Did someone miss the memo?

Waking up this morning, I knew I was going to be snow struck. Oh not surprised in anyway, just dumb-founded that after last winter's perpetual spring-like weather, environmental change decided to give us the old ironic kick in the rear with a frozen boot and dump another foot of snow on the nubilesque buds of spring. And on the eve of Daylight savings time too, really? The horror.

Oh as a New Englander, I am well aware of the storm of '88 when for four days Connecticut was paralyzed by blizzard conditions resulting in death and destruction in March. And sure I know all about Aprils driving to UCONN after Easter break only to discover campus shut down due to freak Spring snows. But it's not like you ever get used to it.

The mere sight of snow falling after those first sneak peeks of Spring show is enough to make even the heartiest of Down Easterners groan at the prospect of donning duck boots and snow shovels one more time. But to add insult to injury, there is boating to be had???

Every year since I started CCB, when the clock strikes March, there is a palpable uptick in the morale of the CCB faithful. The phones start to ring, the emails flow in a bit faster, and I'll admit, my outlook on the world brightens with each minute of increased sunshine. With the lions of March come the dogs of  the Sea.

But this year, despite the kick off of an incredible project to create a School Ship for Connecticut, the resurgence of the Bridgeport Boat Basin and some very promising winds blowing in from Long and Rhode Island, I'm struggling to muster the muscle to lift one more shovel of snow, scrape one more sheet of ice or scatter one more handful of sand. In short,  I'm Snow Struck.

I have often laughed at those who would complain about weather, time and wind. You may as well yell at the outgoing tide when your boat is hard aground for the all the good complaining will do you in the face of Mother Nature. But this year, I cant help but join the vocal discontents of New England in the outrage I am feeling, knowing the big plans I have right ahead for the fairer season. The nerve of Mother Nature in her infinite wisdom dropping a foot of snow on us when we have suffered hurricanes, blizzards and nor'easters galore this past year and I have a ship to show in seven short days???

I know indignancy is a futile gesture in the face of Old Man Winter- He and his merry mistress Mother Nature don't give a flying horse feather about my dissapointment in their behavior. And Im sorry, after Valentines Day, it is every "Citizen who lives above the 40th-degree-of-latitude's" God given right to complain about winter after High School graduation when we lose the privilege of enjoying snow days.  When you cant sleep in and your not getting paid, snow days only mean slipping and sliding on semi-passable roads- the days of snow day fun are over in the post-graduate world.

So while in December snow is festive and in January snow is a New England right of passage, and in February snow is an act of penitence, in March Snow is a bitter pill to swallow in any form. It's the longest Month of the year, filled with wind, rain, a shortage of three day weekends and damn few redeeming qualities- do we have to have snow on top of it?

I know there are 50-degree temps on tap for the weekend. And I am sure the plow drivers and ski resorts are loving this weather. And sure enough for every elated teenager who awoke today happy to find they have a weekend reprieve from their Calculus test, there is teacher who is being forced to their postpone their summer plans one more day. And what about those green houses and garden centers who have been forced to delay deliveries of Mothers Day bulbs and cuttings?

Yes for every Winter ying there is a Spring yang, so whats the point of bitching? But when you are going out for the fouth time in one day to clean the cars, and we're shoveling the docks of the Basin off one more time in March, can we not agree collectively, that its ok to complain, just a little?