Ahhhhhhhhh, Springtime!!!!!!!

I hate spring.  No, I take it back. I don't hate spring. I love spring. I just hate spring in Boston. You know what they say: "Hope springs eternal."  What I eternally hope is that spring in Boston approaches some semblance of spring.  It doesn't. 

I've lived in the Boston region for 45 years and I am not afraid to say that spring in Boston is awful. As a matter of fact, a lot of the time spring here feels colder than winter. The temperature is warmer. Yet, the anticipation of warmth, coupled with the desire for it, leaves one cold. 

The lingering chill is a great source of frustration because of the expectation that it should be warmer. This leads to the clothing problem. Forget about trying to figure out what to wear. I never know, so I opt for lighter-weight fabric and peel off a couple of layers. Presto! I'm frozen! I finally figured out that what I should really wear in the spring is winter clothing. Whenever I come to this conclusion, it becomes the exact moment the chill is punctured by some outrageously hot days. The second I buy in-between clothes for warm but potentially chilly days, it's eighty degrees and it's all over. The Spring wardrobe goes out the window in favor of shorts, T-shirts, and sandals. 

When I ask people in July how they felt about spring that year, they say they don't remember it. No recollection whatsoever. All they know is they were cold and now they are hot. 

The so-called spring in Boston/Cambridge, consisting of the aforementioned struggles with clothing and wind chills, heightens a susceptibility to incredible colds and sore throats that seem to last forever. These illnesses are much worse in spring than at other times of the year.  I daresay, given the strangeness of these Covid-19 times, social distancing, hand washing, quarantines, etc., it is entirely likely that people have been less sick from other maladies than they would have been ordinarily. 

The pollen count is a whole other story and deserves at least a couple of pages, if not an entire book. Even someone who is supposedly devoid of allergies will encounter a whole new experience during the Boston/Cambridge spring. Given these times, we have not been privy to the usual sights and sounds of coughs a-hacking, throats a-clearing, noses a-running and sneezing, and eyes a-watering and itching. 

 And then there are the trees. It is amazing how much "stuff" comes out of the trees and ends up in your hair, on your clothes, on your car, and in your mouth. There should be springtime emission controls for trees as well as cars. I don't know which pollution is worse.

My advice is this. If you need to get away from New England once in awhile, winter vacations may look like the way to go.  Don't be fooled.  Spring is really the time to get out of town. 

Postscript -- Not going out and sheltering in place during the spring may actually be one of the hidden benefits of the coronavirus. Wrong. There are no benefits of this virus, but not having to deal with spring may be as close it gets. 

----Laurence Lieberman