Today is an important day, a hopeful day for anyone who dislikes winter. During the news this evening, the weatherman said that, as of today, meteorological winter is halfway over! What an encouragement to think that if winter were a week, we are sitting down to lunch at noon on Wednesday -- yay!
Now at this point, the scientific purists in the audience are raising their hands and asking "what about astronomical winter?" Well, what about it?
I know that when the beginning of March rolls around and there's still snow on the ground and the thought of wearing flip flops would only be contemplated by someone who is comfortable with frostbite, I will be bitterly disappointed. But where I live, people won't be venturing out in short sleeves and capris on March 20th either.
Just last week one of my children asked me when it was going to start to warm up. I stifled the urge to laugh maniacally and said probably sometime in May. When I saw how sad she looked, I regretted having answered so truthfully so I backtracked and said that there would probably be a few warm days in April. She's nineteen and has lived in the Midwest all her life -- how has the harsh reality of our long, brutal winters escaped her? I guess that hope does spring eternal (no pun intended).
So whether I adhere to meteorological winter or astronomical winter I guess it really doesn't matter. March 1st will arrive and it will be cold and gray, and then March 20th will arrive and it will still be cold and gray.
For my own sanity, I choose to look forward to the end of meteorological winter. It's sort of like what Steve said to Stella in The Italian Job, "Whatever helps you sleep at night sweetheart."
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