Recent cooler temperatures have had me listening to the usual seasonal complaints from friends and family.

“I hate the cold weather.”

“I can’t wait until the summer temperatures are here again.”

“There’s snow in the forecast?  God, I hate snow – I just hate it.”

Let me take a moment and throw my “two cents” into the ring and answer some of these detractors.

First off, one of the reasons all of us like living in this area is the seasonality.  Sure, summer, is great, but you know what else is great?  Fall – and spring – and also winter.  Variety is the spice of life, and if you don’t enjoy or appreciate a particular season, all you have to do is wait a few months and things will change.  Take it from someone who used to live in a more southern climate (Florida).  The hot weather is great, but ten months out of the year of it?  Ehhhhhh, not so much.  Trust me, it doesn’t feel much like Christmas when you’re getting eaten alive by mosquitoes and sweating while putting up your holiday lights or mowing the lawn in January.  Have you ever been to a street festival where they shoot paper autumn leaves or soap flake snow out of a confetti cannon to “simulate” the seasonal feel of the northeast?  I have.  It’s synthetic.  It’s contrived – and it’s boring.

Secondly, I’m not going to get on a climate activist soap box here, but over the past fifty years, the winters just aren’t as harsh as they “used to be” in our area.  How much snow have we gotten in just the past few years?  Ask the Whitetail Ski Resort (located just a few miles from my house) – I’m sure they will roll their eyes and tell you.  Ask them how much money they have to pump into their snowmaking system every year to make up for the “lost” natural snowfall.  When was the last time you witnessed a pond or other local body of water where the ice was thick enough to skate on?  I haven’t seen that happen on either Blair’s Valley Lake or Big Pool in years.  For goodness sake, I’ve still got some rogue lettuces in my garden that haven’t been killed off by a hard freeze, and its mid-November.  Over the past decade, I’ve seen crocuses, daffodils, and tulips emerging from the ground in mid-February.  Be careful what you wish for, because we may all end up with a bland and generic weather pattern that no longer warrants the seasonal changes we all love and enjoy every year.

Lastly, who doesn’t like to curl up on the couch on a cold afternoon with a good book and a warm seasonal drink, sitting in front of a crackling fire, while the snow gently turns the landscape a glimmering white outside the windows?  I hate to go all nostalgic, but what’s wrong with a “Currier and Ives” Christmas every now and again?  What kid doesn’t long for a missed day of school, where English and Math are replaced by a snowball fight, a good toboggan run, and a cold nose?  These are the memories that make us smile, and you just don’t get that with a climate that resembles any unremarkable day in San Diego.

So by all means, if you want to feel the summer’s warmth, take a trip to the Florida Keys in February and take a break from winter’s chilly grip, but leave some of the icicles here for the rest of us.

I wish all of you a safe and happy Thanksgiving holiday!