of each month (more often if the feline dander and the green-weather pollen and dust warrant it).
Hang in there. I saw some signs that better days are coming.