Colorado State in spring time is a very interesting place to be. Yesterday it was seventy degrees and the sun was shining. People were running around my neighborhood here in Colorado Springs wearing shorts and T-shirts, walking their dogs, riding their bikes and skateboards. People had soda pop cans and ice tea in their hands as they went down the sidewalks. There were cars driving down the street with windows open and even some with the tops down on their convertibles.

It looked like every bit of a wonderful spring day. The mountains, visible from my office window here at home, were glorious. Pikes Peak is visible off to the left; it is still covered with snow, but it was shining in the sun. The foothills were glistening in the sun as well. People in the hills surrounding the Rockrimmon area and in Ute Park were out in force. Here is a picture I snapped with my webcam from my office window; pardon the quality…

Twelve hours later; however, things are quite different. Literally overnight, the weather dropped from that nice seventy degrees and sunshine to this:

Spring time in Colorado can bring the kind of changes you witness in these pictures, at a moments notice. Things such as thunder and lightning storms are soon to follow, complete with the potential for power outages which are fortunately often temporary. Despite being reminded every single year, people around here still go out in these storms, or get caught out in the open. Every year in this state it seems that I read stories of people getting hit by lightning.

When you are inside, the storms are enjoyable enough. There was one story about a person on a motorcycle a year or two ago; though, he was riding it down the freeway when he was hit by a bolt of lighting. He died before he even hit the pavement. These lightning storms that follow the end of winter snow flurries are very strange at times. There have been lightning bolts that even seem to come, ‘out of a clear blue sky.’

The picture above may very well be the last snow flurry Colorado Springs has before we switch to warm and pleasant weather for the rest of the season. Wendy and I are both very ready for that change in weather; we are done with winter. The cold has been hard on our different forms of arthritis, to say the least. When the weather changes in such a harsh fashion as it did last night, our joints scream. Welcome, Springtime in the Rockies.