At this time of the year we are reminded that the glorious days of warm weather are slipping away like sands through the hour glass. No matter how much we would like to hang onto them, it’s literally not how the world turns. It was, what it was—a May to September romance. We fell hard right from the beginning but who could’ve possibly resisted? The warm sun was wrapped around us, the flowers bloomed in every gorgeous color and each morning we awoke to an orchestra of birds singing outside our door. Now, knowing the warm weather is leaving us, we consider a desperate rebound affair with autumn. But fall is like a handsome stranger who charms and dazzles but is only in town for a short while. He becomes increasingly colder with each passing day and we quickly realize we will never develop the relationship we had with spring and summer. Then comes the dreaded day the boys of warm weather are gone and we—settle for—old man winter. At the start we convince ourselves that he isn’t so bad because he readily helps out with the holiday decorating. He flocks the trees in the yard and covers the ground with a festive blanket of snow, all without being told. Soon, reality sets in and we realize the relationship is more work than what we thought. Our time is suddenly taken up with winter’s dirty laundry—cleaning snow off cars, deicing windshields and longer commute times. And if that weren’t enough, we are expected to deal with endless piles of snow that have been carelessly left everywhere except for where they belong. Although we feel trapped, we learn to cope with the cold heart of winter for a few months but deep down we long for our old love—warm weather. Miraculously, one day the wind shifts and we find ourselves once again reunited with spring. Despite the ugly breakup months earlier, we are more than willing to give our hearts away without a second thought. The warm weather romance starts over and we joyfully remember “The Way We Were.”