That's It Goodbye to Winter Forever!
 

Hi All,
As a number of you know, I currently live in the Sarasota area and moved here from San Francisco in 1989. In the Winter of 1981/82, we were living in Iowa and finishing up our college work. We returned from a Christmas break of three weeks in Hawaii to an arrival wind chill of minus sixty five degrees. Two weeks later our neighbor dropped dead after blowing snow for the zillionth time that winter. We decided that night that we were leaving a winter climate and never going back.

An article in our paper two days ago stated that the realtors have seen a thirty percent increase in phone calls over last year from northerners and many are very serious about permanently relocating or buying for a second home in the winter.

How many have had a winter that was the last straw?? Are you still enjoying your relocation?

My parents went to Florida, loved it, came home, sold the house, moved to near Orlando. Then, they wanted to be on the ocean, so they moved to Melbourne. Early on, they had lots of visitors and loved the weather. But, after five years they moved back "home" because they missed the seasons, the family, and all their friends.

Oh. I was hoping that you were going to report that global warming was accelerating drastically and because of that it would be 78 degrees here in Northern VA tomorrow.

The "change of seasons" thing is just a rationalization.

I live on the balmy southern coast of South Carolina and can't stand it when it dips below 75 degrees.

Told husband this is the last winter I'm toughing it out. Hopefully, we'll be in South Florida by this time next year.

I know the weather dips below 75 during the winter in South Florida but it doesn't stay that way for long.

I don't think it will be that big of a transition for us.

Second-last straw. We're moving to southern British Columbia from Ontario, in about a year and a half. We won't escape winter entirely, but there shouldn't be any deep freezes like the ones we've been getting.

I keep threatening to buy a condo on Florida's West Coast to use during the winter but I am not near retiring and it would not make much sense at this point.

Long about mid February--or even before--most of us in the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic region have exhausted our patience with winter.

One of the reasons we just made our move to Florida was the winters.
Luckily, we have friends and family in NYC and Maine so we will be able to get the Fall leaves out of our systems each year if we want ..

Scarlett, do you live near Jacksonville? It is one of the places on our "maybe" list. Jaye, still not sure how we feel about the relocation however. IMO, Whatever you do people, make sure you check out the area thoroughly!

Yes honey, I live IN Jacksonville. Email me if you like~:)

yes, Scarlett, I will do that!

I'll be lonely, but I'm staying up north. There's no bad weather, just the wrong clothing. (Or however that quote goes.) When it's cold out, you can bundle up.

But when it gets too hot and humid out, you have to either stay inside hiding from it or subject yourself to miserable heat. There are just so many layers one can remove! People I know who have relocated to FL seem to spend the whole summer hanging around indoors or in the pool. I'd rather deal wtih ice than with those giant bugs, too.

My dream retirement consists of a place with interesting weather, but someone else to do the shoveling. Seems to me that it would be easier to hire someone wtih a plow rather than relocate entirely.

What is interesting weather?

I like the heat. The humidity makes my skin look much better than the cold.

I'm with Anonymous. I;ll take the cold and love the snow!! Lived in Key West for a while and hated it. Give me good brisk fresh air and a snow storm. Retired to Northwest Montana to ski, snowshoe, and hike in the summer. The more people who move out the more room for me.

We left SW OH almost 3 years ago and moved to near Ft. Myers and have not regretted it at all. We have 3 adult kids in FL and that was the main reason we moved, but after spending all of our lives in either IL or OH, it was time to leave that nasty weather.

Yes, it's an adjustment to learn to live with the hot, steamy summers here, but we go out in the morning and evening. As for the bugs, we have pest control for the house and a wonderful screened lanai! We have some chilly days which is fine, but we have sun almost everyday, which is much better! And some sort of flowers all year long.

I agree with GoTravel about the humidity. My skin is a flaky dry mess right now due to the gas heat and cold weather. I dream of moving to Florida where I will not have to endure another long cold winter. When I announce that I am going to Charleston or Florida in late July people stare and tell me how hot and humid it will be. Personally I thrive on the heat and become a grumpy person in the winter. I have a friend who lives in the north and he laughs when I complain about freezing in Atlanta. I have to constantly explain that I prefer my weather to be 80 and above.

I joined the Air Force in 1972. I left Kansas City in late February -- it was about 30 outside. When I got off the air plane in San Antonio and it was in the 70s, I knew then I had found my home. When I finally retired from the Air Force in 1995, this is where I came to live.

I was stationed in San Antonio in 1985 when my brother drove down from KC to visit over Thanksgiving weekend. It was a beautiful weekend and everything was green. It was already cold and dreary in Missouri. He moved down to San Antonio the following June and has been here since.

We left the snow and cold of Michigan about 3 years ago and haven't looked back. Love being able to go outside all the time without freezing. Love not have to start my day snow blowing and shoveling. I'll take being inside in the afternoon for a few months a year because of the heat any day.

Oh Spring, Do Come Into Us


Oh Spring
Who waits so patiently behind Winter's white curtain of cold
Do come into us and wrap your warm tendrils of love and beauty
around us, replacing this bare, stark world that enwraps
us presently with your beautiful world of warmth and
colors a plenty
Oh Sky
Who shelters us all year round
Open up your eyes and cry the tears of rain
Letting the moistness of your drops help germinate
the seeds beneath our Mother's impregnated skin

Oh Sun
Who hath been hiding from us for so long
Come out and shine upon us with your infinite source
of warmth that will bring to us an abundance of
joy and happiness
Gazing upon us with your seemingly endless source of heat
that emanates from your rays of light that dance upon
our skin and bring us luminous sight

Oh Grass
Who tries to stand tall through it all
Become fully green and soft again, so as to give us a place
to lay our weary heads when we do tire after a full
day of play
Letting your blades of grass tickle the between of our toes when
we let our feet roam freely over you

Oh Flowers
Who patiently wait to come alive with many kisses of colors
Bloom, bloom, bloom and do open up for us, so our eyes can
behold the true beauty that you do offer to us so unselfishly

Oh Bushes
Who mostly stand bare and seemingly stoic
Bring forth your beautiful green foliage and delicate little
flowers that some of you have to offer, that do bloom
so lovely

Oh Trees
Who stand naked and strong all Winter long
Come, come, come alive with your plentiful green leaves
that do fill you out so beautifully
For you are our respite from the heat on those hot Summer
days that are sure to come to us after Spring's end
and with Summer's begin

Oh Birds
Who doth flee to escape Winter's harshness
Return again, return outside our windows, and perch
upon a branch and sing to us Spring's melody
of beauty and joy
For our ears do long for your singing during the time
of passing silence that does come to us when you
do flee South for the Winter

Oh Spring, do come into us
For we have been waiting far too long for you to
free us from this dark, cold, cavernous cave of
Winter and deliver us out onto your wide open spaces
of warmth and beauty that you do bring to us in your
Seasonal call

By Sarah Skye

We live near Washington DC and have become SICK of the messy winters. My husband, who is from NEPA and swore he would never go further south then we are now, has also been complaining quite loudly about how sick he is of shoveling, salting and sanding. My brother and his family live in Orlando. I wouldn't mind one bit if we were to head in that direction in the near future...I'm ready to go now, but hubby might need one more winter to convince him!

We currently live in a high rise building where we don't have to shovel or salt, but nevertheless, we have had it with the Northeastern winters, and plan to move to Phoenix within the next two years.

We've decided that 3 VERY hot months are worth 9 great ones. We certainly don't have 9 great months in the Northeast any more!

Living in a northerly climate can be a real hassle, especially when you need to get up extra early when it's minus 15 f out to snowblow and scrape your windshield. However, there is nothing else like gliding along a back country mountain trail on skiis after a snowstorm, with a brilliant blue sky, and the trees laden with white snow. I love the winter with all it's aggrivations, and couldn't live in an area with no winters. To enjoy winter, you need to be active in it.

All this cold (and snow) is certainly making everyone I know here in NYC quite depressed -- actually, more so than normal. If I could retire now (sheesh, I technically have another 33 more years to go :( ), I would split my time between the Amalfi Coast in Italy and somewhere in the Carib. like the B.V.Is or US V.Is.

These replies are great. For those of you who love winter and it seems that most that do have a passion for the winter sports, that's fantastic, and certainly you are lucky to be where you LOVE to be. Especially Montana!!

I guess I wonder most about those that are truly miserable in it and haven't found a way to get where they feel the climate matches their desires for home base. I know, I know, family, job, etc., but it seems that some that have commented seem relatively young. (20's?) I listened to my dad complain vigorously about the Detroit area winter weather for forty years. He finally decided to move to Venice, FL. He lived the last three years of his life loving not being in winter and saying how he wished he had done it much sooner.

BTW my ideal weather is most certainly not southwest FL. The summers are really oppressive and last for six months. I loved the SF Bay area, but this I'll take any day over returning to winters.

WAAAAAAaaaaaa!!!didn't anyone care for that poem?

LOVed the poem..lol...but this is the worst winter and I'm getting too old to put up with frigid weather.. I will not move to "G-d's waiting room" where the medical care leaves much to be desired.. I'll stay up north and plan my winter trip (just came back) from the Caribbean and plan one for the summer....but not hot and humid weather where the Floridians leave to visit relatives up north.. We New Englanders are a hardly lot...I think..

OK, so North Carolina had a killer ice storm Dec. 02 and has had 4 snowfalls this year. But the daffodil shoots are sitting happily in the snow, and we are supposed to have temps in the high 50s by the weekend. DH's next job might take us back north, and much as I love the midAtlantic and/or New England, I've gotten right spoilt by the North Carolina climate. Some of you will still be dealing with winter 4 weeks from now, but we'll have flowers out and trees in bud and maybe the occasional 65-70 degree sunny day. Who needs Flappida, where summer seethes on for months and months ("gods waiting room," ha!)? Even though I'm getting cabin fever just a bit this week, I know that it's not going to go on forever, so I'm happy to enjoy a few days of the pretty white stuff -- we don't get an entire Slush Season the way Boston and NYC do.

God's waiting room is so old and overused.

I feel sorry for all of you in Florida.

"where the medical care leaves much to be desired.. "

The hospitals are awful here in Florida. There are cemetaries right next to them so nobody has far to go. I see old people everywhere I go -- and dead people too. And in the summers, it's so awful, I just melt. And all the upscale jews are on the east coast, all the boring midwesterners are on the west coast, and there's nothing but African-Americans and hispanics in between.

So please stay where you are. Whatever you have to go through it's much worse down here. Please --- just STAY AWAY!!!! You will only be unhappy in this god forsaken cowtown of a state.

I HATE THE MIDWEST!!!! Too damn cold for me. Wish hubby would transfer back to TX . Don't care if it is hot..just hate hate hate the cold.

TandooriGirl you crack me up!

Both my sister and my brother in law are MDs in Miami so the post got under my skin.

Thank goodness the malpractice insurance is paid.

I guess we need to run this post in the summer for all those people who made the mistake of moving here. Then they can bitch and moan about how much better it was in the Northeast. I still can't figure out what it is they're shopping for that they can't find here. I'd die for a Whole Foods store in my neighborhood, too but I have no complaints with Publix. Has anyone ever gone to Fairway in NY? What a dump.

Not quite ready for all the time summer time, and maybe never. I'm not in snow
here in Sonoma County and it's sposed to rain (mostly) until 2/26, already had 7 inches since Sunday, (still prefered to snow) Where IS my scuba gear?
My highs will be 58 and lows 50.
Then me thinks the sun will arrive until June when the fog comes back every day at 4PM (then I can drive 15 mins. and be out of my valley)and one must don sweatshirts on the 4th of July-still 'tis pretty good! Not to hot, not to cold.
A couple of days in Aug-Sept. of 98 degrees
and the same in Dec-Feb of lows below 30
Viva la fireplace!
Just enough seasons for me, I get golden-red grapevines in the Fall, water falls in the winter and spring and
California poppies in the summer. I love to wear both sweaters and shorts. The annual moving of the closet winter to summer clothes is a chore that makes me smile!(and there's always a "crossover section" somewhere in the middle)
I may be home!
R5

go travel, my brother-in-law is a prof at the U of Miami(Endocrimolgy














Go travel, my brother-in-law is a prof at the U of Miami (endocrinology)

Well, today on the Jacksonville television news, they asked that anyone who saw a snow flurry, please take a digital photograph and send it in!
Funny, they never said that in NYC :)

I like snow-I like to watch it fall, but I got tired of it interfering with life, getting snowbound, slipping and sliding, lakes of slush on each corner, trying to walk Pup in snow-which he thought was grand, You can eat it!!

A warm place is not a bad place to be and just think of all those cold places we can travel to for a break from all this tiresome sunshine and blue skies~

It isn't just Florida that has hospitals with cemetaries next door, why is that? How depressing for the patient!

Jaye: i'm one of those who's truly miserable during the winter. and yes i'm stuck here for job, family, etc...
i have warned my truly wonderful husband that i will leave him without hesitation for florida (when we're retired; we're in our mid-30s) if he chooses not to retire there with me. :-)
thank goodness, i've noticed more and more whining on his part when he has to shovel and the temperature gets REALLY cold...despite him being the true irish new yorker that he is! :-)

I love the change of Seasons, though I hate the cold, It's nature really showing off her magnificent range.

My parents live in central Florida (north of Orlando but not The Villages) and their medical care is excellent. IMHO, moving to Florida has added years, maybe even decades, to their lives. They moved from Pennsylvania several years ago after looking around and realizing that all their friends had either gone to Florida or were dead. They have a perfectly nice house ($135k for a 2 bed/2 bath plus den and screened porch single level home) in a gated community. They take part in lots of activities (bowling, card games, etc.) as well as swimming and working out at the community's health club. For only $80 a month, both the community association fee and the "heavy lifting" of property maintenance (mowing the lawn, weeding, etc., etc.) are taken care of. They have lovely neigbhors and everyone is willing to help out when someone travels--keeping an eye on the house, looking after pets, etc., so they have a great sense of freedom.
The summer heat is bad, but it's still bearable in the morning and evenings. They just stay inside during the middle of the day or go somewhere like the mall or movie theatre.
Personally, I am quite happy they moved to Florida. They are enjoying a very comfortable retirement and their community is so pretty (but not expensive) with its flowers, small lakes and bird life, that it's always a pleasure to visit.

Don't listen to any of these preachers. Florida is not the place to move to. Stay in the northeast. That's where all the smart people are, we're all idiots down here. You will spend the rest of your life with people who are low class and ignorant. What's a little snow when you can feel superior that you've made the most important decision of your life, to stay where you are.

Please, listen to me. I know from whence I speak. Er, write. I think it's the water -- once you drink it you'll be like the rest of them. Er, us.

Heed my caution. Stay away from Florida. We don't even know how to vote here -- and look who's our governor if you don't believe me. See! What literate populous, other than California, would have elected a moron -- only Florida.

Every winter I question my sanity.I live in a pretty,picturesque suburb 1/2 from Manhattan.My property taxes are $13,000 a year on a very modest house.I continually question myself on just why I continue to live here.I hate the snow!We certainly get the heat and humidity here in the summer too,the only difference,in my older house,we have no a/c.I'm seriously thinking of making that big leap down south soon.

WOW! T-girl, you sure have drunk alot of that water!