Quote:
Originally Posted by Doug
Yeah maybe but once one experiences a mild climate it is difficult to imagine living somewhere cold. I've lived 7 years total in Australia and still find the weather novel. I surf or kayak almost everyday, cycle year round, sleep on the deck about half the time, rarely close the windows and seriously got into gardening because anything will grow. We grow almost all of our fruits and vegetables.
|
A Doug sighting! A rare event. Don't you have to worry about snakes and crocodiles when sleeping outside in Australia?
I lived in Taiwan for six years and got used to never closing the balcony door in our fourth-floor apartment for ten months of the year. I remember thinking, hey, this is cool, but that was the extent of my ruminations on the vagaries of different climates. Probably because I was younger and people didn't complain about the weather on the internet so much back in the 1990s.
I only recall one fleeting climate-related pang of remorse while there, and it was in my first year. It was October, and it was still tropically hot. As I was sitting in a dumpling place (
this one, as it happens) the coolness of the air conditioning mimicked so strongly the cool dampness of autumn in the Great Lakes that it triggered a powerful sensory memory in me, and for a moment I imagined it really was fall outside. But it was a trick, and I immediately felt disappointed.
Now I'm older, and I know I gripe way too much in this thread. I guess I resent the fact that this is such a good country in so many respects, yet we don't have a single solitary appealing climate anywhere. It's just a shit show from coast to coast, and that's a bit depressing, to be honest. Americans on the cycling forums I frequent talk about trips to California or Georgia for training in the winter, going down south for some warm cycling trips, etc.
And the Canadians? They say the same thing. We just don't have anywhere to run to in this country. We run to the same places the Americans do.
At least now we're in the good part of the year here, so the foliage is back. There's a palpable excitement in the garden centres as people mull around the various flowers and plants they want to put in their gardens. We've already planted two trees for the reconfiguration of our front garden. Spring brings renewal, and spirits are uplifted because of it. I think I would miss that if I went back to somewhere that isn't so changeable throughout the year.
No pain no gain.