It seems like every year there’s a day in early spring, usually around mid-April, that I can only call Slap Day. Not that anyone should actually slap someone, or that the weather makes you want to, although maybe it does, when someone chirps, “We need the moisture,” in defense of a snowstorm. Sure, we all know we need it, but couldn’t it just snow in the mountains and rain down here? Isn’t that what spring is supposed to bring? Rain! I get that the weather isn’t their fault and they’re just trying to stay positive, but it’s so frustrating when, after enjoying blooming crocuses and daffodils and watching the yard turn green, everything suddenly disappears under a mountain of snow. And every time it happens, our morale plummets into the depths of snow. No self-respecting flower would dare emerge on Slap Day anyway…they’re too delicate!
Every year, we know to simply “expect” Slap Day, but even more bizarre than the idea of “accepting” Slap Day is the idea that Slap Day may not happen. When Winter plays such a cruel trick on Spring, I want to draw the line, but not in exchange for a Summer of water rationing. Winter normally bullies all of us already. It’s just too much, when Winter refuses to take it’s turn and provide us with the necessary moisture to prevent the need for Slap Day. That is just as wrong as Slap Day itself!! Winter simply didn’t do its job this year. I hate snow as much as the next guy, but I also know that there is a time for rain and a time for snow. This past Winter wasn’t just fairly mild. It was almost non-existent, and we really needed quite a bit more snow…much as I hate to say it.
While there are few things I hate more than Slap Day, I really do hate a year of praying for no wildfires, no dry lightning storms, and even no rainy lightning storms, because lightning in a year void of a real Winter means a big chance of wildfires. So, while I would normally be ranting about Slap Day, should it arrive, I would probably actually welcome it this year, provided it didn’t bring with it a bunch of flooding. Slap Day suddenly seems very important to the welfare of the entire state. In fact, a couple of Slap Days, followed by a rainy Sprin would be very nice, again provided we didn’t get so much moisture that we got flooding. I suppose it would seem like I’m being rather picky, and I suppose I am, but I just want us to have a nice Spring and Summer. Is that so much to ask?
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