The weather today is slightly sarcastic.

"Winter gave spring and summer a miss and went straight on into autumn."

I grew up in Southeastern, PA, which - for the uninitiated - means that I was able to witness all four seasons, and in pretty even intervals.  Yeah, I had heard about the blistering heat of Florida and the unbearable year-long winters of Minnesota.  Despite all this, though, I had it in my head that all parts of the U.S. had the typical winter snow, showers & flowers in spring, warm sunny summer, and rust-colored fall.

And then... I moved to Pittsburgh.

When I was accepted to Pitt, I really had no idea what to expect.  I had never been to the city before, I had no friends or relatives in the area.  I just thought it was Philly.  But on the other side of Pennsylvania.  Oh - and that it was a bit colder on average.

Hah.  Hah.  Hah.

On average, Pittsburgh gets about 40 inches of rainfall per year.  In comparison to like... all of Oregon, and some places in the south, this is actually pennies.  That's not what it felt like.

To me, this was pretty much the breakdown of 'Burgh seasons:

Bonus points to anyone who recognizes the sun.

I actually don't mind the rain.  I might venture to say that I quite like it.  There's something refreshing about frolicking about in torrential downpour.  However, that feeling pretty quickly dissipates once you step into a building with no heating unit or an overactive AC, as so many of the engineering buildings were.  Plus - when you're carrying nothing but paper and electronics around from one lecture hall to another, and you accidentally leave your backpack zipper open, you sort of know how the Witch of the West felt when Dorothy doused her with a bucket of water.

Frankly, the weather could be downright malicious at times.  No matter which direction the wind was blowing, and now matter what direction you walked, you always had a face full of heavy rain.  In the winter, the snow was perfectly designed to hook at the very last minute, shooting up your nose.  Glasses should have been a barrier, but that awesome J-hook bypassed that defense as well, landing in your eyes, or melting all across the lens, forcing you to wipe off your glasses, and thus subjecting your tender orbs to the harsh, whistling winds of Mother Nature's cruelty.

Well.  Joke's on you, P-burgh.  I moved back to the East coast, where nothing ever happens.  Except for maybe hurricanes.  And super storms.  And nor'easter.

...

...Is it too late for me to come back?

Until the next.