Seasons!

When I taught first grade, one of my favorite science units was Seasons. We read fantastic weather books like The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats. We would do fun crafts such as cutting snowflakes from extra copy paper that I snagged from the copy machine or crayon leaf rubbings from leaves we collected on the playground. I told my students that there are four seasons: Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter. However, because my students were six, and six year olds have a tough time grasping sarcasm and exaggeration, I didn't completely explain all that I know about these so-called 4 seasons of the year. Luckily for you, since you are not six (I assume) I feel it is necessary to explain a little more into detail about seasons, both here in Mississippi and in Alaska.

First off, Alaska. Alaska does not have four seasons. It has five. I know my Alaskan readers are very aware of this, so if you would like, you may skip this paragraph and move on. As for the rest of you... Alaska has five seasons. First, we have Spring, which doesn't really start in March and finish by the end of May like my first graders were led to believe. In Alaska, we were lucky to see Spring around late-April. Spring weather continues throughout the entire summer, except for the occasional lucky weekend in maybe July or August where the temps might reach the whopping high temps of 70-75 degrees! Yes, in Alaska, 70 is seriously hot. We stripped down to our shorts and tank tops, pulled out the sprinklers, and danced through the water across the lawn to get some relief. (Sometimes looking back on my life in AK, I wonder to myself why in the world did I bother buying shorts?) So anyway, after that lucky occasional summer weekend, we move on to Fall. Fall begins around September 1st and ends.... oh-somewhere-around September 3rd.... Nah, j/k. Fall in Alaska is pretty short but not quite that short. So after a couple weeks of Fall, we enter into freezing cold Winter. It doesn't start snowing till after Halloween, but pretty much after Labor Day you might as well kiss your shorts and sprinklers goodbye. The season of Winter lasts and lasts and lasts. Don't get me wrong. I love Alaska. I love Winter. I love snow. I love sledding and hot chocolate and snow angels. But only in small quantities. Snow on the ground for five months out of the year is a bit much for me. Finally, we get to the fifth season: Break-up. That is when the snow "breaks-up." Genius name isn't it? Me and Break-up, we have a love/hate relationship. During the day, all the snow and ice that has been accumulating for the past 5 months melts. And then during night, it freezes all over again. This causes dirty brown slush by day and dirty brown ice by night. I'm not crazy about that whole process, but I can't help but love the fact that Break-up brings Spring. And I think I'd rather be in Alaska during the Spring more than any other place in any other season of the year. It is beautiful. Nothing is more beautiful than tiny light-green leaves budding on hundreds of white birch trees with a backdrop of snow capped mountains.

Now, on to Mississippi seasons. I would say that Mississippi has four seasons, but I would change the names of a couple of seasons. Season 1: Summer. Season 2: Fall. Season 3: Winter-ish 4. Wummer. Yes, I did say Wummer. That is not a typo. Right now, we are in the season of Wummer. This word is not necessarily one you would find in the dictionary. See, when Webster wrote his dictionary, for some reason he didn't contact me about my made up words and phrases, so that is why this perfectly legit word Wummer doesn't show up. The word is sorta like brunch....a mixture of breakfast and lunch. Or at the Banks' household we liked to have Bupper or Binner. I always liked the name Bupper better than Binner. It sorta rolls off the tongue better. Anyway..back to Wummer. Wummer is summer and winter all mixed into one. It is when the atmosphere gets confused and can't decide whether to get cold or hot and just kinda goes nuts for a couple months. We will have an entire week of 70 degree temps, and then the very next week we'll have to pull back out the mittens and wool socks. Good grief! It's craziness! I used to have two different closets with two sets of clothes: summer and winter clothes. When summer came, I'd pull all my tank tops and shorts from the extra bedroom's closet, and I'd switch them out with my winter clothes in my bedroom closet. Well, what ended up happening is that I would experience one of those fake-out weeks of warm weather, and I would switch my clothes, only to discover that we still had 3 more weeks of winter! Then I was stuck to going to the extra bedroom to get dressed every morning, which kinda gets old after a while. So, I've just kinda given up on that idea. So, that is Wummer. Next time you see good ole' Webster, let him know he's missing a very useful word in his dictionary for me, will ya? I'd appreciate it.

Well, now you know all about the seasons. I hope you learned a lot. Sorry it has been forever since my last post. I've been out enjoying this nice Wummer weather!