Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Old Age and Cold Weather.


All things considered it could be worse.  Our lowest temperature so far has been 22 and our lowest high was 38.  Cold, but not International Falls Minnesota (the nation's ice box) cold, where it hit -37 both Saturday and Sunday.  But I've never liked the cold, not even as a kid.  I was born in Oakland,  California which is frequently damp, but the temperature is rather temperate with the average highs being in the mid-50's to the mid-70's  and the average lows running from the low 40's to the mid-50's.
When I was 4 we moved to Kansas City, Missouri which gets quite cold in the winter, with lows in the 20's and highs in the 30's during winter, snow is not unusual.  The first time I saw snow there I went out to play and quickly returned to the house and covered my hands with bandaids.  They were simply cold, but I thought I'd hurt them because they hurt so badly.
Before moving here to Georgia we were living in Hemet, California, where a friend informed me it was 70 today.  So I'm not use to winter, and as I get older it gets harder to deal with.  I wake up with all my joints aching, my back aching, my skin dried out because the air's so dry, and my hair looking like Carrot Tops on his worst day.
I can't play in my yard, everything is frozen, can't clean the pool it has ice in it, don't need to mow, the grass doesn't grow in the winter, though tomorrow I'm going to fire up my tractor and blow pine straw with it.
What I do "enjoy" about winter is how clean and crisp the air is.  The sky is always very blue here, next to no air pollution , but there is an extra crispness to it in winter.  Not all our trees lose their leaves, the live oaks, magnolias, swamp bay and others stay green year round.  And we get lots of winter visitors to our bird feeder.
Usually February is our coldest month, but I'm hoping January gets the honor this year and that we can start an early spring.  In the meantime, I've ordered some silk long johns and booked  a flight to the Florida Keys for us, it had better warm up down there!

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