As I prepare to move to Australia in a week, the weather where I live in New England has been so bizarrely hot for the past two months that the summer temperatures here at home and the winter across the earth where I am headed are playing a large role in my thoughts. Here’s how I feel about my abrupt move from one season into the other.
I moved to the Northeast many years ago, in search of a replica of the Midwest winters I remembered so fondly from my childhood — mounds of snow pummeling us as it fell out of the sky, school closures, the noise of the world rendered silent by the white soundproof padding on the ground, and more school closures. Now, after years of reliving the white, soaking it up, wallowing in it, I am sick of it. I have turned against our final season of the year and fight my way through each and every winter. No longer do I cherish white, but long for green. I have fallen in love with summer and I cannot get enough of the intensity of its heat. Typically, May and June are still spring where I live. You can’t really accurately say “Summer is here!” until July. This year my new favorite season has arrived oddly early in New England and the sun has now been incinerating us since May. For a while I assumed it was a fluke and waited for the temperatures to plummet once again. Nothing doing. It is 100% summertime.
I love sweating all day every day. Seriously. Yet I’m leaving the sizzle of summer behind. As my move to Australia takes place in a week and I sit here in 90 degree heat for the 50th day in a row, I’m feeling happy that I’m getting to experience such an early and sweltering summer, for it is wintertime where I am heading. What if I had plunged straight from wintertime temperatures here to yet more winter weather there? I can’t stand to think about it.
Of course, Australian winters resemble New England autumns and springs, according to the historical weather data I’ve looked up. So I’ll technically merely be gliding from summer to fall. And that is just great. I’ll be experiencing a new country in weather that will feel warm and perfect to me. As I sunscreen myself up for my last days of blinding sun before I head to the other side of the earth, I look forward to the mild temperatures Australia is living through right now. I think it will be fascinating to experience winter at the time of year I’m accustomed to soaking up summer.
Summer or Winter - sometimes there's not much of a difference
Thumbnail sunset photo by Angus Clyne
If I ever become wealthy enough to own two houses, I’ll live in the Northern hemisphere for half a year, and then the Southern hemisphere for the other half. That way I get to completely bypass winter.
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Sabina Lohr Reply:
June 25th, 2010 at 21:27
The perfect plan.
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Man, as long as there’s no snow, embrace!
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Sabina Lohr Reply:
June 25th, 2010 at 21:28
Yeah, we usually have such intense cold here It will feel basically hot to me.
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Sand between the toes always feels better than snow!
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Sabina Lohr Reply:
June 25th, 2010 at 21:46
You should write that down, Mike. That is a great quote.
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