March

On the calendar, March looks like it has 31 days. Experiencing it off the page, I think it has about 38.

Even with the warmer climate, winter can claim a chunk of March whenever it wants. We will get warm days, and every type of precipitation, but no resident of northern New England can relax and leave the house without a couple of extra layers of clothing until late June.

Our reward for enduring March is April. April belongs to no season. With that gray limbo in front of us, March seems even longer. April: all the hypothermia of winter with none of the fun. You like gray skies and cold rain? You'll like April around here.

The real estate business would die in its tracks if every prospective home buyer had to spend March and April here. Can we make it a law?

One way or another, winter will be dismantled and carried away. On a day-to-day level we can't slow or hasten it.