The Winter That Never Was

The wind is shaking the house. I'm not sure what the wind speed is, but the weather reporter on the morning news said we should expect 50-60 MPH gusts for most of the day and night. Although the windows are shaking and rattling, I don't wonder if they're going to blow out until the wind gets up to 75 MPH. Here in the front range of Colorado, that's not uncommon. You don't hear much about windows blowing out, but the crazy wind is the reason there's a lot of fence and tree damage in our neighborhood. Maybe also the reason there aren't a lot of natural trees on the flat lands. Last week the winds were so high and at just the right trajectory that I was worried our bedroom windows might blow, or at least crack. The winds woke me up at 4:00 am that morning, heralding in yet another sleepy day. Sleep was again elusive last night as the winds woke me up on a constant basis. I'm getting use to not having enough energy to get through the day.

It's now officially spring as of yesterday. It's as if the lilac bush outside got the memo, because this morning it had already started to sprout little green leaves. With our complete lack of any moisture this winter, I'm not sure where the bush is getting any nourishment to start the process. I'm calling this last winter of 2010-2011 "the winter that never was". "The winter that never was" got about a foot of snow. That's it. Winter snow in Colorado is dry. We get almost no moisture from it at all. When it snows just a little you can blow it away. It's like a down comforter exploded and the feathers are the snow. But just a foot of snow all winter? Combine that with our one, maybe two thunderstorms over the summer, and we've gotten no rain or snow since last April. Can you say "drought"?

"The winter that never was" has also been very warm. Except for a few weeks here and there of cold or extremely cold weather (below zero), it's been balmy. I bought a new coat in September - one I could wear in public without embarrassment - and haven't worn it all that much. I'm not even tired of it yet, and by the end of winter here I usually hate all the clothing that weighs me down! I did buy a couple of sweatshirts, as it's been cold enough to warrant the wearing of them. The high country has been buried in snow, which I'm sure is great for our water tables and tourism. Skiers everywhere are rejoicing about the great powder in the Colorado mountains! But we've gotten none of it down here. I sweep or vacuum more than normal because of all the dry grass and tanbark from the dry school playground that is tracked into our house daily. Most of the Coloradoans marvel at the warm temperatures. I'm just sad about it. I'm trying not to complain, but it's hard. One of the great things about winter is that it makes me look forward to summer. I hadn't looked forward to summer in years before we moved here. I practically dreaded it. While I'm not currently dreading the upcoming summer, I haven't had one iota of desire for it to start. Except for the greenery. I love, love, love all the blooming trees, flowers, and the greening of the grass of late spring. Summer's one of the few pretty, green seasons here. Without snow, the winter landscape just looks dead and barren.

So now "The winter that never was" is over. It's like we had an extended fall. It's weird. It falls into the whole weird weather in Colorado category that Coloradoans are so proud of. The saying is if you don't like the weather in Colorado, wait 10 minutes and it'll change. It's true that it can change quickly, but I doubt I'm going to get any rain in 10 minutes. Maybe this summer. Maybe.