| Author | Message | ||
     Crusty |
It’s the Dead of Winter I hate winter. I know that there are people who like it; who enjoy wrapping themselves inside a cocoon of insulation so they won’t freeze to death, but I’m not one of them. There are also people who don’t especially like the winter, but prefer sub-freezing temperatures to the heat and humidity of summer. I’m of the opposite mindset. I don’t especially like sweating my ass off, but I find it a lot more preferable to risking frostbite. As most people who know me are aware, my favorite coffee cup has WINTER SUCKS emblazoned on it in bold letters. I’ve decided to stay holed up in my apartment today. The temperatures aren’t supposed to even get close to the freezing mark until after midnight and the weather forecast is calling for 3 to 5 inches of snow this evening. Then, it’s going to warm up so that the snow will turn into sleet and freezing rain and will continue to warm up until it’s all rain by tomorrow afternoon; which means that the snow will have the consistency and weight of overly wet concrete by morning when people have to shovel it. It will plug snow blowers as soon as they’re started, and older folks will be dropping by the scores from heart attacks. As a little bonus, once the rain stops, the temperatures are supposed to plummet to well below freezing, so all the little bits of slush that didn’t get completely cleared away will freeze into a good imitation of polished and waxed granite. Oh, joy. Winter loving acquaintances tell me I should find a winter sport and learn to enjoy it. They have suggested skiing. Now, aside from having to do this in miserable temperatures, there are two very good reasons I don’t want to take up skiing. First, the idea of putting slick boards on my feet then sliding down the side of an ice and snow covered mountain sure looks like a real recipe for pain and disaster. My friends who ski have told me that if I feel out of control, I should just fall down. I’m a motorcyclist. All my training and instincts are to not fall down. I can just see where replacing my survival skills on the street with that tidbit of information will really be a help. “Yes, Saint Peter; when I saw the soccer mom yakking on the cell phone in her SUV and drifting into my lane, I decided to play it safe and laid it down!” Uh; Right! Second, I have a bad ankle. It was crushed in an industrial accident back in the ‘90s, and it hurts like a toothache in the cold. Skiing is definitely out. Ice skating is another Fail as well. That same ankle isn’t very flexible. Besides, I have never enjoyed skating, whether on blades or rollers (at least roller skating happens in a heated building). What other winter sports are there? Bobsledding? Uh, no thanks. Snowmobiling? It can be fun, but it’s still too freakin’ cold. Curling? I don’t know the first thing about it, and don’t really care to learn. Pretty basically, the best part of winter for me is the chance to get away from it. I think there are a lot of others who feel the same way, even if they don’t want to admit it. Bike Week in Daytona is the biggest motorcycle rally in the country. It regularly draws a half million people or more to Florida where the temps are much more tolerable. As we all are aware, the vast majority of rally attendees haven’t the least interest in the racing that takes place at the Speedway. They go so that they can once again feel warm and get some sunlight on their skin. That’s also why trips to the Bahamas and various Caribbean Island resorts have January and February as their peak Tourist Season. There aren’t too many people who want to loll around on a lawn chair at Prudhoe Bay in January. Hell, there aren’t too many folks who want to take a scenic February cruise up to Anchorage either, I bet. While I’d like to see the Northern Lights some day, it will either happen in the Summer or it won’t happen at all. Well; I’m stuck in New England for this winter, but I’m taking steps and making plans to be in a much more enjoyable climate for next year. If it all comes together, I won’t even need a long sleeve shirt; unless it’s to keep the sun off my skin. It really is something to think and dream about. Now, I wonder if TV Land or one of the other old TV show channels is having a Death Valley Days marathon? | ||
| Ourdee |
All the Death Valley Days you want is on Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=death +valley+days | ||
| 86129squids |
I'm with ya Crusty- we FINAAAALLLLYYYY got just a bit of sunshine today, so now that we both are recovering from the flu and it's gonna rain again any minute, we took the dogs out for a walk around the neighborhood... we ALL needed to get outside after being cooped up for days on end. The dogs have been just as SADD stricken as us- one in particular HAAATES to get wet, gotta keep the hairy eyeball on him so he doesn't just whiz in the house to avoid getting his lil' paws wet... I'm SO ready for at least a string of days with SUN, no matter if it's cold, I'd be OK with just a sunny day as seen from inside if need be. It was two or three years ago in January that we had a fluke weekend of pretty much summertime weather, good for shorts and Tshirts, so we rented a cabin on the lake nearby for the weekend, even put the boat out on the water for some failed fishing... boy would I dig a little of that about now... As far as stuff to do, snowmobiling looks pretty cool, but more practical than that and good year-round would be 4-wheelin'! In both cases you could do fine keeping warm with a good set of 12V heated gear, set up a noice picnic, affix an adventurous sweetie on the pillion, and head out for a ride. One of my goals for 2015 is to acquire a good 4wheeler. | ||
| Ourdee |
10/29/37 Radio show, "The Whitney Death Valley Highway Dedication". Just in case you want historical noise in the background while you surf the World Wide Web. Forgot the link : (Message edited by OurDee on January 03, 2015) | ||
| Fast1075 |
Near record breaking warm here today. It's 84 degrees. I have been out riding all over on my scooter. | ||
| Strokizator |
I'm just the opposite, I guess. I am tired of HOT summer days. When I was working full time it wasn't that bad as I was in an air conditioned office for the better part of the day but now that I'm retired I feel like a prisoner in my own house when it's over 100 outside. Winters here are tolerable as right now the overnight temps dips into the high 20's or low 30's but by noon it's 55 and sunny. Bad part is that I live in farm country and in recent years farmers have all pulled out their grape vines and put in clementine oranges (You know them as Halos or Cuties in the markets). I'm now surrounded by them. Late at night when the temp drops below freezing these big propeller-driven wind machines fire up. It sounds like I'm in the middle of a British airfield in WWII listening to the B17 and Lancaster bombers warm up their engines before going on a raid - except that they never take off. Besides, California is getting tougher and tougher to live in. Perpetual natural and man-made droughts wear you down, the politics are just insane (can you believe that Jerry Brown is viewed as a moderating influence on the state legislature?) and more and more places are being shut down to recreation with rules made by people who have never visited the areas they are impacting. So I'm selling the house soon and moving to somewhere that has 4 seasons. I don't care how cold it gets but I never want to be hot again. The politics anywhere else could never be worse so I'm good there. It just might take awhile to find the right place. | ||
| Mr_grumpy |
Well got home today from my latest trip -18c this morning. Tuesday and Wednesday was in Florida 28-30c in the afternoon driving in a t-shirt with the window open. | ||
| Iamike |
Crusty, I prescribe one weekend of Glitch Badness for you to clear your mind. Unfortunately, you will have to wait until March to fill your prescription. | ||
| 86129squids |
Strok: Zillow, E. TN, W. NC or N. GA, as needed. Nashville is great, maybe, but getting as big as Atlanta, real estate is too hot there unless you study the periphery real well, and still all bets are off... Liquidate. Move, settle, enjoy. I was born and raised a Tennessee kid, spent a scant 6 months in FL, and despite growing up with allergies and asthma, which I've beaten/dealt with, it doesn't suck. Don't tell anyone else!  (Message edited by 86129squids on January 04, 2015) | ||
| Thumper74 |
I was born and raised in Tampa, I live in Cleveland. This winter has been pretty awesome and motorcycley so far. | ||
| Aesquire |
Next week when local energy consumption to keep from dying in the cold goes up, I too will wish I was a renter and not tied to NY by mortgage. Winning the lotto would free me to get the heck out of here..... I'm not sure where Strokizator is going to move to to avoid the heat. Even in western NY we have sweltering days...... and we never have dry heat, but steam bath heat where the sweat just rolls down and has no reason to evaporate and cool you. Admittedly not as many hot days as Death Valley, and seldom as cold as Northern Minnesota. .... but extreme weather is the norm, here. I may be spoiled. I grew up with "continental" weather in Nebraska and the Dakotas ( look it up....means "Siberia" ) where the thunderstorms reach to space and the snow is measured in yards. Here in western NY the thunderstorms are low and the snow is measured in......yards. Here we have "lake effect" snow where wind picks up moisture crossing Lake Erie & Ontario and lays a wavering stripe of heavy snowfall that buries one town and dusts another a few miles away. Btw, the cooling trend this century shows in residential power use records. | ||
| Mr_grumpy |
So the solution is clear, become a nomad. Get yourself an old race trailer and a dually. Living accommodation, daily transport, and a workshop, all in one package. It's a major segment of my retirement plan so don't tell everyone or they'll all want to. | ||
| Crusty |
So the solution is clear, become a nomad. That's my plan. I've got a tent, sleeping bag and Thermarest pads. This summer, I'm going on an extended ride around the country visiting friends and relations and camping in small midwestern towns. Next fall, I'm going to fly to the Southern Hemisphere and stay with my best friends for a few months until the weather warms back up here. | ||
| Aesquire |
The semi nomadic approach is called "snowbirds". Very popular with retired folk. Houses in the great white north and Florida/Georgia/etc. The Post Office is set up to forward mail at both ends to accommodate them. Those are the folk you don't see in the news when an inch of snow stops traffic in the south as everyone seems to panic/freak. Occasionally you glimpse one on the news as they casually drive around the multi car chain collisions that happen to unprepared drivers. I got on tv that way once driving back from Mississippi through an "end of the world" snow and ice storm. The helicopter camera caught me in a minivan (with studded snow tires ) leading a slow column of scared drivers out of a mountain pass. Every car that passed me ended up in a ditch......and they caught that on camera as well. | ||
| Strokizator |
That's where I'm leaning right now - spending 6 months somewhere along Lake Superior and 3 months in the SW deserts and doing some extended rides in between. Crusty, I'll be looking for you along the way - probably heading in the opposite direction. | ||
| Birdy |
Cold weather's all in your mind...and this guys lost his. Along with the weatherman. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDkLmU0U6D8 | ||
| Zane |
I lived in Yuma, AZ for a year. When the first snow flake fell in Montana, Washington State or even Chicago, the RV's would line up and double the population of the Yuma area. Summer there was God awful but the winter was very pleasant. Now I understand why we took Arizona away from Mexico. | ||
| Leftcoastal |
I left upstate NY in Feb. 1978. Got up to 14 degrees that day. Heat wave compared to the couple of weeks prior. Been in Southern CA. since. Almost FROZE a couple days ago. It got down into the low 30's!!! (maybe some of you saw that on the Rose Parade broadcast) Record Lows!! It was brutal! Somehow survived, now the forecast is mid 70's starting in a day or so. Sorry to be an ass about it, but I just gotta rub it in a bit! Our '4 seasons' are different here, we have: fire mudslide flu tax Al, Sunny So CAL | ||
| Rick_a |
I was a northerner until stationed in California for a few years. Now in FL I would not go back to that awful weather again. I would ride a mountain bike through the winter months and often work outside in WNY and was quite traumatized by it. | ||
| Fltwistygirl |
I guess we are "half-backers" of sorts, although I've only heard that term applied to yankees who moved to Florida, found it too hot, too buggy, too snakey, too crowded, too challenging to find quick medical care because you are competing with too many others who are in "God's waiting room" during flu season, and moved "half-back" to their place of origin, usually landing in the Carolinas, or Tennessee. The term may apply to us, somewhat, because we kinda moved "half-back" to MN when we came to Colorado. After seeing snow in MN 11 of 12 months our last year of college there, We thought moving from MN to FL seemed like a really good idea. And for a while, it was. The novelty of being at the beach over Christmas break was great! Swimming in a heated outdoor pool in January, hey, sign me up! Not having to put on boots and all the other layers really simplified the wardrobe. But the flip side was the school system sucked, the economy was weak, traffic was bad, it sucks breaking a sweat just walking out at 6 a.m. to get the newspaper after showering, and it gets really old breathing the same stagnant air conditioned air from the time you turn the a/c on in March, until you can finally turn it off in November or December. We've had the heat running here since just before Christmas and yesterday when it hit 50, the first thing I did was open windows to get some fresh air indoors. Give me my snow shovel and ice scraper, winter gear, skis, a good humidifier, a growing economy, a kick ass school district, 300+ days of sunshine, a moderate winter with the option to drive 70 miles west if we choose to really play in the snow, the occasional warm winter day to run the bikes along the front range, a 13 hour drive to MN instead of 28, and I am a happy camper. And, if all that fails, there's always the option to visit the relatives in AZ. In the winter. If the stars align for our future, I can't foresee living in a place where the seasons are "summer/cooler summer". Every place has its tradeoffs, it just took me a while to figure out one of my non-negotiatables is that place having four seasons. Crusty, the nomadic lifestyle sounds amazing. Our neighbor is on the verge of retiring, and he hopes to do something similar. If life has taught me nothing else, it has taught me that if you have your health and the means to do it, live that dream. Because you never know what life has in store for you tomorrow. |
