A Brief Thought on the Recent Lack of Cold Weather

In my last post [look at me, only 3 posts in and I'm already referring to previous posts!] I described several of the reasons for my deep-seeded love for the glorious season of winter.

However, now I would briefly like to point out three reasons why I appreciate spring [or at least, the perception of the season of spring, as winter will probably fall back upon Wisconsin in ... a few hours]:

1. Street parking is now more abundant. There are approximately 15% more parking spaces available because said spaces are not being taken up by heaps of snow pushed out of condo-dwellers' driveways.
2. [Most] cars look happier, because they are clean. Yesterday's cleansing rain rinsed off layers of salt that have clung to Milwaukeeans' cars for the last 3 months. To me, the cars look less stressed and less worn down. (Yes, I notice the personalities of cars.) (I would also like to point out that this rain actually makes my car look more sad, as I realized that the paint on the roof of my car will be 50% gone by the end of summer; more so if we get a decent hail storm.)
3. I noticed, as I was driving up Prospect today that while I was traveling in the left lane, I didn't find myself partially merging into the right lane every 1500 feet or so to avoid an inappropriately parked car. Why? because the rain melted all of the snow banks that previously prohibited folks from parking within 2 feet of the curb. That's right, Prospect Avenue was comprised of two completely unobstructed parking lanes as well as 2 completely unobstructed driving lanes. (And a bike lane.) It was a small miracle that I had come accustomed to being deprived of.

At any rate, I would also like to point out that the melting of the snow also displays the clumps of mud, road tar, litter and other debris that was once covered by the now-missing snow banks. So while I am thankful for the increased availability of street parking, I'm still bummed that it's ugly outside.

This post was brought to you by the letter 'p' and the mathematical concept of percentages.