random thoughts – Day 2,212 (Tuesday) – weather mood swings

April 7, 2026, 7:09 am

Imagine my dismay when I woke this morning at 7:00 to a yard lightly dusted with snow. If you live in central Massachusetts, you might have had the same feeling and don’t need to imagine it at all because you also lived it. It wasn't the volume (which was light),  so much as the principle of it. It's April. It's supposed to be raining and mud season. 

It should not have been so surprising, because the majority of spring seasons of my life have been in New England. And even for many of the 12 years I lived in Tennessee it snowed in April. 

By 8:00, the snow had magically disappeared. Poof. Gone like it never even happened. And I was happier. Lighter. Carefree. 

April 7, 2026, 8:01 am.

At 9:00 there was another plot twist. It was snowing again all over again with a vengeance, and I was sad about April snow all over again. We were back in the magical snow globe world we lived under for months already. 

Somewhere around noon I noticed it had stopped snowing. I had been reading a book to take my mind off the weather and wasn't facing the window so it could have been hours earlier. By 1:00 the snow was all gone. Again. For now. I was afraid to be too happy about it based on the last couple of hours. I could no longer afford that level of emotional investment. The resulting mood swings were killing me.

April 7, 2026,  9:06 am.

I don’t dare to ask what weather might be next because we’ll probably find out and I already tempted fate once this week. After finishing the tree trash hauling on Monday, I boldly took the snow shovel from its winter station in the narrow space between the trash and recycle bins and the concrete back door landing and set it in the shed. 

At least I didn’t plant any flowers yet. I’ve learned my lesson and now I don’t invest a single cent on plant life to go into the ground until Memorial Day. It’s less expensive that way, in both financial and psychological terms.