Freezing February

Janky January has turned into Freezing February in these parts. (Actually, January was pretty cold at the end of the month too!) This winter in Chicagoland is proving to be more severe than expected. Given that the past few years have yielded pretty mild winters around here, this year is payback, I guess. My car wouldn't start a couple of weeks ago and I had to call AAA to get a jump. The driver told me I didn't need a new battery...yet. My father encouraged me to start my car every day even if I didn't drive it just to warm it up and get the juices flowing. Yeah. Okay. I work from home on my day job and there are days when I don't even leave my home. Running my car is an afterthought. 

I had a brief trip to Florida last week for my day job. It was warm there until it wasn't! Temps dropped during my visit. When I got to town on a Sunday, it was warm. I saw people wearing shorts and tank tops. By Monday night while I was out, the chill had set in and when I left on Wednesday, high temps were in the 50s (and that's cold for Florida). Florida is an interestin place that I'm okay visiting on occasion, but not the kind of place I'd like to live. Yes, it normally has nice weather and no state personal income taxes, but it also has a lot of critters, a lousy governor, and a political climate that doesn't agree with me. I have family members who moved there and love it. More power to them, but it's just not for me. The more I think about where I'm going to spend my remaining years (either after I retire or before then), I often come to the conclusion that I want to live somewhere that has a change of seasons. Yes, freezing through February isn't great, but it's the price you pay to live somewhere that's agreeable in other ways.