I have never really liked spring. Spring is a tease. It plays with you, tricks you and gives you false hope. You anticipate the warmth and the cold wind blows. After a sunny day, it is a dreary cloudy rainy day. And just when you think the blossoming will begin the temperature drops down so low and the rain is so cold that you lose hope that spring will ever turn to summer.
It sure has been a cold long winter. Easter and spring breaks have come and gone. The quiet of the island is becoming a thing of the past. For the last two weeks the island has been flooded with tourists for the first time this year. The tourist season has begun despite the weather not cooperating.
I have seen people in their bathing suits but I am still wearing warm clothes and a sweatshirt! The ocean is still cold, running about 58 degrees. Young kids go in without a care. Tourists force themselves in because they are at the beach. The only locals in the water are the surfers who are in their wetsuits. I haven’t even dared to put my toes in the water yet. Even on the few days it has reached 70, the cool breeze off that cold ocean sends chills down my body.
Spring is the time when things come alive again and begin to blossom. I am beginning to come alive again too but I don’t see anything blossoming yet. Once again I find myself battling the realities of life. It is a slow process. I find it raining more than I would like. The reality of spring at the beach isn’t the beautiful warm sunny days but cool chilly mornings, the water is still too cold to get into and the ocean breeze sends chills through my body. Hope seems to have drowned in the rain.
For us islanders, social life is coming back alive. Our favorite hang-outs have reopened for business. Music, bingo, wine tasting, and beer tastings are back. We blend in with the tourists but you can always pick us out. We are not on vacation. We are living our life. Our days can be busy sometimes but are life is always laid back, slow and casual. It is the lifestyle we have chosen to live.
Everyone is anxious that the weather breaks and the warmth arrives. I am tired of being cold. I am tired of still wearing sweaters and sweatshirts. I want to wear my sundresses. I want to stroll the beach feeling the sun warming my body without a cold wind chilling my body.
Despite the craziness that warm weather brings, which we have a love/hate relationship with, we still are so tired of cool temperatures, cold wind and rain.
