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The Ruttle Report - Do we even call it a season?

Ahh, yes. There’s a certain something in the air, a certain clarity, a certain brevity, a certain….musk. Deer are more prone to running around more freely. Birds have returned to the area and have sung their songs in the wind.

Ahh, yes.

There’s a certain something in the air, a certain clarity, a certain brevity, a certain….musk.

Deer are more prone to running around more freely.  Birds have returned to the area and have sung their songs in the wind.

It’s an interesting time on the calendar.  A time when things are dry and wet at the exact same time.

That time of the year when temperatures are up, there is more sun, and the snow is melting all around us.

We see more bone-dry highways than we do wet ones, we see more muddied up cars driving around, and we see a lot more people walking around in the daytime thanks to the calm exterior.

I do believe it is the right time to call it.

It’s sprinter.  Or wing.  You can call it either.  When it’s nooooot quite officially winter anymore but nooooot quite officially spring, you can call it whatever you like as long as both words have some representation.

Sprinter.  Wing.  I think I prefer the latter, though the former isn’t without its charm.

See, we’re not like many other places on the North American map because seasons like to overstay their welcome around these parts.  If I had any say in the matter, winter would last all of three months from December to February, and that’s it.  But I don’t have any say in the matter, and that’s that.  In reality, winter starts to show itself roughly around Halloween in these parts, and lasts until, well, what did I say up above?  And what week is it?  Middle of March?  Ah, okay.

It’s the season that overstays its welcome, in my opinion.  Luckily, we’re in that middle of the road scenario where it’s making an exit, albeit a slow one.  No worries.  Give it a week and it’ll be drier.  Muddy, but drier, if that makes any sense.  And if you’re from Saskatchewan, it does make sense.

Just don’t ask me to take my SUV to the car wash for the next few weeks.  I might go unload a few bucks into it to blast off my wheel wells, but that’s really about it.  I live in rural Saskatchewan.  Truth is I’ll take it 50 feet away from the nearest car wash and it’ll be muddy again before I know it.

We’re in that period of weather now where wearing that heavy winter coat seems overly cautious, and yet going around wearing just a sweater doesn’t seem enough.  Ugh, you mean I have to go shopping, again?  For a “not quite winter, not quite spring” item?  Fine, you win, Wacky Saskatchewan Weather.

Am I out of bounds for suggesting that retailers could be making a killing by jumping on this province’s weird weather patterns?  “You’ve made it through the harsh, snapping coldness of this past winter, but what’s this?  A new season?  Why, it’s not quite spring, it’s not even remotely summer, but it’s keeping the charm of this winter!  Zip into a whole new fashion wing, baby, you’re about to enter the Sprinter Zone!”

If I’m being honest, something like ‘Wing Zone’ would’ve sounded better, but that just made me hungry thinking of the words combined like that.

But if you want something even more unique to Saskatchewan at around this time of the year, watch what our clocks do.  Or rather, what they don’t do.  Yep, no changing times for us.  The only time that changes is the times that some TV shows come on, and it’s now earlier!

That’s right.  No more setting the DVR to record this or that late into the night.  I can now watch my shows at a reasonable time before hitting the hay.

Maybe some are just ignoring us because of how cool we are in this scenario.  Literally everybody else has to change their clocks, but not us.  Nope.  We’re too cool.

Of course, not falling in line with the rest of the country in having to do this has some drawbacks.  For one thing, hmmmm, no, that’s not it.  Neither is that one.  Hmmm, I guess there are no drawbacks to it.  Not having to do anything is pretty cool!

It may not be the biggest reason to celebrate, but hey, we may as well have something.

But one thing that isn’t very cool is the weather while we wait for the official shoe to drop on what season it is.  I don’t like mud and I don’t like puddles.  It just means more coins I have to scrounge together for the car wash.  Besides, I live in Conquest.  It just means my SUV is going to look basically the same when I get home every night from Outlook.  At least, until it’s drier.

I guess I keep playing the waiting game.

For this week, that’s been the Ruttle Report.