Already

I came back from my retreat to find the snow melted and the spring peepers singing. This week on campus, students were dressed in shorts and sandals. After an incredibly mild winter, we’ve been catapulted into mid-summer. Leaves are opening on my lilac bushes, and flowers are blooming in garden beds in the city. Everything is two to three weeks early.

One of my students summed up the mood on campus: “I’d enjoy this lovely warm weather so much more if it didn’t remind me that we’re disrupting the climate and on the brink of environmental disaster.”

I ran into a scientist friend as I came up the brick steps towards the chemistry building. He greeted me cheerily. “Happy Spring! Happy Summer! Happy Whatever-the-Fuck-this-is!”

When I walked in my woods this afternoon, I found something even more ominious. The mosquitos are hatching. Already.