Hot Enough For Ya...?

 "Hot enough for ya?"

I took a picture of a tweet yesterday and forwarded to my non-Twitter-participating friend. Why send this tweet to this particular friend?

Because the tweet represents his life.

A few years ago, this friend married a woman from South America. She came from a place that was warm, and not just in the summer, but all year long. Millions of people flock to places like this for vacation and a few fortunate ones even live in these perfect weather climes. 

Apparently, Utah is not one of these places, because at times, it gets cold here. Now, I understand cold is relative, like many other things. What is cold for one person from, say, Brazil, may not be cold to someone living in Driggs, Idaho. Then there's becoming climatized to the environment. Right now, as spring transitions to summer, a "hot" day for us would feel downright chilly once we hit triple digits. 

My friend lives is the Salt Lake Valley. I keep trying to get him to sell his home, cash in on all that equity in his house, and buy new up by us. That will most likely never happen...it's too cold up here--not much colder than an hour's drive south, but colder.

As I look forward to the years ahead, retirement specifically, I wonder if where we live now is where we'll live decades from now (God willing...). My friend...he's probably going to be moving, but not north. No, he'll most likely end up in a place like Texas, or Florida, or Costa Rico. 

Certainly, not Northern Utah. Too bad...I think they'd like it up here...

If they could stand the cold.

Yeah...Yeah...Pretty Much How I Feel

 I have a sister who lives in Phoenix...I really can't imagine what it's like living there in the summers. Today she and I had a little chat via text messages and I asked her how she was doing. She said she was ready for things to cool down. She's lived in Arizona all her life so this is nothing new--it's part of the deal of having wonderful winters.

Of course, change is always an option.

I've made my opinion clear on this blog before about how I feel about excessive heat. In short, I'm not a fan. I must admit...this spring I spent more time outside than I have in several years. We had work to do. But, as the season changed from spring to summer, the temperatures went up and up. There's more work we'd like to do, but we end up going out after 8pm because of the heat. It's soul-sucking.

My sister and I chatted about people's attitudes concerning the heat. She said there are a lot of people who tell her that they LOVE the heat. It's a good thing they live in Phoenix then. I hear that where I live, too, even though it's not as hot and we get snow in the winter. Both my sister and I have a similar reaction when people tell us how much they love the heat...I mean, we're glad for them, but just because they like it hot, doesn't mean we all do.

My sister has never lived in a place with snow. It would be cool (pun intended...) if she were to relocate in the great northern areas. In my opinion, there are few things more beautiful than a newly fallen blanket of snow as you sit inside by a fire sipping a cup of hot chocolate on a cold winter's night. Maybe all those sun worshipers can move south and some of those who do not like the temperatures of hell as much as they do can take their place up here...it'll probably never happen, but one can dream.