What are the winters really like?

[Careless]

Originally Posted by At1WithNature

That is true, somehow we do adjust. Is it true that our blood thickens in the winter or is that just a saying???

There are a couple of things that can change in your body to acclimate it to cold weather. For one, your body becomes less efficient at metabolism, providing less useful energy for every calorie burned but giving more waste heat.

[At1WithNature]

Originally Posted by cubssoxfan

They haven't figured out how to turn Halloween or Thanksgiving into a major gift buying holiday (yet)
Greed, over consumption, excess consumerism. I try to fight off all this nonsense by remembering "Charlie Brown Christmas". Where Linus, fed up by the "consumerism" tells the true story behind Christmas. It does provide opportunities to teach our kids the real Christmas story and to not to be "gimme gimme kids". Also reinforces our strict control on TV watching. I swear, The Nazi propaganda appartus would have been impressed by how effectively TV commercials prey on kids feelings and desires to create "mini-gimme-gimme-consumer monsters"

Impressed or involved?

Over 1,500 of the Nazis top minds came to the United States under Operation Paper Clip to keep them out of the Russian hands. Just sayin...


YouTube - Operation PaperClip

[irish setter girl]

I do think your body adapts to the temperature. Four winters ago when gas prices started to soar I turned down the thermostat a few degrees just to see what it did to my winter gas bill. At first I found that I just wore a zip up hoodie around the house or put a tank top under my sweater just to keep warm because I *thought* the house was cooler. After a few weeks I noticed that I was just fine and didn't have to have that extra layer, and I noticed my gas bill appreciated the few degree change! I do think your body adapts (or I'm just experience hot flashes and don't know it )

[cubssoxfan]

I do think your body adapts (or I'm just experience hot flashes and don't know it )

Well I hope my DW gets these soon. Anytime it's under 70 she thinks she's terribly cold. She says it got worse after her kidney stone surgery few years back. I think it's living in TX for 15 years and the Phillipines for 2 more. It thinned her blood. Hopefully she makes it another 12 years and we can retire and rent a place in a warmer climate during winter.

[irish setter girl]

Funny you should mention kidney stones (although they are not funny at all :0). After three rounds of stones I found my body temp and metabolism changed quite a bit!

[Calidreemer]

I dislike the winters and sorry, I wouldn't live in FL either - too humid, too many hurricanes, too many big bugs. Visit the relatives in January? Yes! California is the place for me (see my name?). If you have seasonal affective disorder (SAD) you may not want to move here - you can never be sure how long the sun will be around although this past summer was quite nice I have to say, but after last winter we deserved it! Give me sun!

Hey Steve-O - Here's me 30 years later!

[Steve-o]

Originally Posted by irish setter girl

Funny you should mention kidney stones (although they are not funny at all :0). After three rounds of stones I found my body temp and metabolism changed quite a bit!

Join the club. Ive had 3 stones, too, but it never changed my metabolism or body temp.

[Gin Gin]

Originally Posted by irish setter girl

I have visited warm places over the Christmas holiday and saw "winterish" decorations on palm trees etc... For those who grew up in a warm climate, did the winter holiday decorations ever seem out of place for you? When you read Christmas stories (for those that celebrate) did you ever wonder why Christmas related things always involved snow, snowmen, cold weather activities, etc... when you don't have that in your climate? I remember as a kids my grandparents had a huge plastic snowman in their Florida yard I always thought it was strange to see that down there, what do the native think?

We're moving from South Florida to the Chicago area in 2 weeks! I have lived here almost my whole life and I know I'm in for it this winter. It will be like another planet for me. I'm going with the "bloom where you're planted attitude" though and I'm going to try to make the best of it. Also my parents are here in FL and I told the husband when I've had too much of the cold I'm coming to visit my parents

As for the Christmas in FL thing, to me it's normal. People that moved here from northern climates always complain, but it's what I grew up with. Why shouldn't we put up decorations just because it's warm? Yeah we put lights in palm tress because that's what we have. Umm.. when I read/watched Christmas stories I knew that they revolved around cold & snow because much of the country is cold that time of year. We're not daft, we do know it snows in other places. Once I saw the typical Santa in his sleigh yard decoration, except it was flamingos pulling the sleigh instead of reindeer. I thought it was really cute!

[At1WithNature]

Originally Posted by Gin Gin

We're moving from South Florida to the Chicago area in 2 weeks! I have lived here almost my whole life and I know I'm in for it this winter. It will be like another planet for me. I'm going with the "bloom where you're planted attitude" though and I'm going to try to make the best of it. Also my parents are here in FL and I told the husband when I've had too much of the cold I'm coming to visit my parents

As for the Christmas in FL thing, to me it's normal. People that moved here from northern climates always complain, but it's what I grew up with. Why shouldn't we put up decorations just because it's warm? Yeah we put lights in palm tress because that's what we have. Umm.. when I read/watched Christmas stories I knew that they revolved around cold & snow because much of the country is cold that time of year. We're not daft, we do know it snows in other places. Once I saw the typical Santa in his sleigh yard decoration, except it was flamingos pulling the sleigh instead of reindeer. I thought it was really cute!

nice post. so you can visit your parents in Florida when you you've had too much of the cold...okay, that should be about mid-january. by then you realize you have another 10-12 weeks of frigid temps and no more holidays to get you through it.

[kaydub]

Good luck with your move, Gin Gin! Hopefully we'll be following some day...

I just wanted to point out that the thing about northerners is that to us, seeing outdoor Christmas decorations in summerlike weather means it's July and you forgot to put everything away! At least, that was what I thought during my first holiday season down here. It took some getting used to.