I've lived in southeast Texas for almost seven years now, and I have yet to get used to winter in these parts. Frankly, I hope that I never will. It was 75 degrees yesterday- IN FEBRUARY!! Since I had the day off work, I was running in shorts and a T-shirt, and it felt wonderful. No, I'm not trying to rub it in the face of those of you who still have icicles hanging from your roof (not that I couldn't...). Still, there is something magical about being able to sit comfortably next the the lake in our back yard wearing shorts- especially during what those of y'all north of the Mason-Dixon Line refer to as "the dead of winter".
It's not as if I haven't done my time in Siberia. I grew up two hours south of the Canadian border in northern Minnesota. In the small town I called home, the main form of transportation during the winter was often a snowmobile. I used to go running in -65 degree windchills because I had terminal cabin fever. The coldest day I can remember is when I was about 8 or 9, when the air temperature hit -54. Yeah; been there, done that, and no, I DON'T feel guilty about not having to endure it any longer.
We actually had snow last winter- for about 15 minutes. At least I think it was snow. Of course, the flakes melted before they hit the ground, so I can't actually prove that it was snow, but it certainly resembled what I remember snow to look like. That's about as wintry as it gets here. Oh, we'll have the occasional day when the temperature overnight drops to around freezing. Given that we live on the Gulf of Mexico, that's a rare happening, though.
For now, I'm going to enjoy this, because in five or six months, the tables will be turned and y'all will be laughing at me. Yes, it will be hot, and it will be humid. I'll quite possibly be complaining about living in a climate roughly equivalent to a pizza oven. Even so, given where I started out, I still prefer this alternative.
And for the record- no, I do NOT miss the snowballs fights....
