Because it’s sunny. And warm. And because we DO have beautiful seasons–you just have to think outside the box to notice them. There’s the rainy season (also known as the hot, can barely breathe because of the humidity season), hurricane season, baby lizard season, squirrels running around in your attic season (okay, that one lasts all year, since the weather is never cold enough to motivate the squirrels to hibernate). We have flowers blooming and critter activity all year round. We have citrus season right now, where oranges and grapefruits rot on the ground, even if you drink loads and loads of fresh squeezed orange juice.
It’s really hard for me to miss the beauty of the snow that is covering various other parts of the country, when I was sitting over the weekend, with my screen doors propped open because of the building work happening right now, and hoping that not too many more mosquitos would come in. Yes, the mosquitos are a pain, but the perfect weather that is implied in the reality of having mosquitos in December, well, that is just wonderful.
I suppose this is where being highly empathetic becomes a positive thing–I can read your stories of being snowed in and drinking hot chocolate before a roaring fire and receive vicarious pleasure through your experience. I can feel the pleasure of those experiences without having to freeze my nose or my toes off. Plus, my highly emotional memory can bring forth all my own beautiful snow experiences to play like home movies. My highly emotional memory also vividly plays back what it felt like to be attacked by the cold every time I stepped outside, so any sentimentality is effectively kept in its place. (And that would sum up the story of my life–never a good memory without the bad, never a bad memory without the good. But that’s another nasal-gazing ramble for another day. UPDATE: I meant navel-gazing, but the thought of nasal-gazing sure is funny, now that I think about it.)
All this pep talk is because I’m cold right now and I need to remember that Florida is still, in comparison to the rest of the Continental U.S., warm. Winter hit last night and my kids and I are shivering today. The weatherman says it only got to 41 last night, but my kids don’t care what any scientist says about the freezing point–it’s freezing here, and if you don’t believe them, ask the school crossing guard wearing about 7 layers of clothes, gloves and a scarf covering up everything but her eyes. One of my kids asked why we didn’t see frost on the ground and another asked if that was ice on the lake. It’s practically incomprehensible to them that it has to get 9 degrees COLDER before anyone can technically say anything is frozen.
It’s days like this when we need to view the following photo documentary to keep how cold we are feeling in perspective:
WHY PEOPLE MOVE SOUTH
photos borrowed from: http://www.funnygreetings.net/cards/Why-People-Move-South.html
Okay, so I totally cracked up multiple times while reading this post. First there was the grin when I read the title of the post in my Bloglines. I clicked on it with zest! And then all the details of the different kinds of weather we have here, the mosquitos indicating that the weather is, yes, still nice, and the squirrels squirreling around in the attic (yes, Kirk and I have those too!). It was fun to be new to Florida but to recognize every single thing you talked about, complete with the fruit from the trees rotting on the ground.
It’s funny because I was driving to the story yesterday with my windows down, my hair back in a baseball cap, and flip-flops. The air was sweet with breezes, and I thought, “Huh. There are actual blizzards happening elsewhere in this country, but it feels like summer to me!”
And then, of course the rain and crazy wind making it REALLY COLD in the past 48 hours — BRRRR!!!!
Ah, but your heart … Your heart must surely be below 32 degrees to write this post somewhere where people who scraped ice at 15 degrees this morning could read it.
;-P
(Maybe more nasal gazing is in order.
)
Eclexia, I don’t know how this works, but here in England yesterday I had to scrape ice off my car when the indicated temperature was 5 degrees Celsius which is precisely 41 of your degrees. So that could have been ice they saw on the lake. It’s something to do with the ground, and especially cars, cooling quicker than the air when the sky is clear. Anyway, I sympathise with you because your current weather sounds like ours – but the only rotting fruit we have on the ground is apples.
By the way, here at 52 degrees of latitude we are further north than all the USA except for Alaska, level with Hudson Bay and Labrador. We are kept relatively warm by a stream of warm water straight from the Florida Strait, the Gulf Stream. Thanks!
Peter,
You’re welcome.
And thanks for the science lesson. Maybe we really were freezing! I really should get with it and write temperatures in both Farenheit and Celsius.
I was thinking that since you share the Gulf Stream Current with Florida, maybe England could use that to promote tourism:
Come visit England,
the OTHER Florida–
without the hurricanes
….or the sun(ummm, maybe we’d better leave out that little detail!)
I often cringe empathetically when I see British tourists–they tend to be very, very sunburned. But, I’m glad they come, because to cater to them, our grocery stores have a special “British section”, which means I occasionally get to indulge in the Cadbury Flake bar!
Codepoke, even though I empathize when I see people burnt to a crisp from the sun, it IS rather shameful how much I gloat over generic people who are snowed in (I do feel sorry for specific people I know who are shoveling snow when I’m wearing shorts). I never really thought of myself as having a mean streak, but I suppose I do, and it has now been exposed! I don’t know, though, it’s still a free country, and there are plenty of houses for sale down here right now (my own included
). Isn’t it only mean to tease people for things they can’t help? 
How’s that for trying to justify my meanness?
eclexia–
i, too, am forced to live each day in sunny southwest florida. my relatives, who live in upstate new york, do not find me amusing when i send them palm tree pictures.
i’m using one of these great ‘northern shots’ as my desktop background to remind me what fools my family are for not moving down here with me…
Christianne,
It made my day to think somebody clicked on my post with zest
Give it a day or two, and we’ll be riding with our windows down again! I hope it made you feel more at home and less of a newcomer to be able to relate so well to all the Florida Stuff.
Scott, I’ve got relatives like that, too.
Sorry, of course, to hear about your home still being in limbo, but happy to hear you’re still in the fight emotionally. Hang tough.
And I hear you’re just playing, but I doubt the “plays” justify the “means”. ;-D
Codepoke,
Of course you’re right on that one!
And thanks for the encouragement.
Great post, Eclexia – makes me long for the good old Florida days (when I used to taunt my friends and family living up north!)
We do get some sun. But sadly your free country is only free for some, those who have its passport. Otherwise I would seriously consider a move. There’s nowhere we Brits can easily move to which is warm and English speaking. Well, nowhere I like the thought of. Then I’m not sure about Florida, with the hurricanes, the gun violence, the politics… Maybe I will just stay at home and huddle round the central heating.
Thanks, Ray–I laughed and laughed about your post and the link concerning the foot (+/- 30 cm) of Global Warming you’re experiencing!
Yes, Peter, you’re right about it only being a free country for some. “Free country” is a loaded term at the best of times. I was using the term very very loosely (and lightly).
“There’s nowhere we Brits can easily move to which is warm and English speaking” My visual brain conjured up quite a picture from that statement–A giant diagnostic chart with a list of all the options and all the parameters, and one by one seeing the options drop–falling short either because of the “easily move to” or the “warm”, the crime, the weather, the politics….
In any case, the gun violence and hurricanes can be more or less avoided, depending on where you live (at last your risk goes down, for what that’s worth–doesn’t sound very consoling, though, when I put it that way!). But, the politics–yeah, there’s really no avoiding the craziness of that!
peter–
you could be a ’snowbird’ like so many, who live in the winter in florida and in the summer in england.
i hear that last year in england, summer fell on a thursday.
Scott, being a “snowbird” is tempting. Of course by burning all that fuel I might help to warm the globe enough to bring perpetual summer even to England.
Eclexia, I tried Australia but they wouldn’t let me stay. For some reason they think they are overcrowded when there are huge areas of the country that are almost empty – and not just the desert parts. New Zealand might be a bit easier to get into, but it can get quite cool in winter even in the north. I could try South Africa, especially as my father was born there, but these days more people are leaving than arriving. Other parts of Africa have their own problems. Perhaps the Caribbean islands, but I’m not sure if they would let me stay, and they get hurricanes too. Canada is of course too cold, although attractive in other ways.
Maybe I should learn Spanish or Portuguese and try Spain, Portugal or Latin America. Actually there are so many Brits in southern Spain and Portugal these days (we can move there freely as they are in the European Union) that they are almost English speaking now, the new Florida of Europe.
Considering their history, it’s interesting that the U.S. and Australia are so hard for “outsiders” to get into, especially for people from the U.K.
Portugal and Spain sound like wonderful options. Lately, I’ve been craving a couple of specific, high carb, high fat, cholesterol clogging treats from Portugal. I also love South Africa.
Demographics and understanding why people live where they do is fascinating to me, whether it be because there aren’t other options, or people wanting to live with more comforts/conveniences–giving up some personal freedoms to minimize inconveniences and unpredictability (like the town Celebration, near us, that is part of Disney, where there are scores and scores of rules telling you how you can decorate and live in your own house), or putting up with difficulties and inconvenience in order to be free and live in a place where no one can tell you what to do.
I lived in a village in Africa up on a plateau where there was no water. Why would a people group settle in a place like that, where the women had to walk many kilometers each day to get water and then carry that water back up hill for that same distance? These kinds of questions fascinate me on the big picture level (immigration between countries) and more local level, where people choose to live in the country vs. city, or live in one locale for many generations vs. a higly mobile lifestyle. Of course, not everyone has the resources to pick up and move to where they want, but still, resources or no, there are reasons that people move even at great expense, and why they do move and why they move where they do is highly interesting to me. All that to say, I enjoyed hearing some of the differentials that affect your choice of where in the English speaking world you’ve made your home (at least for now).
Great pics! Ah, to be in Florida right now. It’s cold and rainy here in the Pacific Nortwest.
Know that you are loved,
gaj