tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10709507.post2095096896274672320..comments2023-09-26T10:38:21.961-04:00Comments on The View From the Last House in America: The Snow DivideKim Velkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06729808121762572706noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10709507.post-49213890298752209582011-01-12T10:07:52.859-05:002011-01-12T10:07:52.859-05:00Ahhh. Bobsledding. What a great memory. Ironically...Ahhh. Bobsledding. What a great memory. Ironically, the Olympic Bobsledders train here at the U.S. Olympic Center in San Diego.<br /><br />Unlike most people, I do miss the blizzard conditions. As a kid, I dreamed about being a weatherman and predicting that the biggest of all snow storms was heading to upstate NY with the largest lake effect snow we've ever seen.<br /><br />As for Deborah's comment about the Mid-Atlantic. That is the area where I least enjoyed the weather. During winter, Syracuse has its beautiful snow and San Diego has its beautiful sunshine but all Delaware gets is freezing rain and sleet. I couldn't find much beauty in that. Maybe that's why the Mid-Atlantic has so many big cities with so much to do...to keep people occupied and their minds off the weather.SanDiegoTimhttp://TourGuideTim.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10709507.post-20025690538534932092011-01-04T07:03:27.684-05:002011-01-04T07:03:27.684-05:00The Mid-Atlantic states are a good choice for not-...The Mid-Atlantic states are a good choice for not-wanting-to-be-North-but-don't-want-to-live-in-Florida.<br />Beautiful mountains, great beaches, and enough snow, cold temps to somewhat satisfy that desire for winter.<br />Spring comes early - without the generous muck and refuse of Mud Season - Autumn stays long. <br />I spent over twenty years in the area and miss the diversity of culture, geography, and biology much too often!<br />Stay warm in the Last House! Are you not to Stowe this year?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10709507.post-3776337295092376382010-12-26T22:24:08.820-05:002010-12-26T22:24:08.820-05:00J.G. Welcome to the choir and thanks for harmoniz...J.G. Welcome to the choir and thanks for harmonizing. One of my favorite life stories involves my daughter's piano teacher who, as a 70-something, fled Pompano Beach for Vermont's northern-most small city. (Man bites dog...)?<br /><br />See, for contrast, the comment of SanDiego Tim. Also thoughtful and speaking for a great many (did you see that recent census data about the booming growth of the West and the South and the anemic northern stats?). OK Tim. I'll grant that you have gone native in San Diego for good reasons. But having a little inside knowledge of your back story, I know that you once went a long way out of your way to go bob sledding down the Olympic run in Lake Placid. San Diego is lovely and the weather is great, but the bob sledding sucks ;-) And where would be without those Oswego county forebears and the way they were forged in the snow? I have been thinking tonight of a certain female relative of ours who now has three passports but once was just a girl on a dairy farm who thought nothing much of a four foot snowstorm. She was the one who got me thinking of our countrymen as "snow wimps".<br /><br />On that note, as I write, the weather men have gone all apocalyptic on us (again)because it snowed 7 inches over the weekend in Raleigh, NC and 3 or so in Atlanta, Ga. and the sky is poised to fall next on Boston and New York. If I may, can I just say, People. Don't panic. A lot of our ancestors crossed the Atlantic in wooden boats. We will survive a snowstorm. Most of us will anyway.Kim Velkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06729808121762572706noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10709507.post-67936259213682110872010-12-26T21:47:35.366-05:002010-12-26T21:47:35.366-05:00As a kid growing up in Syracuse, ignorance was bli...As a kid growing up in Syracuse, ignorance was bliss. I survived by not knowing any better ... not knowing that the sun can shine for days on end ... lifting the spirit ... making for friendlier people ... and allowing one to play outdoors 365 days a year.<br /><br />I loved playing in the snow as a kid but now that I've left cold winters and humid summers, it would be very difficult to go back because I now know better.SanDiegoTimhttp://TourGuideTim.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10709507.post-24232663283964492602010-12-26T10:54:32.154-05:002010-12-26T10:54:32.154-05:00As a life-long Floridian, I'm living for the d...As a life-long Floridian, I'm living for the day I can leave. My first visit to New England showed me that I belonged there, and two years in New Hampshire were the happiest years of my life, weather-wise. Can't wait to get back there! Cast my vote for small towns, wool sweaters, and snow country.J.G.https://www.blogger.com/profile/02806805528636359436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10709507.post-64807729338784867512010-12-24T20:37:51.778-05:002010-12-24T20:37:51.778-05:00Nan - What a great comment. You're right that...Nan - What a great comment. You're right that there's a je ne sais quoi that comes along with the annual freeze up and that makes life up here different all year - and which reflects a person's inner-life more accurately than less changeable places. And I hate the heat too - at least when it stifles. Still, my joints are (just) beginning to protest these days. Merry Christmas to you too. Thanks for coming by and such a thoughtful response...Kim Velkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06729808121762572706noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10709507.post-14580166308268906842010-12-24T10:12:47.172-05:002010-12-24T10:12:47.172-05:00I am quite sure the first posting I read of yours ...I am quite sure the first posting I read of yours was about heading to Florida and your feelings about it. As you already know, I'm with you, only with no thought of evereverever going south. I love the winter beyond words, in a way most people would find irrational to say the least, and crazy to say the most. I dread summer. I get nervous with all that sun and heat. And I love the northern towns. I adore the movie Grumpy Old Men as much for the locale (Minnesota town) as the content. Those snowbanks, those great winter clothes, shoveling. Another one I haven't seen for ages but is set in a New York town, I think, is Nobody's Fool. Not as cheery as GOM, but still a great setting. Small towns to me are at their best in the winter. People slogging through slush, greeting one another, waving out the windshields at other vehicles we meet; all of us in on this great sharing of real weather. Gladys Taber talks quite a bit about winter and New Englanders, which really does include upstate New Yorkers and Quebecois. We all feel the same way. We should be one big state. It isn't even endurance. We seem to feel a real joy in the snow and cold. Who can explain it? I suppose southerners do feel the same way about their climates. I knew a woman in California who said she just wished it would rain so she didn't have to do stuff outdoors. She lives in NC now. <br />Great, great post. Merry Christmas to you and your family!Nanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15547916206007733970noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10709507.post-72651940415352802032010-12-23T05:03:17.928-05:002010-12-23T05:03:17.928-05:00Hey R - I hear that, about increasing ambivalence....Hey R - I hear that, about increasing ambivalence... It's a fine lawyerly answer.Kim Velkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06729808121762572706noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10709507.post-5752593495399432832010-12-19T13:30:25.406-05:002010-12-19T13:30:25.406-05:00I find the older I get, the more ambivalent about ...I find the older I get, the more ambivalent about snow and cold weather I become. My mountaineering past was born of a love for snow and ice, frigid winds, and frost on my beard and mustache in the morning. Of course, that's before I had to shovel the stuff to get to work in the morning.<br /><br />The EMBLOS, Bavarian that she is, misses the snow terribly. Here in Missouri, we get cold winds and temps, but alas, the moisture has been sucked from them by time they reach us.<br /><br />Bottom line, I think I'd like to live most of the time in the desert, but close enough to the mountains for a "snow fix" when I need it.<br /><br />How's that for a lawyer answer?<br /><br />Cheers.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com