Anyone who knows me knows that I loathe winter. In fact, my distaste for this time of year seems to grow a bit with each passing year.
Sometimes I wish I could just climb into bed after the New Year's holiday and emerge on the day when Daylight Savings Time Kicks in.
But there is a part of me (OK, a very small part), that is glad I was awake to experience what the region went through in terms of weather yesterday.
In short, I don't think I've ever seen anything like it, and it makes me wonder about what the hell is going on with the environment, whether this is global warming run amok, or if it's just Mother Nature playing games with us.
It all started last Saturday, when we threatened the record low of 2 degrees.
Fast forward several days and I'm riding into the office yesterday and the thermometer in my car odometer is registering 53 degrees.
Of course, getting there was a bit of an adventure in itself.
It started Monday night when a Clipper system arrived right on schedule at mid-morning. No problem, right. It dusted my car in the parking lot, and covered the grass and walkways, but the roads remained for the most part just wet.
The forecast was for the snow to give way to rain. That occurred on the drive home Wednesday night.
As I pulled my car into the driveway Monday night, I considered for a moment whether I wanted to leave it on the slight incline. Maybe, I thought to myself, I should leave it on the street. Then I head one last forecast on the radio, which assured me a warming trend and more rain would wash away all the trouble overnight.
Uh, not exactly.
When I got up Tuesday morning, a quick glance outside gave the distinct sheen that accompanies winter storms. One of two thing had happened. Either the roads and cars were just wet, or I was in for a long morning.
Guess which one?
I took one step out the door and onto the walkway and almost landed flat on my back. It was like an ice rink. Just getting to the car turned into an adventure. I couldn't navigate up the driveway, so I resorted to trudging through the snow, where at least I could get a grip, and finally made my way to my car.
That did not solve my problems. Then I had to get into it, considering it was completely encased in ice.
I had a feeling that decision not to leave the car on the street was going to haunt me. I wasn't wrong.
After at least chipping away enough ice to see out the windshield, I gave it a try to back out of the driveway. Forget it. I wasn't going anywhere.
I retreated back in the house and decided to work from there for awhile.
Amazingly, just a few hours later, I was driving to work amid temperatures in the mid-50s, at least 20 degrees warmer than overnight, and nearly 50 degrees warmer than what we endured over the weekend. That was followed by wind-driven downpours. It was raining so hard I skipped my daily lunchtime walk to Wawa for a coffee. Two hours later, the sun was out.
Once in the office, I also noticed that the West Coast is having a heat wave, as people pack the beaches amid temperatures in the high-80s and 90s. In Arizona, they set a record for the earliest date where temperatures have soared into the 90s.
They could send a little of that warmth here.
Hey, I'm not going to complain. They say we could push 60 here this weekend.
My only fear is what weird turn the weather is going to take next.
Bring on the locusts.
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