What's wrong with this picture? It's February 28, it's pushing 80 degrees, and the boys are eating ice cream cones on the swingset in their shorts. They only have long sleeved shirts on because we just got back from Walmart and it was cooler when we left the house earlier. They're burning up in the long sleeves.
Where's my winter??? I have to admit that when I smell the fresh air in the morning or get to leave the windows open, I like it. However, I also love snow, and I got VERY little of it this year. Or last. And with 8 month summers around here, where the air's too stagnant to breathe, and you break out into a sweat the second you get out of the shower, even in air conditioning, I need my winter! Aric picked up on something I'd been saying too often, evidently, when he said out of the blue, "I hate summer!" Amen, kiddo! I told Mom that I really think I'd like living in Iceland. It doesn't really get any colder than here, there's more snow and fewer idiots on the road who freak out at the mysterious white stuff that falls from the sky every single winter, and the summers don't get much higher than the 60s. Yeah, I could do it. And all that sundown stuff would be great for knitting! Of course, getting my boys to go to bed when the sun's still up might be a challenge, but there are ways around that. A few room darkening shades, and I'm good to go. Oh, and modern technology is amazing there. The main road around the island has sensors under it, and they can tell what the road conditions are like! On the TV, they show you what the road is like that day. How cool is that?? All our Dept. of Transportation does is freak out, wait until the snowstorm is over, THEN go out and dump some sand on it, their plows a good 6 inches off the ground. I kid you not, the last time it snowed, we drove behind a snowplow/sand truck (yes, sand. Don't get me started on that. No salt around here. We like to make the snow dirty and then slip and slide on the sand once the snow's gone and the roads are dry. Really safe.) and couldn't tell where he'd been on the highway, his plow was so high. Obviously we knew because we were behind him, but there was no difference in the snow levels in the different lanes. None. I wonder how many of my tax dollars paid him that day to do nada.
So, while I'm excitedly planning on getting a tanning bed membership and drinking SlimFast, I'm also already sad about the leaving (if it was ever really here) of winter. I'm more in the mood for seed catalogs than Christmas planning, but I'm NOT looking forward to the inferno we in Tulsa call summer. Especially when the boys are home from school, and wimpy Mom makes them stay inside all day because it's so hot and suffocating outside. Summer is supposed to be the time of year that you're never inside! Well, until they come and stick a pool in my back yard, it ain't happening.
But at least it's a dry heat. Well, dryish.
