COLUMN: Forget snow, give me a summer day

Summer, where art thou?

I hoped again against hope the snow wouldn’t fall last week but fall it did. I hoped in vain that the weather forecasters, who seemed to be in perfect harmony this time. would be wrong.

However, on this occasion they were right. The snow finally began falling in my neck of the weeks mid-Friday afternoon and by the time it had stopped, we were covered by a white blanket which thankfully didn’t stay around for too long.

Snow can be a funny thing, I remember as a child always wanting it and it seldom arriving. I remember getting excited at the mere mention of even a few snow flakes and how I would anxiously look upward hoping to see the flurries blowing in the wind.

Yet, more often than not, that childhood snow would never arrive. To be honest, I wanted snow back then because it would mean the possibility of a day off from school. If we even got half an inch, I would hunker down by my radio listening for word if my school was closed the next day. Oh, every now and then the magic words would be heard and I knew a bonus vacation day had been delivered, kind of like an extra Christmas present or a very early birthday gift.

On the very rare occasion, we would even get a couple days off, but that was as rare as the Atlanta Falcons making the playoffs.

Fast forwarding to today, the roles are reversed. If I never see snow again, I wouldn’t complain. It causes too many problems from travel to the power going out to canceling of events I depend on covering for the newspaper to my power bill skyrocketing.

So it came to past late last week that I had my fingers crossed, my lucky charms out and hoped somehow the snow wouldn’t arrive. When I woke up Friday morning I was encouraged because there was no sign of snow. By mid-morning, the dreaded snow had still not arrived.

Lunch came and went and not so much as a snow flake had been seen, at least not for me. However, around 2 that afternoon I looked out my office window and could see what I had been dreading. By the time it had stopped we had received around five inches and while it had begun to melt by the following day, it caused enough havoc for me to mumble about it several times.

I realize the kids probably enjoyed it. Heck, I’m sure some adults did as well. But for me, all I could do was think about summer — and being in Hawaii. Oh, for the bright, warm sun to be shining down upon me. Oh, for it to be warm enough to spend the afternoon swimming and to enjoy an outdoor cookout.

Those were the things on my mind last Friday as the white flakes fell from the sky. Besides, this is Georgia. We aren’t supposed to have to worry about that type of weather. I’ll leave it to our neighbors up North who are more accustomed to it.

For me, give me spring and give me summer any day of the week. I’ve had my fill of winter for this year. The weather during the past week was the final straw for me thank you.

Chris Bridges is an editor with Mainstreet Newspapers. You can reach him at chris@mainstreetnews.com.