Heat or AC—is it Spring?
I’ve written more than one article about Spring in Nebraska. Well, sort of. Whether or not we’ve had a hard, cold Winter, even the idea of Spring seems to bring out the worst of weather.
Spring peaks out with a few warm days. We’re so ready for warm weather, we hang up the warm scarves and hats, smile and, with each warmer day, we are sure Winter has done its worst. Spring has arrived.
That didn’t work out so well this year 2025. Nope. Nebraska woke up to howling wind and driving snow that piled on lawns and sidewalks and clogged the roads. The warm temperatures plummeted to below Zero.
Our town of Kearney completely shut down. School, church events, even many medical centers and clinics sent their employees home. And snow piled up. We expect this sort of weather, storms and actual blizzards, during Winter months. Despite what we deal with as the Spring season comes along, Winter weather takes us by surprise.
We have a week of warming temperatures and we are sure Winter has breathed its last for the season. We hear the satisfying click from heat to air conditioning. We are now ready for Spring and summer with sunshine, flowers, shorts, baseball and swimming.
That last blizzard quickly melted away, unlike during Winter when snow stays and stays and has to be shoveled from sidewalks and driveways. The house gets too warm. Yes, both Keith and I tend to stay colder than we once did when we were much younger. Still, it was time to switch on the AC. Wasn’t it?
Maybe I forgot the lessons of prior years. Our son was born April 4th, 1980 right after a major blizzard. It wasn’t even April 4th when we turned off the heat this year. We enjoyed the AC for a day. The next morning, I realized I hadn’t learned anything at all. I got up and shivered. I checked. Temperatures were in the low 30s and not predicted to get much higher for a couple of days. With a shake of my head and a sigh, I walked down the hall to the controls and clicked back to heat. Good choice. As I write, we’re still enjoying the heat.
Spring will come, eventually, but some things can’t be hurried. I don’t control the weather. Probably a good thing. But maybe I can learn from experience and be more patient about turning on AC and making life decisions much more important than switching from heat to cool.
© 2025 Carolyn R Scheidies
Published in the Kearney Hub 4/24/25
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