{"id":1520,"date":"2013-04-16T13:20:13","date_gmt":"2013-04-16T17:20:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=1520"},"modified":"2013-04-30T16:40:43","modified_gmt":"2013-04-30T20:40:43","slug":"inside-aurora-winter-tired","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/inside-aurora-winter-tired\/","title":{"rendered":"INSIDE AURORA: Winter Tired"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Scott Johnston<\/strong><\/p>\n

I used to laugh whenever I came across those signs that noted that street parking was forbidden in Aurora up until April 15 to ensure that snow plows could properly clear the roads.
\nAfter all, since the last Ice Age, when has enough snow ever fallen in April that actually resulted in any sort of accumulation?
\nWell, Mother Nature certainly seems to be getting the last laugh now. Or maybe she\u2019s making us pay the price for last year.
\nIf you remember, March of 2012 managed to bypass the spring season completely, and went right from winter to summer.
\nOne minute there were cold winds and snow, and the next there were sunny days in the high teens, hoards of coatless pedestrians, and flowers blooming everywhere. It was amazing.
\nCompare that to this year.
\nWell into April we see overnight temperatures below freezing, winter boots and clothing still piled inside doorways, and snow on the ground in places – even before it was nicely replenished by the dumping we had last Thursday.
\nAs for the groundhogs that predicted an early spring, they\u2019re all in witness protection programs.
\nThe days may be longer, but the shirtsleeves certainly aren\u2019t getting any shorter.
\nSome folks rely on local events to get them into a more temperate frame of mind. But even the traditional Aurora harbingers of spring are having a hard time convincing people that the season\u2019s here.
\nThere were probably more questions about snow blowers and de-icing salt at the recent Home Show than there were about patios and pools. And in the annual Rotary Club frog race in Tannery Creek, the winning entry was actually a chunk of ice.
\nIn this week-end\u2019s Mayor\u2019s Clean-up Day, I wouldn\u2019t be surprised if there are areas of town where participants will need to shovel the snow off of the ground first before they can see if there\u2019s any trash to pick up.
\nAt this stage, apart from the ski-hill operators, many of whom are still doing a booming business, I don\u2019t think there\u2019s anyone out there who isn\u2019t anticipating the change in seasons.
\nThat goes for animals, too. The chipmunks and racoons are probably getting tired of rolling over and hitting the snooze alarms on their hibernation alarm clocks.
\nOn the plus side, the delayed spring may mean that we\u2019ll just bypass it again like last year, although a month or two later, and go right into the warm temperatures.
\nBut that has problems of its own. In a quick seasonal transition the tasks you\u2019d normally spread out over several weeks are compressed into a shorter timeframe.
\nFor example, in a morning where you would normally rake and seed the lawn, you may also have to fit in cleaning off the patio furniture, changing the snow tires, putting up the screens, servicing the lawnmower, and for the real procrastinators out there, and taking down the Christmas lights.
\nBut even if spring (or perhaps summer) is closer, it doesn\u2019t seem to be here yet, so just in case winter is hanging in there, I better move my car from my street parking spot. Since the 15th has come and gone, I\u2019m no longer worried about getting a ticket, but there\u2019s no guarantee that I won\u2019t awake one morning to find my car\u2019s been buried by a passing snow plow.<\/p>\n


\nFeel free to e-mail Scott at:
\nmachellscorners@gmail.com<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Scott Johnston I used to laugh whenever I came across those signs that noted that street parking was forbidden in Aurora up until April 15 to ensure that snow plows could properly clear the roads. After all, since the last Ice Age, when has enough snow ever fallen in April that actually resulted in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-ow","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-22 08:57:41","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1520\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}