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I think it's interesting to read of peoples experiences and thoughts on other places and Michigan. Not only here but talking with other people as well. I remember taking my son to the Milford indoor pool a couple years back. Not sure if it was Easter time or very early summer, but it was too cool outside to swim, had to be early summer. Anyway I recall speaking with an older gentleman who was there with his grand kids from Arizona. There were 3 of them that come up to Michigan for two months during the summer. He told me they LOVE coming here and never want to go back. So many things we take for granted or maybe don't even like these kids loved. The soft grass and the tree's were huge to them along with all the green. He said they even enjoy their visits during the winter for Xmas and love the snow. When I told him my son liked it there more than here he told me they complain there is nothing for them to do. Growing up in Michigan I guess that's one thing I tend to forget or overlook. We have lakes in our backyards, and one every other few miles in so much of the state. We played outside rain or shine unless there was lighting and rarely would we come in to the house even during the winter. I listen to my son who just turned 10 complain about how he no longer likes snow and I wonder if a warmer climate would suit him better. I feel selfish sometimes when I think to stay here because I want him to grow up like I did and hope the day comes when he realizes how much there really is to do here. I often feel guilty wondering if I failed him because his childhood is nowhere near as fun as mine was and kids these days are missing out on so much because of cable, pc's, XBox's and the fact we as parents are not home nearly as much as mine were growing up. I justify my choices because he is only 10 LOL and I can only hope one day he understands if we stay here and why we did.
Yup. I think once it warms up people will forget all about this cold weather. I honestly could never leave...I love the great lakes too much and would miss them more then anything.
I have friends who you find on water skis on some body of water all summer long. Complain when winter comes? Not on your life they can be found every free miniute they get on skis behind the snowmobiles and now even the dogs they trained for ski joriging. My grand kids swim every chance they get in the summer. They do the same thing at a indoor pool all winter long. In fact My 11 year old daughter just finished competeing in the state meet and is in the top 20 best in the state in all strokes.
Another friend spends a lot of time fishing all summer, several weeks a go I called him and he said he was packing to go to Lake St. Clair ice fishing as the perch were bitting about any thing right then.
And still even when we have really cold winters,you don't hear on the news about the distruction cause by the cold. When we have record snow falls you do hear of an roof colapsing once in a while hardly any one dies as a result of the snow. Usally it is their bad driving in the snow that results in a death.
I can dress up to stay warm in the winter. I can NOT dress down enough in the summer heat and humidity. As far as friends and family, they are free to live where they disire. I will move where I am happy too and they can visit, phone or send E mails.
I could handle any weather a lot better if I lived in the north country. At least I could fish, hike in the woods, or take photos... even when the weather is crappy. Here in central lower, its way to boring...not many lakes, and no woods. Im working on getting north...slowly but surely.
Just a sidenote....my cousin who lives in Florida was complaining about the cold not too long ago. Now on Facebook she posts that it is too hot to go outside..lol
Last edited by michmoldman; 04-19-2011 at 01:59 PM..
My attitude is different than it was when I was in my 20s and 30s. I think that I could be happy, or at least content pretty much anywhere. I have a hard time thinking of a place that does not offer some benefit some positive to outweigh negative issues. Maybe Nebraska.. . . . . However Omaha has a really cool military airplane museum.
Some places would be harder for me than others. Ohio woudl be dififcult because of the lack of lakes, but there are some rivers. The desert states have their own beauty and awesomeness, it is not all sand and heat. Pretty much everywhere has redeeming qualities. I guess my answer is anywhere.
One regret of mine is that I do nto have enough time to live in all the awesome places that are available and see what it is like to live there. It woudl take hundreds of lifetimes just to cover the great places in Michigan. Every state has hundreds if not thousands of places that it would be really neat to live in. What woudl it be like ot raise your family in one of those tiny secluded towns in Illinois? How about on or near the slopes of Beaver Creek? In the highlands of Arizona? What about the peaceful beauty of Santa Fe? The craziness of Hollywierd, or Venice Beach? How would life be if I had just stayed in Ann Arbor, or if I had taken that great job ofer in Cleveland? There are so many places that I woudl love to learn what it is like to live there the list is endless. .
I think it's interesting to read of peoples experiences and thoughts on other places and Michigan. Not only here but talking with other people as well. I remember taking my son to the Milford indoor pool a couple years back. Not sure if it was Easter time or very early summer, but it was too cool outside to swim, had to be early summer. Anyway I recall speaking with an older gentleman who was there with his grand kids from Arizona. There were 3 of them that come up to Michigan for two months during the summer. He told me they LOVE coming here and never want to go back. So many things we take for granted or maybe don't even like these kids loved. The soft grass and the tree's were huge to them along with all the green. He said they even enjoy their visits during the winter for Xmas and love the snow. When I told him my son liked it there more than here he told me they complain there is nothing for them to do. Growing up in Michigan I guess that's one thing I tend to forget or overlook. We have lakes in our backyards, and one every other few miles in so much of the state. We played outside rain or shine unless there was lighting and rarely would we come in to the house even during the winter. I listen to my son who just turned 10 complain about how he no longer likes snow and I wonder if a warmer climate would suit him better. I feel selfish sometimes when I think to stay here because I want him to grow up like I did and hope the day comes when he realizes how much there really is to do here. I often feel guilty wondering if I failed him because his childhood is nowhere near as fun as mine was and kids these days are missing out on so much because of cable, pc's, XBox's and the fact we as parents are not home nearly as much as mine were growing up. I justify my choices because he is only 10 LOL and I can only hope one day he understands if we stay here and why we did.
I have mentioned before, we found it very amusing to discover that when we moved to Michgian from California, our kids play outside at least twice as much as they used to. We have some theories about why that is, but no real determination of the reason. It is not just their age, because we moved here with kids of many different ages (5, 10, 11, 14, and 14). All of them played outside more here than in the sunshine. A lot more.
And "man up" is exactly the response that I get when I try to explain to people how long, gray winters affect me. My family members, which are the main reason why I live here to begin with, don't get it at all. I was at my mom's house recently and I commented about how cold and rainy it was that day. My mom turned to me and halfway yelled, "Who CARES what the weather is like? It doesn't MATTER. I LOVE having four seasons." My sister, who is truly my best friend, has said to me, "I don't even notice what the weather is like. If you keep busy you won't notice it at all." It's not like all I do is complain about the weather, in fact, everyday I make a conscious effort to tell myself how blessed I am to have the things in my life that I have, and how there are people a lot worse off than me and that there are worse places to live, weather wise. However, even with all of that, it still. gets. me. down. I have a hard time accepting the fact that SAD is a very real phenomenon because everyone around me acts like I'm just being a big baby. It's painful when the people you love don't understand you. Fortunately, by the grace of God, my dh finally not only gets it but is feeling it too. He hates this weather as much as I do and finally wants to do something about it, namely moving somewhere with more sunshine, less snow, and warmer temperatures. However, the very people that discount what I'm experiencing are the people that I would miss tremendously if we do move. It's like being stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Anyway, Luzette and ironlady, I just wanted you to know that I can empathize with you.
Canudigit and Ironlady:
I'm really sorry to hear you've both got SAD and are having trouble with family members understanding. I think it's one of those things that's just very hard to comprehend if you don't have it yourself. One thing that always stands out to me is the argument that we are a four season state. Where I live it has been snowing since early this afternoon. I was in town getting groceries for Easter and bought my mom a pretty lilly. I had to make a mad dash to the car in an effort to keep it from being damaged by snow and cold. The sign at the bank said 36 degrees. What about any of this sounds like spring? It's spring in Michigan which to me is what I call Winter Part 2.
I can't argue with the fact that we don't have the horrendous tornadoes like they've just had down south. However, it's not without risk living in these winter months which I found out first hand this year. I took a fall on the ice and felt pain in my head when it happened. It scared me to the point I even mentioned it here on the forum. I didn't have any immediate symptoms afterwards and thought I was no worse for the wear, but I started having some scary symptoms a week later. I went to the doctor where I was told I suffered a mild concussion and to take it easy and avoid taking another fall. I'm fine now, but I happened to run into someone I know in passing. She mentioned that she had a friend actually die this winter from a fall he took on the ice. I guess this person fell in such a way that he sustained a direct hit on the back of the head. It happened in the morning then he was dead by the next day from massive brain bleeding. This would have been the same type injury that took Natasha Richardson back in '09 when she fell in the snow. When I was younger I used to snowmobile. I almost broke my wrist in one outing. In another incident I fell off the machine on a hill then looked up to see it had tipped over and was rolling down right behind me. I was lucky it didn't hit me, and that was all I ever cared to continue on with winter sports. I don't know why I'm rambling on about this other than the frustration in having it still be so cold when we're almost at the end of April. My plan is to try and find a way to live somewhere warmer during Jan through April then come back for the wonderful things Michigan has to offer the rest of the year.
winter here in Michigan is far from sun less from November to May. But I guess so many hide their heads under a blanket and never see that sun shine. So many complain about nothing to do in the winter many do the same stuff in winter they did in the summer although in a different way.
I for one will put up with the heat and humidty here in Michigan before I would move to the south, south west and lower mid west. Not one tornado hit Michigan this week end. NC had 19 and many other states had a bunch to, 47 winter hating souls are no longer with us as a result.
My friend in Canada said that the problem with seeing a doctor is because they have NATIONAL HEALTH CARE, you can get a appointment and see a doctor if you sneeze once in a days time so with so many taking advantage of the free health care it some times takes a while to get in so don't wait till knocking on deaths door before trying.
Saw a thing on Sweden on PBS. sounds like a very nice place to live too.
I moved to southern NM solely because of the climate. I wanted lots of sunshine and low humidity but not the heat of AZ. I get the added bonus of some mountains here and with very little snow. The main weather complaint here is the wind but I don't really think its much more windy here than in MI but it was always accompanied with rain/snow there.
If I moved again, I might consider northern NM or CO. There would be snow in these locations but not much compared to MI and sunshine would follow snowfalls rather than the MI perma-gloom. The low humidity there combined with the sunshine just doesn't make the temps seem as cold as in MI.
California probably has the best weather in the country but the high cost of living and the political atmosphere there made it a non-starter.
That's like me - I'm near Las Cruces - about the only place I could see going would be further north in NM, I used to think Colorado but the temperatures are too inconsistent there - cold one day, then hot, then cold again.
The problem is, you can get very used to having the sun shining almost every day, going back to where it's often overcast for day after day would not appeal to me at all.
I like being able to drive for a couple hours and having snow - or just knowing it's that close by in case I want to see it, but living in a very long winter region has no appeal to me. The very short days where it's dark when you get up and dark when you get out of work at 5pm have no appeal to me at all, but I do like how it's still light at 9:30 or 10:00 pm in summer in northern Michigan and the birds are out at 4:30 am - that I miss.
My kids go outside a lot here, and going outside even in winter just means putting on a hooded sweatshirt - no boots, no scarves, no mittens.
And "man up" is exactly the response that I get when I try to explain to people how long, gray winters affect me. My family members, which are the main reason why I live here to begin with, don't get it at all. I was at my mom's house recently and I commented about how cold and rainy it was that day. My mom turned to me and halfway yelled, "Who CARES what the weather is like? It doesn't MATTER. I LOVE having four seasons." My sister, who is truly my best friend, has said to me, "I don't even notice what the weather is like. If you keep busy you won't notice it at all." It's not like all I do is complain about the weather, in fact, everyday I make a conscious effort to tell myself how blessed I am to have the things in my life that I have, and how there are people a lot worse off than me and that there are worse places to live, weather wise. However, even with all of that, it still. gets. me. down. I have a hard time accepting the fact that SAD is a very real phenomenon because everyone around me acts like I'm just being a big baby. It's painful when the people you love don't understand you. Fortunately, by the grace of God, my dh finally not only gets it but is feeling it too. He hates this weather as much as I do and finally wants to do something about it, namely moving somewhere with more sunshine, less snow, and warmer temperatures. However, the very people that discount what I'm experiencing are the people that I would miss tremendously if we do move. It's like being stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Anyway, Luzette and ironlady, I just wanted you to know that I can empathize with you.
I think maybe I had something like that - seasonal affective disorder because the weather outside definitely affects my mood. I love a rainy gloomy day now because where I live, that's very rare, maybe one or two days out of the year. I definitely don't like day after day of gray skies.
It was traveling during winter or for spring break, returning to blizzards and realizing that everyone doesn't live with long winters and clouds, and that I'm more suited to a sunny warm climate. I chose one that still has a winter of sorts but a short sunny one. I really don't believe I could give up the sun.
A lot of other things go with it - never having to bundle up, never having to shovel snow, have my car covered with salt and having it eaten away, the dry heated air that's hard to breathe. And with horses it's so much easier not having to have them in a dark damp stall.
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Al
Fortunately, by the grace of God, my dh finally not only gets it but is feeling it too. He hates this weather as much as I do and finally wants to do something about it, namely moving somewhere with more sunshine, less snow, and warmer temperatures. However, the very people that discount what I'm experiencing are the people that I would miss tremendously if we do move. It's like being stuck between a rock and a hard place. 
