It's hot out — 102-plus this afternoon. I'm learning to be like the natives and stay inside during the hottest part of the day. I still haven't developed the habit of getting up and out early. It's the habit of the unemployed: stay up late and get up late.
I'm taking a trip back to the Oregon Coast in a couple of weeks, where it's still not hit 70 degrees even once this summer and sometimes doesn't get out of the 50s during the day. Unless the weather changes substantially, I will experience a drop of 40 to 50 degrees over the course of an air trip and a shuttle trip. In fact, I'll probably hit 90 degrees temps in Portland. I'm pulling out a pair of shorts and a couple of tees and the rest is jeans, a sweater and some long-sleeve shirts. Thank goodness for layering! And staying with someone who will have sweaters.
I wouldn't mind being a snowbird, because I love my temperature range to be between the 40s or 50s in the winter (I like sweaters) to the 80s or low 90s in the summer (I like shorts). But I'd need to be able to work anywhere I lived, either having a job that existed in two places or having two jobs or being able to telecommute.
My friend Thea told me I need to live in San Diego. My BFF and a handful of other folks want me in Seattle. I have some people who think I'm in Houston forever. And I have a compulsion toward living on the Oregon Coast.
I feel as if I were a kid wondering what I'm going to be when I grow up: I don't know what I want in specific. It's all just dreams right now, dreams of heat and cold, light and dark, here and there.
What climate do you prefer? Would you be a snowbird if you could? Where do you want to be?
I'm happy in San Diego on my island! I know people who are happy in Seattle and on the Oregon Coast. Houston, hmm.
ReplyDeleteI know people who are very happy here. But no one likes August when it's very hot and very humid. (Although the humidity hasn't been what it normally is since the start of the drought.)
DeleteAt the Oregon Coast, I'd need to have at least a partner or a group of friends, plus a job.
Seattle is expensive. I'd at least need work and an affordable place to live.
I don't know San Diego. Is it expensive? My BFF who went to grad school as UCSD said it's beautiful there and could see me living there. If it's affordable and I had work and an affordable place to live.
Themes: work, affordable place to live, friends (or people willing to become friends -- a tough one in the PNW).
Affordable? hmm. It is what it is, that's always been my approach to living costs. Yes, it's beautiful, friendly, and you'd have to suss out your field but this is a techy kind of place. The period of adjustment is always a killer. For me, exercise classes in my neighborhood and volunteering took care of that.
DeleteI've always thought that living in a guest house/apartment over the garage/etc. would be nice because I could get to know my landlords and there would be people who would know if I hadn't shown my face in days.
DeleteI've made some good casual friends from my volunteering, but no one who I socialize with. When I get an income, I intend to take some classes of various kinds, but first I need an income for more than just a few months.
Of course, if I moved to a place like SD or Seattle, I'd try to have some work in place, even freelance work, because they probably are more expensive to live in than Houston, although I think rents in Houston are comparable. I have what is considered very cheap rent, but I live far away from everything, so that's the trade off.
My goal is to work pretty consistently freelance, like Nan Reinhardt does. I've even joined the freelancers association she told me about. After my vacation, I plan to look for work. My attitude is that I have the experience and the skills to be a great freelancer, so I will find plenty of work. Then I can live anywhere.
I don't mind the high heat we get in the Florida Keys in summer. I love being surrounded by ocean on our islands. Years from now when I retire I could see me spending a couple of summer months a year back up on the Jersey Shore.
ReplyDeleteI enjoy heat, but more when I have a body of water to throw myself into when necessary. I like that roasting-body feeling I get after I come out of an over-air-conditioned building. Not so fond of humidity but I can tolerate it to some extent. Can't see myself in Keys: hurricanes scare me. I'm scared of them while living in Houston.
DeleteI really don't like heat. At all. I guess it's okay at the beach when I can either go swimming or stay in the air conditioning, but other than that, no. My very favorite weather is those crisp, clear, cool fall days with low humidity and bright blue skies. I don't think I'd want to live somewhere where there was little seasonal variation, I do like having seasons. Maybe the NC mountains? or the Pacific NW?
ReplyDeleteI love those autumn days, too. I miss changing seasons. But I don't like to drive in snow and ice, especially ice. I'm still in trauma from my accident in 2008 when I totaled my favorite car.
DeleteThe PNW has seasons, but if you want to see them all, you'd best living in the mountains.
I want to go to the NE during the fall and enjoy the colors and the beauty.
If you do come to NE I know where you can stay! Hint, hint! :) You may need to share the bathroom with the kids, but there's a new queen size mattress on the guest room bed.
DeleteI enjoy the changing seasons, but I could live without the extremes. The Captain just returned from Seattle extolling it's virtues. In retirement I would like to go somewhere with mountains for me and golf for him. Who knows?
ReplyDeleteI'd try out Seattle some more to see if you can handle the drizzly gray days. And if you want the full extent of season change, you have to live in the mountains to the east of Seattle.
DeleteI don't like snow and ice. Or months of drizzle (but at least I have a lightbox). There is a lot of golf there.
I'm learning a lot of what I do and don't want. Superhot, not so much unless I have water around me, so there goes New Mexico, where I thought I wanted to live. And my BFF assures me that my lifetime move punch-card still has several punches left in it. :) So who knows where I might end up next?
Montreal is extreme cold and extreme heat (similar to New England.) So far I'm enjoying Nanaimo summer. Will report back after the winter (which is wet like Seattle, but possibly sunnier.)
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