Friday, May 3, 2013

and the crazy weather continues...

I'm sitting at my desk here at work right now looking out the window at light snow falling.  It would be an understatement to say that that is an unusual event around these parts, considering we are a few days into May.  Two days ago our afternoon high was 80 degrees.  We've had good rainfall this spring, and the last days of April were beautiful and sunny and just the way you want Springtime to be.  Despite some early warnings of a cold snap headed our way, I was sure that it was finally time to get our garden in.  It couldn't be that bad, right?  And yet, yesterday the temperatures were falling all day, and a cold rain was moving in. We were catching just a small portion of a much larger system that has brought cold temperatures and tons of heavy, wet snow to an area that stretches across most of the northern half of the U.S.  When my alarm clock went off this morning the temperature outside was one degree above freezing, and a half inch of sleet had fallen, with scattered reports of fender-benders and slide-offs in and around Springfield. That is no fun.  The projected high for today is 39 according to the National Weather Service.  It could certainly be a lot worse.  Fortunately I covered my plants last night, so I'm sure they will be fine, but we really should be past all of this by now.   Oh well, there's not much you can do about it.  The weekend is pretty much a washout... wet and cold.  Our band is playing tonight at an Irish pub on the south side, but with weather like this we are kinda expecting a thin crowd.  Hopefully it will be above freezing when it's time to pack up our gear and head home after the gig.  And thankfully we are supposed to have a fairly quick turn-around with this; by the middle of next week they are calling for highs in the 70s again.  That will be nice.  In the mean time... let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.... ha.