Now *that's* a thing I really cannot understand...living in boiling hot sand for most of the year (I know it depends on what part of the region, gimme some Red Sea)
My friend from Chicago just hires kids to shovel snow. And most people don't drive when it's icy outside. I've been binge-watching Mountain Men the past few days and talk about some cold weather -- these guys are hunting and tracking animals, chasing mountain lions, repairing snowmobiles, fixing houses, etc. in -15 degree weather. The other night I saw some 70-year old guy tanning bison hide and hunting deer with a homemade bow & arrow in -5 degree weather. Wth. I'm not a snow and ice person, but I've always loved weather in the 20's-40's as long as the pipes don't explode. Screw 70-degree Decembers and swamp humiditiy summers with hurricane threats. That being said, pretty much every area of the country has some issue with something. Even places like Colorado, NW Arkansas, Tennessee that I'd love to live have issues with crazy storms, snow, etc. But at least most of the year they make up for it with something decent to look at or do other than sit in traffic in a concrete jungle enjoying your tiny piece of land while living too damn close to your neighbor.
Reminds me of one of my favorite quotes (paraphrased), from 30 Rock iirc: "I wanted to paint a mural of Houston for the kids but I have a hard time drawing swamp humidity."
I absolutely love that climate, the Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Kentucky area. Asheville and Chattanooga are high on my list of places where I could seriously consider relocating But **** Nashville.
My oldman-employee-worker-cousin-friend was a logger (climber-topper) in Oregon and then moved to Alaska for 20 years or so before coming back to Texas because it was just too ******* cold. I've heard all the stories (the dude has amazing life stories), and I just cannot imagine living like that, and he was in the southern-coastal area (Homer Spit, Matanuska River, Kenaii, etc...) You spend 4 of the warm months out of the year cutting (chainsaw) and splitting (axe) and hauling and stacking 16 cords of firewood to get you through the winter.
I've only lived in Houston, Dallas and Fort Worth so I've never suffered through a real winter. In fact, I've only been exposed to "real winter" a few times in my life. One was a week in Chicago for work in January and had to walk 3 blocks from the hotel to the office. When that wind whipped through the downtown buildings and into my face, it almost brought me to my knees every time. It seems most of the places who have harsh winters also have majestic spring and summer seasons, so I guess that is the trade-off. I get pissed off here when it gets below 50, so don't think I am built for real winters and instead will just keep sweating at night 4 months per year and will keep worrying about biblical rain and/or hurricanes.
A few years ago, I was at Lowe's and was talking to an employee there about buying something and we started talking about stuff and joking around. It came out that he was only down in Texas for about 3-4 months out of the year, I think. The rest of it, he goes back up to live in Alaska. He just comes down here to make some money during the coldest months and then goes back up there. If you're that self-sufficient, money and supplies aren't as scarce to you. Like the old dude on that show I was talking about was saying the bison skin he was tanning would bring him something like $3000 (?) I think he said, and he was outside in sub-zero temps tanning that thing so it wouldn't rot. The deer he killed gave him and his wife 100 lbs of meat that would last the winter for him and he was ecstatic. There's something about living simplistically, but it also has its hardships, of course. I could never do what they do. After a day, I'd be looking for the nearest grocery store or a ticket back. One thing I noticed about these dudes on that show is that they know how to do damn near everything... repair cars/snowmobiles, hunt and butcher moose/deer, build a cabin, track/trap animals, fell trees for lumber and make clearings, one was even flying a small plane with no radar or any major electronics so he could get to remote places with no humans nearby to trap animals to sell their skins. Most of these guys on the show livein places like Alaska, Montana, NC, NM, Maine and don't want to be near the city. Like I said, I could never do that, but I get it.
Yup. Where I grew up the weather is hot and dry. Normal to have only a couple of rain showers from June to October. Not to see a rain drop in 4 months. So of course my favourite weather is rain. I wouldn't mind if it rained every single day of the year.
Guys, come to Sweden. I will personally invite all of you swamp ass stinking and gun loving lunatics.
I was in New York in late February a while back, when it was still transitioning from cold to not so cold, but still had sunshine and it was hell with the wind whipping around and funneling to blast you in the face in between all the buildings. I never knew why people needed gloves or a scarf until then. I went and bought some damn gloves but never felt comfortable with something around my neck, so I skipped the scarf.
Yeah, but they weren't eating it! My grandparents back in the 80's used to have a pit full of manure from their cows and other animals that they generated electricity from. That was pretty awesome.
I grew up near Pittsburgh and would take the weather over Houston any time. It's cold in the winter but you really only get a few scattered weeks of ice and snow so it's not terrible, and more than a fair trade for avoiding eight months of oppressive heat and humidity. The Midwestern autumn is the thing I miss the most about living there.
