As you read this, I will have arrived in Powell three weeks ago today from my previous newspaper job in western Colorado.

This was after eight years in south Florida, previously, and two years in northern Wisconsin, and the main impression I’ve come to terms with so far is, holy crap is it windy here!

And this is coming from someone who hails 20-minutes north from “the Windy City” of Chicago.

Though, I never thought the Chicago area seemed overly windy, I have seen stats that show there are many, many places that are far windier on a regular basis — of which I have no doubt this is one — and that nickname had more to do with Chicago’s historic political scene than anything having to do with weather.

Other than the wind, though, I’ve noticed some similarities with the weather, and was especially reminded on Friday, March 25, when I was scheduled to cover the Powell vs. Star Valley soccer matches.

With the girls contest slated for 10 a.m., I awoke and glanced out the window to see snow not only falling, but accumulating.

In late March, five days after the first official day of Spring.

I won’t say it was a whole lot of fun to be roaming the sidelines, taking photographs of the action, though the setting did make for some really good action shots with the snow falling.

It brought back to mind so many early spring high school baseball games that I played in where, inevitably, snow would fall, with temperatures at a point where every slight mis-hit off our aluminum bats would leave ones’ hands ringing for the next few innings.

My alma mater, as I just looked up, is just six games into its baseball season, whereas the schools I covered while in Florida, have been playing since early February and are a little more than a week away from the end of their regular seasons.

Sure, those early February games could be brutal for those Florida folks, with temps often in the – gasp – mid-50s to low-60s, but they battle through it.

Oh it could get windy down there too, during hurricane season, which officially doesn’t start until June 1, but was kicked off in January by Hurricane Alex.

I never went through an actual hurricane during my time there, but came close as one made landfall, but by the time it reached Highlands County, had dissipated to tropical storm force winds.

Though I’ve probably heard and felt more of those level winds in my three weeks here than I did in eight years down there.

This, though, is more a return to what I’m used to, somewhere with a change of season.

A place where it gets cold enough for enough time to savor the warm months that much more.

And considering how long it has been since I’ve played, these sorts of windy conditions would likely only help my golf game.