Still Waiting.

It's finally spring here in southwestern Ontario, which means we get a half-hearted winter for a little while, and then one day it's summer; there's no in between. Spring hereabouts is the adolescence of the calendar year, sullen, unpredictable and with accompanying wild mood swings.

Two weeks ago, it was full on summer. The sun was shining, the temperatures were up in the low 20's and everyone broke out the flip-flops. That continued for about 10 days, and then this week, the thermometer plummeted, and we are back to a sulky winter once again. We even got a punitive frost this week, and all the people who foolishly put plants in the ground, in April, were made to rue their own folly. The magnolias, which had been spectacular this year, are now slimy, brown clumps of yuck, daintily clinging to their sorry branches.

The Mister and I saw a girl running to the bus stop on our way to work this morning, and she only had on a tank top and jeans, no sweater or coat. It was only 4 degrees Celsius this morning, so I'm sure she was very sorry about her sartorial decision about 10 seconds after she left her house. (I, in contrast, was wearing a blouse, a trench coat and a scarf, and was wistfully musing about mittens.)

There really is something that happens to us when the weather gets nice, it's like we completely forget that we live in Canada, and that this is, in fact, a cold country, and that the warmth is temporary. Especially in the spring. Just because it is warm on say, Monday, is no guarantee whatsoever, that it will be warm again on Tuesday. Or Wednesday. Or next week. Sure, it's going to get nice and stay that way for a couple of months, it's even going to get stinking hot at some point, I dare say, but not in the springtime. I wanted to go up to that girl and give her my scarf and say "I know it was warm, but that was a week or two ago, and now it is cold again. Do you see how that works? Warm, then cold, again for a while, and then warm for good. Got it now? I realize it's May today, but the jet stream has no regard whatsoever for the calendar. Now go home and put on a sweater."

I am looking forward to the advent of summer as much, maybe more than the next person. (I was mighty cranky about the snow back in March. In fact, I'm still kind of cranky about it, and it's all gone, but I can carry a grudge for ever.) But I'm nothing if not a realist, and I'm not pulling out the tank tops and shorts until the cat thermometer registers 6 feet of cat.