In January, at almost the depths of winter in Northern Minnesota, I look outside at the sunny skies and green grass. Yes, I long ago deserted the northern clime.
Much to my good fortune, my parents were ready to retire to Florida when I graduated from high school. So, off to the University of Miami for me. No more moving the bed until it almost touched the radiator. No more electric shocks when touching any metal object at any time and any place. No more bloody nose from the dryness. No more red where my knee highs left my knees exposed below my wool jumper (wearing slacks to school wasn't allowed). But also, no more snowy lawn at night when the moonlight would turn the whole yard to fairyland. No more walks to school with the light sparkling off the ice on the lake as the sun just peeped up from Wisconsin. No more still walks home, clutching my books, snow on the bare, brown branches covering the street, and the song "Hello darkness my old friend" playing in my head.
It's easy to make that long-ago past romantic, but I remember having to chop ice on the front steps too. And the cold that would hurt my lungs every morning when I had to step outside in sub-zero. There's no need to mention shoveling, is there?
The last time I saw snow was three years ago. And before that? Thirty years. Imagine! I had to return to Duluth to help my aging Aunt who had broken a hip three years ago. As the plane headed down and I could see the white everywhere, I began to calculate how long it had been since snow. Thirty years! Had I missed it? Honestly? No. Perhaps I had been born in the wrong place. Cold weather was always suffering to me. It was no different during that trip in December. The pain in the lungs, the sparks pricking my fingers, the ice on the windshield of the borrowed car, it all was a misery.
So, to my friend who asked me to write this and who loves the cold (mostly), is welcome to Duluth in December, January, February, and March. Possibly even April and May. It is easy, too easy, to wax rhapsodic about the warmth of southern Florida. Especially now in January. No coats, not even a sweater until a few days or weeks next month. The flowers, the sunny skies, puffy clouds, and lovely breezes make life easy, lazy, happy.
Yes, my blood has turned thin (weak as water, weak as water) and 50 degrees will set my teeth chattering. I'm not as strong as you hardy lot. But oh the luxury of the warmth. The luxury.
