Stick Around, Winter! William Still Loves You!

"Winter is nature's way of saying, up yours." ~ Robert Byrne

"I like these cold gray winter days. Days like this let you savour a bad mood." ~ Bill Watterson

"Winter is not a season, it's an occupation." ~ Sinclair Lewis

"A lot of people like snow. I find it an unnecessary freezing of water." ~ Carl Reiner

"Winter is a time to gather golden moments and enjoy every idle hour." ~ Judith Boswell

"Snow! Snow, snow, snow! Oh boy!" ~ William Kendall, demented Canadian

I suppose I might as well accept it. Spring is coming. Oh, sure, here in Ottawa we're still well buried in snow, and today it's been snowing again. Sure, I can look out into my backyard where a statue of a dog sits in a corner, having been buried under a pile of snow since December. But the thaw is there. Spring is in the offing. Temperatures are creeping up.

Winter is ending.

It's been a better winter than the last two winters here, when we had under performing amounts of snow. This year felt more like a typical winter, a few storms, a good deal of snow. And beyond, the pattern repeated itself, with storms here in North America that slammed certain areas hard (Connecticut got hammered particularly at one point this winter with blizzard conditions). And of course TV meteorologists, largely being a cowardly, spineless lot (not all of them, just 95% of them) spent their time during these storms in a panic. "Oh my God! Monster storm! Snowzilla! SnowmapocoGeddon! We're all gonna die!!! Eat your dead! They'd eat you if your positions were different!" Yes, that kind of panic. 

Try as I might to hope for more snow, it's not likely that we're to see blizzards. We're getting through March now, and whatever snow falls isn't likely to stick around for long. The sugar bushes are starting the maple syrup season. Birds are migrating north. People who spend all winter in warm climes are returning north. Oh well.

Spring's coming. I just have to accept it.

The best season ever devised is reaching the end of the line for another year.

Each year of course, editorial cartoonists will take great inspiration from the weather, poking fun at our foibles about the winter. This year was no different.

I can rest assured that winter will be back. Come August the nights will get colder. Snow might show itself by Labour Day (if I behave myself). Next winter will be here soon enough. And though spring is starting to assert itself.... we can still get plenty of the white stuff between now and the end of April...