It's a relative thing

Thinking more about yesterday's Lileks post: it really is kind of bizarre to see a North Dakota native and Minnesota resident complaining about cold weather, isn't it?

But I get it, I really do. No doubt the temperatures he's complaining about are nothing compared to what would be routine there in, say, February, but it's the last week of May, and you have different expectations.

I came to CLE from Washington, and the actual winters here aren't really that much worse than in Washington -- it's quite a bit colder, and there's significantly more snow (especially on the east side), but it feels pretty similar to me. And the snow removal is much better, and you'd be surprised how much of a difference that makes.

But Spring will kill you. The snow is gone (snow on May 3 this year notwithstanding!), but it never quite...warms up. Not until the last week of May, and that's why "cool" weather the last week of May hurts so much. You've been waiting so long, and you know perfectly well it's not a good idea to expect any warm weather before the last week of May. You finally allow yourself to hope, and then you're disappointed again. It's wearisome.

On the other hand, it turned nice on Wednesday, and it's nice today, and I finally pulled all of the grass from out of the front ground cover beds yesterday evening, so who's complaining? 

¶ 5/27/2005 09:41:00 AM