I have lived in Erie all of the 21 years that I’ve been alive, but never have I experienced such weird weather.
And by weird, I mean really weird. Because, let’s be honest. Erie’s weather is not normal to begin with.
My sister, who now resides in Albuquerque, N.M., always says Erie only has two seasons: winter and road construction. I can’t help but agree.
Usually, we get about 10 months of winter and two of road construction, which is OK, I guess – I don’t mind the snow. Except when I have to walk to The Gannon Knight office in my moccasins.
The one thing I don’t particularly like about the snow is having to remember to wear boots, because I never do.
But this year, it barely snowed at all and road construction is definitely in full swing. Already.
No wet moccasins for me this year. I almost miss it.
Instead, the main bridge to my humble abode in Millcreek Township has been closed for more than a week, with no end in sight. And it seems that there are more orange traffic cones than actual traffic on upper Peach Street lately.
I shouldn’t complain that we’ve been having this unusually nice weather, but the weirdness outweighs the pleasure for me. In Erie, we don’t have random 70-degree weeks in March.
And we definitely don’t go practically all winter without a few good douses of snow.
I don’t think I’ll ever get over that part. It’s practically the equivalent of a snow globe without snow. And, thanks to the vast selection in my house, I know a lot about snow globes.
Usually, in April, it’ll warm up a little bit – maybe a consistent 50-60 degrees – but 70 to 45 in less than 24 hours? That’s a little crazy, even for Erie.
It feels like something is missing. It could be because I spent a good portion of my Christmas break in Florida – where, coincidentally, it was unseasonably cold – but I don’t feel like winter ever happened in Erie.
Even as I was participating in Mass on Christmas Eve, something felt incomplete. What’s Christmas without a little snow? Heck, what’s Thanksgiving in Erie without snow?
As we move quickly out of April and into the summer months, I feel that incompleteness trailing behind me. I still feel like Christmas never happened, and the only thing I can think of to blame that on is the weather. Because, really, everything else was the same.
Similarly, Easter didn’t feel quite right either, because of the lack of Christmas in my mind. I just have to wonder how much longer this empty feeling is going to follow me around.
I don’t think I want to wait until next Christmas for life – or at least the weather – to feel regular again.
At this point, I don’t even know what I should do to prepare for summer. Should I buy that new bathing suit so I can slip down the pool slide, or should I buy an extra winter coat just in case it snows in July?
I’m obviously being a little dramatic, but if the weather has taken so many weird turns during winter, why would it be normal for the construction season?
These are all questions I can’t answer, but I do know one thing about Erie’s weather: it should stay predictable, like my mom’s endless supply of Disney snow globes.
No matter how much you shake one – unless you drop it – the snow’s always going to fall.
