Shrinking Spring

 The other day, it was 83 degrees. It is April and 83 degrees. Today it is still April and 41 degrees. How does a person wrap their head around weather contrasts like that? Well, how I do it is to look at the plants. Plants are very reactionary. If it rains, you can watch dandelions fold up inside themselves to keep dry. When it is warm, you can see tightly budded tulips spring open to welcome the warmth. 

This leads me to the idea that spring is a shrinking season. No, there are still the same number of days in spring, but the weather is such that we kind of go from cold to hot without a lot of warm in between. My personal barometer around this is when we put in our window unit air conditioners. Yes, we are those people who do not have central A/C. My wife and I historically could wait until July before the swelter got the better of us. I think last year, we made it until Memorial Day, but just barely.

Is spring actually shrinking, well in Iowa, it isn't so much getting shorter as becoming ever more humid (which makes me shrink). It is also windier and the weather is more dramatic. All this adds up to springs that are less enjoyable and the sense that they aren't lasting as long as they used to. How much this is due to aging bodies and minds is anybody's guess. But if you see spring, please tell it we are looking forward to it and hope it hangs around for a while,