Cold Time

I am not built for the cold. When winter temperatures arrive, my back tightens up and doesn't release until the weather warms up again in the spring.

Around here, that usually means November through March.

I used to live in Fort Saint John, where the temperatures in those months are typically -20 degrees, and a cold day is -40. Now we are on the Pacific coast and a nasty cold day is anything below freezing.

If I were Bill Gates rich, I'd want to be someplace warm for all five of those months, except for maybe a week or so to be with family wrapped tight around Christmas.

One winter we did two months in LA. We've also done Florida for a month, and a month in Arizona. All were smashing, and my cold-tightened back fully uncoiled each time.

Would I like to do five full months in any of those places? Hmmmm. An interesting thought.

Our month in Florida was a true “holiday.” We stayed in 5 different places and also a cruise. If we were to go for longer, likely we'd want to stay in one place for most of it, and to just “live.”

We did that in LA and in Arizona.

In LA we stayed in one hotel the entire two months. Helen joined a music group, and I did an average of two Jiu-Jitsu classes a day. We made a good friend, and when we returned to LA for two weeks last winter we stayed with her, and returned to our musical and martial routines.

In Arizona, we rented a mobile home in a retirement park, as did our great friends Lola and Bernie. We hung out together, and did craft things in the park. Bernie and Helen found music to join in with, and I trained at two Jiu-Jitsu schools in the city.

A five-month stint in any of those places would have to have at least one major change. In LA, and Florida, and for the vast majority of the Arizona time we ate out. That might kill us over a full 5 months.

The only problem with doing any of that for almost half the year is that we love our house, and our hometown. Neither of us wants to be away that much.

Like everything in life, one needs to strike just the right balance.