Where did spring go?

After a week of sun and seventies all of a sudden the clouds rolled in and the mercury showed 47 when I went out today. As another cyclist noted even the squirrels' teeth were chattering. I was back to two layers and long sleeves but still in shorts - if I could wear shorts on the ride from Albuquerque to Santa Fe I can wear shorts anywhere (almost). The clouds were the big, puffy, rolling gray that a couple of months ago would have meant another blizzard was about to hit. Today they were broken up by slashes of blue sky and even an occasional shot of sun and had a kind of beauty that made me wish I had a camera. In any case I did forty miles before I decided that my feet were on the verge of freezing up and I headed for the barn. I did manage to get in 2100 feet of climbing which is not bad for a relatively short day. I did one long hill that was one I chose frequently last year when I was training for the XC. It is about a mile long and the grade runs between 9 and 12% all the way up. I remember taking it maybe 10/11 years ago for the first time on a very hot July day. I was training for nothing, it was well before either Anchor House or any thought of a cross-country....I was maybe halfway up and must have been really struggling because a police officer pulled over just ahead of me, got out of his car and suggested that I might want to stop for a few minutes and make sure I was OK. Today it was just another hill and I actually enjoyed it...Life is good.