Snow Boots and Sunglasses

So, this is another crazy week for us. I don't know why we scheduled things like this, exactly.
After recovering from what I have now been told is Rotovirus, we are again hitting the proverbial road. At the end of this week, we are headed up to Montreal to attend the wedding of the bachelor for whom there was a party in Toronto a few weeks ago. Confusing, no?
Happily, there is going to be a lot to see and many people to visit up in Montreal. Of course, there are the bride and groom, and their ceremonies and parties. My father-in-law's extended family is also up there, and we will be introducing them all to the kids for the first time, which is always fun. We haven't seen many of them in years, actually, and some I am not sure I have even met. Then, there are some friends and family from M's childhood, and some friends of ours who have returned to Montreal since we knew them in Toronto. I should say that people move from Toronto to Montreal as though those are the only two cities in Canada. Many Montrealers fled the city after hostilities with the Francophone community, but have since returned. I find Montreal to be a far more charming and metropolitan city than Toronto, but intend no offense to those few people who actually have a strong affinity for TO. Although, again, I feel that few people DO feel strongly about TO one way or the other: it is, in this respect, a completely utilitarian city. Montreal, on the other hand, purports itself to be North America's most European city. I find that it has character, much like Chicago or Boston, that is distinctive and renders it far more than Generic City Fit For Economic and Inhabitant Purpose.
Apart from this digression on the atmosphere on urban Canada, I have to say that in anticipation of our trip, I visited accuweather.com, my mecca for all things environmental. I would therefore like to send Canadians the following memo:
YOU DON'T HAVE TO LIVE LIKE THIS. SPRING HAS HAPPENED ON MUCH OF THE PLANET.
Seriously, they are still in the 40s and 50s, and while Canadians, Chicagoans, various Northeasterners, and probably a crapload of Russians and Europeans will vigorously defend the "seasons" and the "fall colors" and the "burst of spring" and their love for all things transitioning between winter and summer, I say hooey.
I argue that they just don't know any better. Mobile is currently in the high 70s and in fact, yesterday, the low 80s, and it is simply glorious. We are enjoying our own brand of Spring--complete with beautiful greens, fragrant flowers, and abundant sunshine. Northerners understand Spring only as that gray, slushy period that occasionally frosts over all the new blooms. Bah. Spring is squirrels and bunnies, and butterflies, and we have it NOW.
So, my kids are going to flip when they see we have to pack coats and raingear, pants and long sleeved shirts again.
I can already hearing the whining and the moaning about the cold again. While the weather down here certainly facilitates an easy life, it does make total wusses out of the kids. In any event, I'm already mapping out the week's insanity. Tomorrow shorts, Friday scarves. Weird.