Question About These 95+ Degree Days. Typical?? (Surprise: versus, statistics, electric bill)

[Burkmere]

Originally Posted by MN-Born-n-Raised

At age 52, I already have to start planning for the end game. Because 10 years goes by in a flash. I could easily coast out life by dodging the worse weather months here in AZ.

Indeed, I'm contemplating the same. I sent you a Direct Message. Living in South Dakota now for two years after my retirement, I'm pondering doing the same you are thinking about.....

[Sovetsky Medved]

Retirement? I Moved here when I was 39 years old, Im now 52. And It took me this long to Acclimate to this weather. Now the Heat doesn't really bother me like it used to. You just stay Hydrated when your out in it. And Bask in the glorious feel of Air Conditioning, when your home in the evening. Im looking forward to the rest of my life. Right here in the valley of the Sun.

[MN-Born-n-Raised]

Originally Posted by Sovetsky Medved

Retirement? I Moved here when I was 39 years old, Im now 52. And It took me this long to Acclimate to this weather. Now the Heat doesn't really bother me like it used to. You just stay Hydrated when your out in it. And Bask in the glorious feel of Air Conditioning, when your home in the evening. Im looking forward to the rest of my life. Right here in the valley of the Sun.

I'm not retired. I own a business that sells expensive widgets to passionate consumers. What I sell is also a hobby of mine. So I don't consider what I do as work and I don't have any desire to quit because I always need a bone to chew on. 15 years ago, I cut down my hours from 100 hours per week to about 20-40. The impact was a I paid a lot less in taxes and my garage sale wasn't as nice.

Because of my wife, where we live is a balancing act. She does not like 100 degree dry sunny weather. Plus, in order for the air conditioning to keep up with hot days, the high performance systems BLAST on and she gets freezing cold until the blower shuts off. So she wears a thin long sleeve coat around the house and in nearly every air conditioned spot in the Valley. When we go to a restaurant, we are staring at the ceiling to dodge vents or fans. She would much rather be in FL as the humidity is more tolerable for her. But like most women's maternal instincts, where the kids land will dictate where we live. Our daughter went to dental school here and likes the PHX area. So now you know what my pending maneuvers look like so that I stick around the valley of the sun.

[wase4711]

well, as a long time Midwesterner, who moved here in August after many visits over the years, I can only tell you that life here is a trade off, just like it was in Illinois; for us, the 2/3 months of intense heat in June and July and August is worth the other 8-10 GLORIOUS months out here..yes, its been abnormally warm the last month or so, but where the humidity is almost zero, and its about 98 degrees, it feels great out to us.

and, my wife cant stand the AC blasting either, so it was an easy fix; we installed a new AC system with a variable speed fan and compressor, so keeping the house at a set temp is super easy, and the AC really never is blasting..

Maintaining 2 homes is the worst, you obviously love it here, so it seems like a no brainer..get rid of that snow shoveling/ice slipping/below zero part of your life, and enjoy this fantastic area for the rest of your life full time!

[MN-Born-n-Raised]

Originally Posted by wase4711

well, as a long time Midwesterner, who moved here in August after many visits over the years, I can only tell you that life here is a trade off, just like it was in Illinois; for us, the 2/3 months of intense heat in June and July and August is worth the other 8-10 GLORIOUS months out here..yes, its been abnormally warm the last month or so, but where the humidity is almost zero, and its about 98 degrees, it feels great out to us.

and, my wife cant stand the AC blasting either, so it was an easy fix; we installed a new AC system with a variable speed fan and compressor, so keeping the house at a set temp is super easy, and the AC really never is blasting..

Maintaining 2 homes is the worst, you obviously love it here, so it seems like a no brainer..get rid of that snow shoveling/ice slipping/below zero part of your life, and enjoy this fantastic area for the rest of your life full time!

Thanks for the tip on the variable speed blowers. I wonder if they can retro those into my current system?

Owning 2 places on paper seems like a brilliant idea (best of both worlds). For 5 years, I had three homes till I got smarter in 2010 (2 were short term rentals that easily paid 10% of their value in rent). So now, two homes seemed manageable. But my 1998 MN lake home is getting to the point of needing all kinds of updates. Closing up one spot (winterizing/summerizing) and opening another is also a small PITA. If I wasn't so darn cheap, I suppose I wouldn't care so much. But there is no way of changing my core cheapness and I don't like working harder than I do. I know; 1st world problems.

[Ponderosa]

Originally Posted by MN-Born-n-Raised

I'm not retired. I own a business that sells expensive widgets to passionate consumers. What I sell is also a hobby of mine. So I don't consider what I do as work and I don't have any desire to quit because I always need a bone to chew on. 15 years ago, I cut down my hours from 100 hours per week to about 20-40. The impact was a I paid a lot less in taxes and my garage sale wasn't as nice.

Because of my wife, where we live is a balancing act. She does not like 100 degree dry sunny weather. Plus, in order for the air conditioning to keep up with hot days, the high performance systems BLAST on and she gets freezing cold until the blower shuts off. So she wears a thin long sleeve coat around the house and in nearly every air conditioned spot in the Valley. When we go to a restaurant, we are staring at the ceiling to dodge vents or fans. She would much rather be in FL as the humidity is more tolerable for her. But like most women's maternal instincts, where the kids land will dictate where we live. Our daughter went to dental school here and likes the PHX area. So now you know what my pending maneuvers look like so that I stick around the valley of the sun.

Living here for a while may cure one of any preference for humidity. You get used to the dry so much so that even a hint of moisture in the air is immediately sensed and is uncomfortable. Case in point: it has been dry as a bone since early September. A day or so ago the dew point surged to 45 or so. The temps were about the same but it felt sticky and unpleasant. Many of us were thrown into depression "is this summer ever going to end?" A day later it's dry once again and our spirits are lifted in the chill morning air as we look forward to our November fall.

[hikernut]

Originally Posted by MN-Born-n-Raised

Normally from May to late October, I'm in MN. This year we came early. I've been enjoying these 90-98 degrees days for the past couple of weeks. The evenings and mornings have been wonderful and I don't mind being in the sun at 98 degrees. IMHO, it's child's play specifically because of the low humidity. I despise the FL humidity even if it is 85 degrees.

I'm tying to figure out how bad summers would be here. My minds wandering; maybe I should sell my MN home and only rent something farther north for a month or two. Maintaining two places is getting old.

So my question is, what percentage of days during the summer feel like these last couple of weeks? Subjectively speaking, does it get a lot worse or just a little worse. I could imagine that 6 months of 98 degrees and low humidity would get wearing. But I suspect if I broke it up by leaving in the worst month or two would be a great compromise. Your thoughts?

I understand the business about not wanting too homes. I've never done it, but thought about it and decided it would be too messy.

If the weather worries you, spend June here to see what you think. Recent weeks are a lot nicer than summer, of course. For people who have lots of indoor hobbies, or who work indoors, I'd say it's manageable. Myself and my wife like to be outside a lot, so when we retire we'll have some decisions to make. How much time are we willing to be away from home? And how much will that cost? The good thing is there's a nice variety of places to visit that are within a day's drive... Flagstaff, Grand Canyon, San Diego, Telluride, etc. So it's possible to take a few 1-2 week trips throughout the summer to "break it up" and still not be gone from home for months at a time. We'll see when the time comes.

[Jnvlv247]

Have the first wave of snowbirds settled in already?

[wase4711]

ive seen alot of moron drivers here in the NW valley in the last few days, so i would say some have arrived..

[Ponderosa]

Originally Posted by Jnvlv247

Have the first wave of snowbirds settled in already?

Sadly, yes. I was driving back from Flagstaff a couple days ago and it was one snowbird RV after another coming down the mountain.