Weather Envy

In the light of the expected snowstorm coming their way, my sister and her family have the day off.  Ordinarily, I'd be a bit jealous.  I used to say that I'd love to have wintry weather in the month of December, and then go directly to spring.

I used to say that when I lived in South Carolina.  I whined about the lack of seasons. Then I moved to South Florida, a place that has even less in the way of seasons.  Our temperature goes between warm and hot, with an occasional whoosh of a cold front, which rarely leaves us with cold weather, just slightly cooler weather. 

Somehow, after having driven to North Carolina two weeks ago in rain and wintry mix, I no longer crave that wintry weather.  Maybe it's that drive, or maybe it's that I now have a pool in my backyard, and thus, summery weather is more appealing.

Right now, the water temperature makes it a bit cold to swim in the pool.  But we did walk to the beach last night, to the organic brewery, where you get a pizza for half price if you buy the large size beer--and they don't mind if you share the large beer.


We sat on the balcony and watched the volleyball players and the frisbee guy play frisbee with no partner but the wind.

Watching that frisbee player reminded me of our former neighbors.  For the first several years of our living at our old house, we'd watch our neighbors bring family members up from Central America.  They'd stay for months at a time.  I watched a teenage boy toss the football down the backyard and then race to try to catch it.  I felt kind of sad for him.  But maybe he was happy to be in a place where he could play football with himself.

The Christmas lights came on up and down the Broadwalk that fronts Hollywood Beach. It was a beautiful night for eating outside.  The pizza was close to perfect.  The beer was cold and refreshing--and tasty even when it wasn't as cold, which is rare for beer, I think.

And then we walked home through the Christmas lights. We even sang some carols as we walked.

I figured we'd be fairly safe walking home at 7p.m. People were out decorating their houses. It felt magical.  I thought about our old neighborhood which felt more transient, and thus, less safe for an evening walk.

I thought of how far we'd come in the past year, both in terms of our housing, and to be frank, in my husband's ability to walk.  A year ago, we were consulting a neurosurgeon.  A year ago, we were getting ready for my spouse's back surgery.

I feel fortunate in all sorts of ways.  Maybe that's why I'm not jealous about other people's weather.  I'm happy with my own corner of the country this year.