Snow Bird Wannabe

After waking up Saturday morning, I looked outside to see the world encased in a quarter inch of ice. Yuck! Cold temperatures are a fact of life in January. Snow is (gulp!) tolerable as long as it's not 6 inches or more. Ice is a different matter completely. There's no shoveling ice off the driveway. Getting ice off the car is a pain! Driving in ice is out of the question. Thankfully the ice came late Friday night and did not affect my commute. Power outages and downed trees were minimal (and nothing affected my immediate area). All in all we dodged an ice bullet.

This only furthers my extreme desire to escape winter when I retire. I know, I know... retirement is a lifetime away, but I can't help but dream when the winter turns ugly. I don't have to spend my winter in a tropical paradise. I wouldn't be able to afford that anyway. I'm simply talking about someplace where the weather is relatively warm and there's no ice and snow. I'm not sure when I developed such disdain for winter. I'm guessing it's when I stopped sledding and having snowball fights and started driving in it and shoveling my driveway. As I get older I get chilled to the bone easier too. What used to be winter fun is now pure dread of getting out in the cold.

My mom(Edra) and Cliff spend their winters in Bradenton, Florida. These two snow birds usually head down just after the new year and return in early to mid April. They're still home for Christmas and get back home in time for the Reds Opening Day.

They're not gone too long, but long enough :-) They're on the the Gulf Coast and have a BLAST. Cliff golfs, bowls and hangs out with his buddies. Mom does line dancing, Wii bowling, mixed couples bowling and hangs out with her friends. Not a bad way for a couple of retirees to spend the dark, drudgery filled months of winter. I know they miss their grandchildren, but it makes for a happy reunion in April and the kids are no worse for the wear anyway.

I won't say I'm jealous, but I do dream about the day I can fly south for the winter and come back just in time for baseball season. Now THAT sounds like paradise!