Remember when I wondered if I brought extremely cold temperatures with me everywhere I go? If you don’t here’s a reminder. Well my current experience here in Florida is confirming my suspicions. The other night when I went out I swore I could see my breath. I’ve brought the English weather here with me. Here’s a news report from the other day.
Every winter that I’ve been in the United Kingdom the weather seems to have gotten progressively worse. People are always saying, “This is the coldest I remember it ever being this early in the year,” or “We don’t normally get this much snow,” or “It doesn’t usually snow this late in the year.”
I lived in Korea for a little over six years and while I was living there I heard the same thing over and over again. Snow blanketed the streets and my friends all told me they didn’t remember ever seeing this much snow. Every year there was more and more snow.
I’m starting to think that I bring worsening weather conditions with me whenever I live.
Today was the first truly cold winter’s day here. I’m not even sure if it is officially winter yet, but it certainly did feel like it was, and that’s official enough for me.
I grew up in New Jersey and went to college in Vermont. There was a time when it took a lot to make me cold. I used to walk around in frigid weather with my jacket open and talk about how it really wasn’t that cold. I was never one of those crazy people who wore those strange vest jackets that look like life jackets though. If you have one, I’m not talking about you. I mean those other crazy people who wear the vest jackets. I’m sure your vest jacket is completely reasonable. My arms are very important to me and I like to keep them as warm as the rest of my body. That’s why I just don’t understand those things. I guess some people like cold arms and are expecting flash flooding.
There’s nothing like a few years in Florida to thin the blood. I have no tolerance for cold weather any more. I can’t stand to be outside in the cold for even a few minutes. If I am out in the cold I have to have on my long underwear, a hat, a scarf, gloves, and, of course, my long winter coat.
My husband is shooting a video for the latest silly song he’s written and this afternoon he needed me to film some of it outside for him. I thought my hands were going to freeze to the camera. I pictured ice crystals forming in my blood and my fingers snapping off and shattering like icicles as they hit the ground. In reality, I knew it wasn’t that cold. It was raining. How could it possibly be? As I stood by the radiator in the living room to warm up my fingers, I realized the cold, hard truth; I’m a weather wimp. That’s right. I admit. I’m a weather wimp.
I went for a walk this morning expecting it to be freezing outside. The sky was overcast and the clouds where spitting down a find spray of rain, but in my rain jacket and long sleeved tee I was too hot. I couldn’t believe it. The temperature inside my flat is always tricking me. I swear it’s ten degrees colder in here than it is outside. Right now I’m wearing a wool hat and I swear I can see my breath. I don’t want to turn the heat on though because if it’s too hot to wear a jacket outside then it’s definitely too hot for the heat.
It’s been hot here recently and everyone is so happy. The women are so excited to get out their sundresses and sandals. The men are looking for any excuse to take of their shirts and expose their blindingly white chests to the world. People here aren’t accustomed to the sun. That’s evidenced by the beet red arms and faces I see shopping for produce in the grocery store. My husband jokes that he’s the only Englishman who actually wears sunscreen.
This inability to handle all this sunny weather was even more evidenced by the front page of the paper the other day. The headline read, “Hot Stuff: Experts issue warning as hundreds flock to parks to take advantage of sweltering temperatures.” Sweltering? The article contains a list of things to do to beat the heat, like stay in during the hottest hours of the day, drink plenty of water, check on elderly neighbors, so forth.
After reading this article, I started to wonder how hot it really was. I really didn’t think it was hot enough to issue warnings about anything. Granted most people don’t have air conditioning, but still. So I decided to look online to see what the temperature was. I’m still not good with Celsius so I looked it up and Fahrenheit. Do you know what the high was yesterday? It was 85 degrees Fahrenheit. Yesterday was just as “sweltering” as any of the other day over that past few weeks. At 85 degrees I still get goosebumps when a breeze blows. I can still wear long sleeves at 85 degrees. Maybe I’m just an expert at beating the heat.
Hot? I have goosebumps and was actually considering putting something else on.
Just recently I told someone we’d just moved here from Florida and she said, “Why’d you want to do that? The weather is dreadful here. You probably haven’t seen the sun once since you’ve been here.”
“Actually we’ve had some nice weather,” I said. It was sunny and lovely that day. It had been lovely for the past couple of days.
“Oh no,” she politely disagreed. “It’s been raining nonstop. That’s the way it is here–dreadful.”
The English seem to take pride in having horrible weather. Either that or they forget too easily. I’m not sure which.
It’s summer here and the wildflowers are in full bloom. The trees are lush. The sky is blue. It’s perfect weather to be outside in. If we had a yard, I’d be out in it. I probably wouldn’t get much work done though.
Even though I grew up up North, I don’t weather the cold well. We’ve only had a few cold days in this area this winter. It’s been a lot milder than usual. Still every time it’s just a little bit cold, I think it’s too cold.
I went to college in Vermont, where some times it snows in April. That is a distant memory to me. At that time it could be freezing and I would hesitate to wear a sweater because I wanted to save my warmest clothes for when it was really cold. Once it was so cold that my car wouldn’t start, and when I went to take my hand off the ignition, my finger was stuck to it. In Vermont at the first hint of spring, I was wearing a summer dress. There’d be a foot of snow still on the ground and boots on my feet, but I was ready for summer.
Now if the temperature dips into the mid seventies, I’m pulling a jacket out of the closet. I get goose bumps from the slightest breeze. “It’ll be 76 degrees tomorrow, I better wear a long sleeved shirt,” I think, planning my outfit for the next day while lying in bed. I didn’t think that thing about your blood thinning if you live in warm climates was true, until I moved to Florida.
My stepson is the opposite. He refuses to wear long sleeves or a jacket in even the coldest weather. I think it’s his way of proving his toughness or something. Well, I have nothing to prove. It’s winter and I’ll be pulling my winter suitcase out of the closet and breaking out the sweaters. I never claimed to be tough.
Only two weeks into the hurricane season, and we’ve already had our first named storm in the Gulf. This causes me some distress. The stress comes from uncertainty. If someone could tell me exactly how many storms there would be and where and when they would hit, I would be fine with living in a hurricane zone.
That doesn’t happen. Instead, we receive vague information. I sit glued to the T.V. watching the weather man. I got to know all of their names during last year’s hurricane season. They show a cone that is supposed to show the general path of the storm. Then they show a map with a lot of random lines that mean nothing to the average person. A storm could jog north or south. It could weaken or strengthen. It could flood you out. It could blow your house away. How can I prepare?
I organized hurricane kits for everyone in the family. I packed them with flashlights, batteries, clothes, water, food, and toilet paper (in case we run out of food). I thought we needed true survival food, so I got beef jerky and trail mix. The true survivors always have trail mix.
There are no good closets for me to hide in in our apartment. I’ve tested them out. They’re all too small and too packed with stuff. I’m just going to have to tough it out and act like an adult. While I’m an excellent actress, I don’t excel at adulthood. I’m just going to have to give it a try.
