Southern Reminders

I lived in the south for 4 years during college. I knew that I had no desire to live there again, but sometimes I missed various aspects of it and thought, "oh, maybe..." But I was reminded as soon as I got off the plane last weekend in Savannah, Georgia of one of the biggest reasons for not living in the south. I was suddenly swimming through the air in 95 degree heat with 80+% humidity. I do not miss humidity.

One-by-one each of my college friends who had moved north since graduating, but who were returning together for this one-week vacation in Hilton Head lamented the same thing. "Oh gross...I forgot about humidity." And then the next day when walking outside of the pleasant air conditioning: "Gross...again...I'm already dripping wet in the '85, but feels like 97' degree weather." How do people live like this? Seriously...

More Thoughts on the Weather

I have lived in a number of cities in various regions of the United States. Hartford, Kansas City, Nashville, Austin, Eugene... I have known people in each of those cities who have lived in cities/regions where I have not lived. In each of these cities, the ones in which I have lived or the ones where I have known people from, the weather can change dramatically in a matter of a single day. For example, this past week in Kansas City, it went from below freezing temperatures, with snow and ice on the ground, on Christmas, to 68 degrees the day after. Everyone responded with the typical, "gotta love Kansas City weather. it can change on you in no time at all." But the thing is - it is not at all specific to Kansas City. A friend who is home in Ohio right now said the same thing this past week about Cincinnati. My favorite movie of all time, Waiting For Guffman, describes the fictional town of Blaine, Missouri, as a town where, "...if you don't like the weather, just wait 5 minutes..." Everyone thinks that quickly changing weather is something specific to their city/town/state, but it's not. It happens all over.