That first few sunny, warm days were a pure rush weren’t they

I'm also surprised how quickly a Vancouverite forgets about those winters. Vancouver goes from being a "shit hole" from being a paradise on earth overnight. Denial a powerful tool. It's a survival mechanism Vancouverites have developed to get through the long grey, depressing winter's. Come winter they hunker down and Netflix and snooze all over again.

Long winter try spending a winter back east . This has been one of the best winters I have seen in 25 years living on the south coast next to no rain and tons of sun. Oh yeah it was a few degrees below zero for a while.
What you talking about Willis

It’s been a long cold lonely winter. Here comes the sun!

More precisely, it is Robert Louis Stevenson's 1886 novella The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

If you are using a literary allusion, then at least get the spelling right.