Perpetual Ruminations

Wednesday

Time to get this entry done, unlike yesterday when I almost forgot to even write one. Day two of my three days off and I enjoyed another relaxing day. Tomorrow another winter storm moves in and once again, I wonder... How can we have winter storms if winter is over? Wouldn't it be a spring storm? Just my thoughts, but I tend to rationalize that it must be winter to have a winter storm. It's like having a sale, in the spring on winter clothing, it wouldn't be called April's Winter Sale. No, it would be April's Spring Sale, with winter items clearanced out, or something similar.

No mater, it's still a storm that could produce a lot of new snow, cold temperatures, and high winds. It's just all wrong, everyone knows March winds bring April showers and April showers bring May flowers. Not this year, instead we get March winds bring blizzard conditions with ice, snow, and frostbite. April winter storms, term from NOAA not me, bring more snow and ice, and maybe a few snowmen and snow angles. May may or may not bring spring. It didn't last year, we just moved from winter storms to summer storms. Damn weather service just skipped spring, but then they skipped spring a few years in a row now.

It all started a few years back. We had a fair summer and fall, but then late fall provided a wonderful Indian summer that lasted well into December. We didn't see snow for Christmas and enjoyed temperatures in the fifties and even sixties in January. It was a very uncommon winter, and we saw very little snow. What snow did fall soon melted off, and more often it was just nice temperate weather until spring. Spring did bring some rain, but not a lot. Things had dried out very well, and a lot of people began to say drought. But, we still got small amounts of rainfall, usually at night and crops did very well. It was just a very temperate year, all the way up to that fall.

Then we got the bill for the wonderful weather. Either it was the bill, or it was punitive action for all the people who complained about the wonderful weather, the lack of rain and storms, and the high yield harvest they ended up with. Sure a wonderful year, but around these parts, if there isn't standing water up to your back door, it's too dry, and it's either too hot or too cold, to calm or too windy. I have come to understand that around here, the weather is never good, and people complain and want just the opposite of what they are getting.

Well we did. That fall it turned cold, we had snow a week before Halloween, and it didn't go away until late the next spring. Very late, at that. I have pictures of the snow, both falling and what was on the ground. We were running out of room to shovel it, and we had a pile in the back yard from the patio and sidewalk that was at least ten feet tall, maybe twelve. It was not just a small, high pile, it was about fifteen feet across at the base. This was not the only pile of snow, however. We also had a huge bank of snow between the garage and the shed, and another huge bank of snow along side the shed. We also started building a snow fort, from new snow that fell and drifted by the patio. We had snow banked up to the windows all around the house, and had a pile in the front yard that extended from the house to the street.

Not only did we get snow at least once a week, but after the snow would end, the wind would blow and we had to shovel the same snow over and over, every day. It would warm up to the teens and the wind would howl as the snow fell, then it blew even harder and the temperature would drop below zero until the next batch of snow would hit. I had to open at work at least once every schedule as a result of the snow storms and guards not being able to make it in, and often I ended up staying for most of the second shift. I was working the closing shift at the time, would drive home in a blizzard after closing at night, get called around three in the morning and have to turn around and drive back in to work in the same blizzard.

The spring was more snow and cold, then it turned hot, very hot and very humid. This brought severe thunder storms and heavy rains. If it wasn't raining, it was so hot and humid a person would work up a good sweat just sleeping. Then more wind and storms. We lost trees, branches, and seen a lot of flooding. In fact, we had one road left to get into or out of town here. And, that had water over it, a few inches, but it was beginning to look like we would lose our only way in or out of town. Then, more cold, early snow, and a very cold winter. It hasn't ended yet, and may be like a year ago when we went from sever winter storms to severe summer storms. This whole last year is kind of like a copy of the year before, which was a copy of the year before that. Only, each year it gets worse, and has since that wonderful almost perfect year we had.

I'm ready for another wonderful year of nice weather. I didn't complain at all, I enjoyed it. Sure it was hot some days, and it was pretty dry, but not so dry that it caused any problems. I may have been the only person other than my wife who thought we had a perfect year as far as weather, and as a result, look at what we have now. And, everyone is complaining, but that's all they know how to do. No matter what the weather, they are wining for something different.

Me? Well, I can't complain about the weather, even though it's been a brutal winter. We survived it just fine, and we are ready for spring if we get one. If not, we will move into summer and hope for nice weather so we can get out and camp, hike, fish, and enjoy the summer. If the weather isn't nice, we will find other ways to enjoy the summer and make the most of what we are given. If nothing else, we can dance in the rain...