Season of bitterness

That title sounds way worse than it is, but it's also pretty accurate right now. One of the reasons I haven't written much lately is because this winter just seems to be dragging on forever and I don't want to complain too much. This is always the ugly season, the time of year when the snow is melting and it's dirty and there's mud everywhere. But usually, it's warm by now. Instead it's been an average of 15 degrees colder than normal, one of the coldest (if not the coldest) springs on record. It was -35 at the end of March. March! Even into the middle of April we were getting negative temps, and the highest temperature so far this month was only 47F. It's...it's insane. Everyone's ready to go all The Shining on each other. I can only imagine that the weather gods are having a good laugh at us, too, because we keep getting a few days at a time of decent weather, just enough for people to think, "Oh good, summer is finally coming," before the temps drop again. Or we get more snow. I get the feeling there's some weather god out there wiping tears of mirth from its godly eyes and saying, "No, no, seriously this time. I mean, seriously guys, I'll make the snow melt. It'll be gorgeous and...no, fuck it, I'm totally messing with you! Here's another foot of snow! Hahahahahaha!!!!"
This is a picture I took on Monday:



Hideous, right? And then it snowed again, so we'll have to endure even more of that sight. No one likes Breakup, it's called Alaska's ugly fourth season (since we don't really have "spring" per se...just ugly snowmelt and then a week of, "Almost summer,", then summer). Or simply, the Ugly Season. Now, it's become the season of bitterness. If you mention the weather to anyone (and of course it's one of the main topics everyone talks about) they instantly turn bitter. "Yeah, winter's never going away this year. We're going to get, like, two weeks of summer and then it's just gonna snow again."
Normally by this time I'd have lots of pictures of my lovely plant starts to show off, but I haven't even gotten dirt to plant things yet because it feels like summer is never coming. (This is a mistake and I know it--my poor plants will never get a chance to fruit if I don't start them in the next week or so!) This is just going to be the year without summer and the thought makes me crazy. I'm so done with sweaters, with being cold, with wearing layers and even pants. I want to wear summer dresses and ride my bike without watching for ice and I'd like to actually freaking put my winter boots away for a few months. But no. Not this year.
Even my pets are pissed off about the weather, particularly the cat. We got an Easter box in the mail from my MIL and he seems to think that it's the perfect place for a cat to curl up. It's low and square and not too small but not big, either. He mostly fits, with a limb or two overflowing usually. It's been sitting on our table for weeks because the cat spends hours every day lying in that box, watching the snow melt and then fall again. On days when it is snowing, I hear all about it first thing in the morning from him and he gets pretty pissy. I can't blame him since I feel the same way.
So if I'm quiet, it's a seething sort of quiet. A waiting but not hopeful quiet. At least about the weather. There are plenty of good things going on in my life, which doesn't actually revolve around the weather, but I'm not quite ready to share yet.
I'm also super busy (or should be, at least) trying to write an 18-20 page paper and a 15 minute presentation for my class. Only two more weeks....