Well, you knew it would have to happen sometime – after all, it is March. The locals all say this has been the coldest winter in some thirteen years, but, judging from the extended weather forecast, we’re about to bid winter adios and enter Arizona spring.

Actually, spring is beautiful here, but the sad truth is, it doesn’t last long. My boss was saying the other day how much he dreads that first stretch when the temperatures start hitting 80+ and stay there, ’cause you know what’s behind them. Of course, that’s easy to say when your not shoveling snow or clearing ice, but everything’s relative, right?

I’ve always thought the seasons here run in reverse compared with the New England seasons I’m so familar with and long for. In reality, summers in Arizona are the same as winters in Massachusetts – except instead of hopping from heated car to heated building and vice-versa, here you hop from A/C’d car to A/C’d building and vice versa. And just as in New England that first October cool snap and November ‘noreaster hints at the indoor season to come, so does that first stretch of days here when the temperatures finally hit the ’80s. For you know that once that happens, it’s merely a hop, skip, and a jump to the ’90s and the brutal season that follows shortly thereafter.