Missing Spring

Here we are in May.  I'm thinking it's finally safe to put away my winter coat?  (Now if I could just get some dry cleaning coupons so that I would be motivated to get all our winter wear dry cleaned.) We DID put away the shovels a week or two ago.  AND, I dared to put out the (plastic) Adirondack chairs.  (I even bought two new ones last week!)  I managed to start walking outside in the morning (as of last week) even if I was wearing my Day-Glo vest OVER my winter vest.  (I generally do not walk outside unless it's at least 40 out, but even that's pretty cold.)  It's dark out there in the early morning, but I have been happily noticing that by 5:40 or so the light on the horizon.

Can it be that spring has FINALLY arrived here in New Jersey?

It's not that we had a horrible winter.  It's just that we didn't have "winter" until March when we had snow storms just about once a week.  The cold, with some exception, carried into April.  While Easter might have been lovely, the next day we had another snow squall!  I know that April showers bring May flowers, but this year we didn't get so much showers as we did cold, cruel deluges.

I recall in years past late Marches and Aprils were the sun shone, children played outside and all seemed right with the world.  That didn't happen this year.  Yes, there have been days where the kids ran around outside (like this past Saturday), but they seemed to be so few and far between.  And last Saturday's sunny, warm day morphed into overcast and windy weather before sundown and ended with more bone chilling rain.

But I have hope. Today the sun is out.  (Sun, I missed you soooo much!)  Temperatures in the 70s tell me that it IS Spring.

BUT...

The following three days the temperatures are supposed to soar into the upper 80s.  While I love the 80s (and not just the temperatures...the 1980s were generally pretty good, even if the hair styles weren't) it seems unkind to jump from the 40s (which is what we've faced for the past two days) into the 80s.  What happened to spring?

I'll be honest.  Spring is NOT my favorite season.  That would be the Bfth created:  "Sumtmn" which is that period of time where summer is gently flowing into autumn.  It is blissfully warm during the day and cool, but not cold at night.  Early autumn has always been my favorite time, with the entire summer season following close behind.  Late autumn and then spring comes in the rankings.  (Hay fever and a plethora of other allergens has a lot to do with this.)  Then comes winter...last and definitely least in my book.  (Although the first snow fall is always lovely.)

Perhaps we will get a spring after that brief touch of summer.  Or maybe not.  Maybe we will go from cold to hot; from furnace blasting to pumping up the AC.   But as much as I like the season of summer, I do want to see some spring.  (Even if I become a sneezing mess.)  To watch the flowers and trees bloom.  (Some have...others have given up the ghost.)  To turn off the heat in my car and roll down the windows.  To get some of those spring clothes out of the closet and on me!

Spring, I'm missing you.  Won't you drop by NJ and stay for a month before you morph into summer?