Season To Taste?

It was the noted philosopher and all-around role model Mae West who said, "Too much of a good thing is wonderful." Or at least she was quoted as saying that; when I was teaching, I always told my classes that everything in math is named after the guy who stole it from the guy who discovered it. I think quote attribution is similar -- and since she played a character in movies that was similar to what we know of her offscreen persona, there's an extra layer of complexity.

In any case, the wisdom of the quote was certainly tested this week. I think most of us who live in the Northeast have a fondness, or at least a tolerance, for the variety of the seasons. Even winter can be pleasing in its own way -- Currier & Ives got pretty famous with rustic winter scenes -- but I think a lot of us would have been fine with a couple of inches at Christmas, and another inch or two every so often just to keep it pretty. Instead, we basically got 2 months of brown and then the whole winter's worth of snow in one day.

I guess it shouldn't be too surprising, really; remember summer? Kind of nondescript and gray... until the temperature suddenly goes up to like 8 thousand degrees. If the pattern holds, spring will probably be completely blah, and then on May 1 the flowers will come out and the trees will turn green all at the same time.

Actually, it's autumn I'm a bit concerned about; if the kids are standing under a decent-sized tree when all the leaves fall at once, somebody's going to get hurt.

In keeping with the general "overkill" theme, we had not one but two snow days, occasioned by the always-fateful Snow Day Declared the Night Before. Seemingly inevitably, Day 2 dawned bright, clear and calm, and with completely cleared roads. So the family was treated to an extra day of Cabin Fever, and just generally 2 kids bouncing off each other like bumper cars.

To add insult to injury... the superintendent of the school where I went to high school was quoted in the paper about the necessity to cancel in that district because of the difficulty of transporting students in that town -- when we were notorious for never cancelling school, no matter what.

Say it with me: Fortunately, I'm not bitter.

And really, the pain of The Blizzard of '07, or whatever you would call it, was magnified by the contrast to the previous day. I had just heard the most joyful words of every winter -- no, not "Merry Christmas" or even "Super Bowl Sunday". The words I wait all winter to hear are, "Pitchers and catchers report." And so, in the depths of winter, a tiny green shoot of hope pokes through.....