If Winter Comes, Can Spring Be Far Behind??

My apologies to Percy Bysshe Shelley for stealing today's blog title from his poem, Ode to the West Wind.  Ol' Percy probably doesn't mind.  He's been dead for a very long time.  I don't think any of his stuff is copyrighted!

Okay...so here it is March 1st.  Most years by this time, I have already seen the season's first robin, the days have warmed into the 40s, I've seen/heard migrating sandhill cranes aloft, and the daylight hours are noticeably longer.  This year?  Not so much.  I have heard one very small group of cranes and have begun to notice the daylight changes, but we are still in the deep freeze with a big snowfall expected tonight and much of tomorrow.  I wouldn't mind so much except that this winter started in October with cold temps and a first snow...and it never really stopped.  Had the season begun when it is "normal" to do so, this one wouldn't be so bad.

I used to enjoy winter.  As a younger, more adventurous woman, armed with a snowmobile suit and felt-lined snowmobile boots, I could be outside for hours and hours and just roll with it.  Now, as an old woman with major back problems, I'm totally dependent on others to do my yard work and snow removal for me...and I don't like it very much.  (I am, however, very grateful for the dependable help I have right now!!)  Thus, when this winter's snow after snow after snow have hit, I have made sure that I was stocked with enough supplies to keep me snug inside.  I was HOPING that this would all come to an end by Valentine's Day...but noooooo....

The outdoor thermometer currently reads over 50 degrees, but we are under a winter storm warning with the prognostication of 5"-8" of snow, more or less, for tonight and tomorrow.  A day or two ago, our temperatures were in the single-digit range.  Okay.  All winter long, I have been in self-induced home detention.  Except for occasional short trips to the grocery store, I haven't left the homestead.  Last Monday was the first time in months that I ventured out for a social occasion--a luncheon with a radio friend of mine.  It was nice, and a teaser.  More to come?  Apparently, not yet.

My childhood sweetheart, Jim, was born and raised in northern Wisconsin--a place where it got so cold that they would keep a lit light bulb in the engine compartment of their car at night to keep the battery warm enough to start the car in the mornings.  All of his post-college-degree years, he has been a professor at Auburn University in Alabama where it is warm all year round.  Interestingly, he misses the cold and snow of his childhood winters and dislikes the heat/humidity of his adopted state's summers.  I get it.  When I was a kid, my family lived in the San Diego area of southern California.  At Christmas, we missed the snow so much that we drove into the mountains to find some and have a snowball fight.  This year, however, I think I have been cured of the longing for snow and cold.  I'm done!  I'm ready for spring!  It can't come fast enough!!

Last year, we had a longer-than-usual onset of spring also.  It was snowing on my daughter's birthday (March 25th).  I was HOPING that this year would be different, but--so far, at least--the weather pattern doesn't show adequate signs of backing off.  I'm trying not to whine about it because there is nothing to be done, but there is only so much an old lady can take.

So here it is:  ENOUGH ALREADY!  I CAN'T BE POETIC ABOUT THIS NONSENSE ANYMORE! IF SPRING DOESN'T COME SOON, YOU CAN VISIT ME AT THE PSYCH WARD AT THE LOCAL HOSPITAL.  CABIN FEVER...HAHAHAHAHAH!  THEY'RE COMING TO TAKE ME AWAY!!!!

Have a nice day.  :)