If April Showers Bring May Flowers...What Do April Snow Flurries Bring?


Answer: bitterness. College students greet sudden winter snowstorms with the eagerness and joy of, as Dr. Cox put it, "an un-pottytrained Labradoodle." Some of you may remember my posts from January 2004, when it snowed hard enough that classes were actually cancelled for at least two days if memory serves me correctly. Every winter since then, though, has been a fairly dry one. Sure, we get a few flurries now and then, but it usually doesn't stick and is mainly just a wistful reminder of what could have been if the air were a bit colder and dryer.

Then, more than two weeks after Spring officially begins--AFTER Daylight Savings Time kicks in--when the flowers are in full bloom and the trees around the sunken gardens are bursting with fresh green leaves, this happens:










































































Spring, as I have noted before, often comes early to Williamsburg. Winter, however, doesn't always get the internal memo. Looking at it as a theodicy of sorts, my guess is that this whole debacle is due to Ullr's reliance on outdated Norse Calendars that put cold weather smack-dab in the middle of sunbathing and beachgoing season. Or perhaps we haven't been paying homage to the right pantheon:

Calvin: Can we burn these leaves?
Dad: No, that pollutes.
Calvin: But how can we appease the mighty snow demons if we don't sacrifice any leaves?! We'll have a warm winter!
Dad: I don't know whether your grasp of theology or meteorology is the more appalling.
Calvin: I guess I'll go light some candles around the toboggan and beg for mercy.

Either way: Divine Beings, we consider ourselves firmly rebuked. Can we now get back to the whole flowering-of-the-Earth deal?




(I'm still flying--with ice on my wings.)