Click here to subscribe today or Login.
February 2015 died yesterday after a brief life, noteworthy for one near record-breaking achievement and what seemed like endless brutality.
Meteorologists say it was one of the coldest Februaries to ever inhabit Northeastern Pennsylvania.
Like the passings of despots and dictators, its demise, after only 28 days, was generally marked among Keystone State residents and their parka-wearing compatriots with relief if not outright glee. No memorial service is planned.
Poetically, the month was born early on a Sunday morning and succumbed at the same hour precisely four weeks later. It leaves behind no spouse or children, rather these two frequent companions: ice and snow.
During most of its existence, February 2015 worked to spread misery. Utility crews and other non-mourners recalled that the month often delighted in single-digit temperatures. It particularly enjoyed nights and early mornings with sub-zero wind chills.
February 2015 is credited for stranding countless battery-sapped vehicles. It also froze and burst water pipes, shuttering at least one area movie theater, a school district, eateries and parts of Freeland borough in southern Luzerne County, where officials last week declared a state of emergency. It spawned so many two- and three-hour school delays it earned honorary membership in a teachers union.
Its bitter legacy includes the aching backs of overtaxed shovelers and bruises inflicted by far too many slips and falls.
February 2015’s final exit was foreshadowed by hardware store customers drifting away from aisles piled with snow melt and gravitating to displays of garden seeds. Likewise, certain Wyoming Valley residents could be seen streaming to Martz bus pickup points, bound for the Philadelphia Flower Show.
Diehard skiers and masochists can send condolences to February’s only known survivor, Old Man Winter.
Others are warmly invited to launder and pack away their flannel bed sheets and thermal underwear, looking forward to what a newborn month will bring.
March on!