Then, I remembered that it was real wintry weather in most of the rest of the country. Of course, it's wintry weather here, too, but here is Tucson, after all.
I've lost my weather chops totally and completely. The first winter we lived in Marin I wore corduroy walking shorts, wool socks and hiking boots all through December and January and February. My winter coat was my J Peterman unlined cotton raincoat which was buttoned up only when I wanted to protect the clothing below. A winter without shoveling or slipping or freezing merited clothing that respected its balmy-ness.That duster is still in the hall closet, nestled beside our wool overcoats. We live in Tucson. They'll hang there for a long long long long time.
When G'ma first moved here, the lack of familiar visual and sensory cues only exacerbated her confusion. She was in short sleeves and it was December; suddenly she had to use her memory for the seasons, too. On Long Island, she just looked out the window and the answer was there. Warm sunshine and sitting on the Adirondack chairs in the pod-castle's courtyard is not what her brain processed as winter.
Do not mis-understand me. I like the snow. Some of my happiest moments have occurred when sub-zero temperatures and the great out-doors have coincided. I voluntarily lived in Ithaca and Chicago, cities with almost nothing except hard winters in common. Christmas sneaks up on me, still; I miss the view from my Chicago dining room window, the backyard with the apple tree and the neighbor's fancy fence and the wooden fort and especially the slide, atilt, creating a perfect triangle all blanketed in white.
(You can just feel the But, can't you?!)
But, there's something to be said for feeling put-upon when you actually have to zip your sweatshirt over your tights on the way into the gym. Here, these
are merely a fashion statement when it's too cold for flip-flops and I need something easy off/easy on for yoga or pilates
Yes, I am officially a weather wimp. Remember my first winter in Marin? The one with the unlined cotton raincoat? By the following Thanksgiving I was using that coat to cover wool pants and a turtle-neck-under-a-sweater.
And I am unashamed.
I'm with G'ma! We've lived in AK (Sarah P. lived in my backyard); Mesa, AZ; Montgomery, AL; Cocoa Beach, FL, and points between...moving every three years or less as the Air Force whimmed. I stopped being able to look out the window and tell what holiday it was about thirty years ago, which puts my senility on a really fast track. The older I get, the better Arizona looks. Call Del Webb and reserve me a spot, wouldja?
ReplyDeleteIs that why you are such a good "connector" on the blogosphere? All that starting over....
ReplyDeleteDEL WEBB??? No, dear heart, you'll live in a regular house in a regular neighborhood where you can walk to lectures or football and park for free at 4star restaurants and Pink Martini performances and see YoYo Ma with the local symphony and then stroll to your car under a full moon.... in December .... carrying your pashmina over your arm because it's too warm to wear it. It's real life with *old* people's weather ;)