It’s 20 degrees and the wind makes it feel like minus 10 degrees. The walk to the mailbox means putting on a coat, scarf, mittens, hat, boots, yak-traks and the dogs coat. The air is so cold my eyes water and the hairs in my nose freeze. It hurts to be outside. The snow keeps coming day after day and I have to call someone with four-wheel drive to take me to work. Getting out to the truck means walking through the unplowed snow up to my crouch. I’m wet for most of the morning. In March, or sometimes April, the snow has turned brown, but begins to melt and we enter “mud season”. The days are gray, and temperatures go up and down. Nothing is predictable. When Spring arrives, there is pollen everywhere, blowing in the wind and turning everything yellow. It makes my eyes water and nose run. Then the black flies arrive and eat from the back of my ears and on top of my head leaving itchy, scratchy, scabby wounds. It hurts to be outside. Why does summer in Maine rock? Because we have none of the above. And it feels wonderful to be outside!