An Open Letter To Winter

An open letter to Old Man Winter

Dear Mr. Winter

As I look out my window, I see flakes of snow falling to the ground. It is March 27, and although spring is about a week old, you insist on letting us know that you have not given up your cold icy grip. As a matter of fact, this weekend is supposed to be very cold, with high temperatures barely in the 20s and wind chills even more brutal. You must understand, it is not the snow that offends me. Lord knows Cleveland often sees the white stuff well into April. Who can forget the home opener in 2007, when we had so much snow the next series was moved to Milwaukee. Yes Milwaukee, not exactly known for its tropical breezes and blazing sunshine. The record snowfall was set in the winter of 2004-2005, when we received 117.9 inches. The last measurable amount that year was April 24, and we had trace amounts on May 2-3-4 that year.

I have lived in Cleveland all but 2 of my 60 years, most of them in Lakewood. For the past 23 years I have lived in an apartment along the shores of Lake Erie. I love witnessing the daily changes that take place on the tenth largest lake in the world. We had a few days in the last few weeks when the temperature “soared” into the 40s and 50s. The ice was beginning to melt. Not completely, but enough to give one hope. Heck, even one day the winds were so vigorous out of the south that there was no trace of it, except for the ice clinging to the shoreline. It seems that it had been sent back to Canada, where it belongs. The inevitable happened, and the north wind pushed the ice back southward to the waters just outside my window. And now the cold has returned and the slush has turned back into the tundra. In the 23 years I have lived along the lake I do not ever remember the ice lasting into April, which given the forecast for the next few days, it surely will. Those of us who live along the lake know what that means. When Betsy Kling or Jeff Tanchak gives us the forecast saying, “Temps will be in the 60s today, except cooler along the lake!” So even though the people in Parma and Olmsted Falls will be toasty, at about 1 o’clock, the winds will come from the north at those of us along the lake, and we will be lucky to make it out of the 40s, in May.

So please Mr. Winter, ease up a little. The frigid February was bad enough with wind chills approaching 30 below and highs not even reaching 5 degrees, many of us think we can’t take anymore! To paraphrase a song made famous by Diana Ross and the Supremes, “Let me go why don’t you babe, get out of my life why don’t you babe, I don’t really need you, you just keep on hanging on, ooo ooo ooo ooo!”

Your frosty, frozen friend,

Tom