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Blogs by Patrick Sills
Why is April so Cruel? 4/29/2005 10:39:54 AM
Anyone who has ever lived in Wisconsin should be able to relate to what I'm about to say. Before I begin, allow me to point out that there are two things I absolutely hate: cold weather and cloudy skies. With that said, you can rest assured that my fondness for winter ranks right up there with a bad case of hemorrhoids on the enjoyment scale. As a result of my tastes in climate, Wisconsin is a very poor choice of region in which to reside. Why, then, do I live here, do you ask? The answer is complicated. I originally hail from the Illinois side of the Mississippi River in the Quad Cities. The Quad Cities consist of Davenport, Iowa and Rock Island, Moline, and East Moline, Illinois. At 20, I moved away from home in East Moline to attend college in Dekalb, Illinois, located about 60 miles west of Chicago. I studied Music, but my background was in the disclipines of Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, and the Beatles as opposed to Bach, Mozart, or even Miles Davis. I was frowned upon for playing a bass guitar instead of a string bass, and soon dropped out. I played in many different rock bands after that, complete with the big hair (God, what was I thinking?) and Dekalb was where I met my wife. We were married there in 1988, and moved to Elgin, Illinois, a far west suburb of Chicago, to be closer to my wife's job. She was originally from Wisconsin, and so we visited her family there many times. I liked what I saw on those visits; green grass, beautiful forests, fresh air, countless lakes and rivers, and friendly people who didn't give you the finger for not driving eighty miles an hour through residential areas. I thought to myself that Wisconsin would provide a nice, peaceful alternative to the rat race and smoggy air that defined Chicago (I use the term, CHICAGO loosely; to me, everything from Elgin to Gary, Indiana is simply, CHICAGO). My wife got a transfer,and by 1989, we were on our way to Wisconsin. We moved to Eau Claire, a city of about 62,000 located about 100 miles east of Minneapolis.
What I didn't count on, what I was completely unprepared for, was the brutally cold climate and lack of sunshine.
Winter weather as most people know it can begin here as early as mid-October. In recent years, it has held off until late November, but the duration of winter has remained constant; about six months in length, which is at a minimum, two months longer than Illinois. Around April, the snow finally melts, but here comes the cruel part: We always get a "teaser" of unseasonably warm temperatures; sometimes way up in the eighties. Without fail, every year, everyone here (myself included) is fooled into believing that at long last, summer has graced us with its presence early . Then, with a vengeance, usually after a week or so, the temperatures plummet fifty degrees and the skies change back to their normal dingy, gray hue. In fact, most of the time, we are fortunate if we see the sun five days out of a month. In the summer, it's about 50/50. May is always gray and about 55 degrees, which is very depressing after 80 and sunshine. I just thought I would put these observations on paper and give a few words of advice to anyone planning to visit Wisconsin. If you see a brochure advertising some place such as Wisconsin Dells with smiling children going down waterslides amongst brilliant sunshine, keep in mind that the photogapher probably had to stay there for two weeks before there was a sunny enough day to shoot such a picture. One more thing: If you are adventurous and look up average temperatures before coming here, remember to subtract about fifteen degrees from whatever you read. Sunglasses? Just leave them at home. You won't need them.
