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ENLARGE
Yesterday, I saw a paving stone sticking out from a snowdrift near our front steps. It was the first glimpse of anything but snow in our yard that I’ve seen since mid-December.
In other places, the coming of spring means a yearly rite of seasonal jubilation. But Summit County might be the only place in the world where spring brings a sort of despairing resignation to the hearts of much of the populace. We don’t want the snow to go away. But the signs of a Summit County spring are already upon us:
1) Blackened snow
New Orleans has its blackened catfish. Here, we have our blackened snow. When the sky gets bluer and the snow gets blacker, it’s springtime in our part of the Rockies. You know it’s spring when a kid can get filthy dirty by playing in the snow.
2) Naked dogs
Yesterday, I saw two toy poodles going naked down Main Street in Frisco. They weren’t wearing sweaters, or booties, or even nice warm knitted bandanas. The sight of dogs — especially the smaller variety — going around naked is tantamount to a heat wave up here.
3) Skiers look depressed
This one is self-explanatory. Just take a ride on any incoming afternoon Summit Stage bus and you’ll notice an atmosphere of gloom hanging over the heads of the passengers returning from the slopes. Their faces may brighten momentarily when they hear that snow is predicted for the rest of the week, but it’s only a temporary fix. They know their skiing and snowboarding days are numbered. It’s a sort of seasonal depression, alleviated only by spending the coming months waxing your skis and dreaming of powder days past.
4) Beer bottles in the snow
You know it’s spring when the beer bottles that were thrown carelessly along the road during Christmas vacation start showing up again among the melting drifts of snow.
5) Main Street Slide Closing
This week, I found I could actually walk down Frisco and Breckenridge Main Streets without doing an unintentional triple axel with an incomplete landing — a clear sign that our infamous Main Street Slides, always free to the public, are closing down for the season.
6) Sky Rat Bin Buffet has shorter hours.
The crows and ravens — or sky rats, as some of our locals affectionately call them — no longer spend their entire day at the garbage bin buffets located in front of our driveways on trash pick-up days. Something about the ever-so-slightly-warmer air makes them want to go back to their normal pursuits of flying too close by our picture windows, and terrorizing all the other birds in the neighborhood.
7) The dimming of the Christmas lights
It’s a sad fact that, sometime around March, the lights on the Christmas decorations around town finally start burning themselves out. The sight of burnt-out bulbs hanging listlessly from evergreen branches is our Summit County equivalent of cherry trees blossoming in the spring.
8) The dead-drunk tinsel snowmen
Yes, I know that this really belongs in the last category, but I think they deserve a special mention — those sad, weather-debauched tinsel snowmen, slumped over in front of homes and businesses, looking for all the world like they’re falling-down-drunk. They probably got hold of some of those exposed beer bottles along the road.
9 & 10) Spring? What spring?
Where I hail from, down South, spring means azalea blossoms, and dogwood petals blinking white and pink against an already summer-scorching sun. Here, the coming of spring means that the snow level might go down half a foot or so, and the killer icicles will just begin their slow drip down off our roof eaves, causing major leaks in our living room windows.
Let’s be honest — up here, we don’t have spring. We really have only two seasons — winter and July.
Oh, well, I was never a spring person, myself. That’s why I’m happy to be here. Happy to be celebrating spring — Summit County style.
In other places, the coming of spring means a yearly rite of seasonal jubilation. But Summit County might be the only place in the world where spring brings a sort of despairing resignation to the hearts of much of the populace. We don’t want the snow to go away. But the signs of a Summit County spring are already upon us:
1) Blackened snow
New Orleans has its blackened catfish. Here, we have our blackened snow. When the sky gets bluer and the snow gets blacker, it’s springtime in our part of the Rockies. You know it’s spring when a kid can get filthy dirty by playing in the snow.
2) Naked dogs
Yesterday, I saw two toy poodles going naked down Main Street in Frisco. They weren’t wearing sweaters, or booties, or even nice warm knitted bandanas. The sight of dogs — especially the smaller variety — going around naked is tantamount to a heat wave up here.
3) Skiers look depressed
This one is self-explanatory. Just take a ride on any incoming afternoon Summit Stage bus and you’ll notice an atmosphere of gloom hanging over the heads of the passengers returning from the slopes. Their faces may brighten momentarily when they hear that snow is predicted for the rest of the week, but it’s only a temporary fix. They know their skiing and snowboarding days are numbered. It’s a sort of seasonal depression, alleviated only by spending the coming months waxing your skis and dreaming of powder days past.
4) Beer bottles in the snow
You know it’s spring when the beer bottles that were thrown carelessly along the road during Christmas vacation start showing up again among the melting drifts of snow.
5) Main Street Slide Closing
This week, I found I could actually walk down Frisco and Breckenridge Main Streets without doing an unintentional triple axel with an incomplete landing — a clear sign that our infamous Main Street Slides, always free to the public, are closing down for the season.
6) Sky Rat Bin Buffet has shorter hours.
The crows and ravens — or sky rats, as some of our locals affectionately call them — no longer spend their entire day at the garbage bin buffets located in front of our driveways on trash pick-up days. Something about the ever-so-slightly-warmer air makes them want to go back to their normal pursuits of flying too close by our picture windows, and terrorizing all the other birds in the neighborhood.
7) The dimming of the Christmas lights
It’s a sad fact that, sometime around March, the lights on the Christmas decorations around town finally start burning themselves out. The sight of burnt-out bulbs hanging listlessly from evergreen branches is our Summit County equivalent of cherry trees blossoming in the spring.
8) The dead-drunk tinsel snowmen
Yes, I know that this really belongs in the last category, but I think they deserve a special mention — those sad, weather-debauched tinsel snowmen, slumped over in front of homes and businesses, looking for all the world like they’re falling-down-drunk. They probably got hold of some of those exposed beer bottles along the road.
9 & 10) Spring? What spring?
Where I hail from, down South, spring means azalea blossoms, and dogwood petals blinking white and pink against an already summer-scorching sun. Here, the coming of spring means that the snow level might go down half a foot or so, and the killer icicles will just begin their slow drip down off our roof eaves, causing major leaks in our living room windows.
Let’s be honest — up here, we don’t have spring. We really have only two seasons — winter and July.
Oh, well, I was never a spring person, myself. That’s why I’m happy to be here. Happy to be celebrating spring — Summit County style.
