Saturday, February 8, 2014

Winter

Winter.

I've always loved it, enjoyed it, reveled in its joys.

But now?  I'm tired of it.  

I've lived in places like Winnipeg where the first snowflake to fall in November is the last to melt in May.  I've lived in places like Ft. Huachuca, AZ where snow is a rare treat and the cause for much excitement.  I've even lived in Hawaii where there is snow on the peaks of the volcanoes but mostly winter means more rain and fewer flowers.  And I've loved all of them.

But I moved here because I didn't want what I could do and where I could go as an 80 year old to be determined by how much snow I could shovel.  Usually, our winters are relatively mild, with that nice polite snow that covers the lawns but melts on the streets and sidewalks.  Cold, but not so much that you feel like a two year old in a snowsuit when you go outdoors.  And then, once every ten years or so, we get a "real" winter like this one.  Snow, and more snow.  Cold, and then colder.  Gloomy, dark days instead of our more typical sunshine.  

And it doesn't even get that right.  We seem to alternating between snow and rain, gloom and sunshine, cold and unseasonably warm in wildly oscillating variation.  My brain and my body are very confused.  That I can ride my bike in 65F temps one day and it doesn't even get above 28F the next doesn't compute in anyone's definition of winter.

I am more than grateful that I don't have to deal with this as a matter of course.  I am glad that this isn't "normal" for us.  I do occasionally wish that we had the infrastructure to deal with this kind of weather, but glad I don't have to pay the kinds of taxes that support it.  I love knowing that it will be of limited duration and that spring will inevitably come.  I grudgingly admit that I will be complaining of the heat in August and September.

But right now?  I'm grumpy and hard to get along with.  I need some sunshine.

2 comments:

Ken said...

Me too! I am acutally looking forward to the next weeks long airplane ride.

Judi said...

I hope it's above the clouds all the way.