It snowed last night and this morning there is enough snow on the ground that Little Sis wants to make a snowman. As she starts to gather her winter clothing she realizes one snafu…no winter boots. We gave those away last Spring because she had grown out of them. So now we have to buy her some new winter boots. I have bought her a pair of boots that she can wear to school on snowy days; but those are not designed for playing in the snow. I also bought her a new coat this year—because she’s growing out of her old one—and some new gloves. Luckily she can still manage to wear her snow pants this year.
When we lived in Arizona we didn’t worry about any of this. Sure the children had “jackets,” but jackets are much different than coats, and much less expensive. I didn’t have to buy them boots, gloves, hats or scarves. And when children are small it’s very expensive, because every year they grow significantly. Then there’s the warm clothes to wear at school in a cold climate. The kids in AZ easily wear shorts and short-sleeved shirts throughout the year. They’ll wear long pants for a few months, usually about December through February, but then it’s back to shorts. Our school shopping consisted of buying the summer sale items when visiting up north every summer. We never participated in “Back to School” shopping. Why?
The above pictures show the few days after we moved in to our new home in February 2003. I think we had bought Sis’s coat when we came up north for Christmas the year before. Notice that Junior and Bud are wearing their jackets and all the kids are wearing their hiking boots. We bought the snow shovels right when we moved in. Below: this is what we had just come from in February 2003.
Above: Little Sis’s outfit will eventually have to be replaced 100%. Some of the items once a year.
Then there’s the heating bill. Sure, the air conditioner was on pretty much 24/7 through the hot months in AZ, but it’s no different here. I go from having the heater on to having the air conditioner on in one day. For a month or so I go back and forth between the two on an almost daily basis. In AZ, once it turns cooler, the air—hot or cold—is off for good. I hardly ever turned on the heat. On January nights we opened the windows.
Snowblowers, snow shovels, snow tires, SUV’s so you can get up your hill in the winter—oh, and if you ski or snowboard, “Ouch” is all I can say—two lawnmowers, major Spring cleanup in the yard every year, annual replacement of plants thanks to deer, annual golf passes that can only be used for six months versus 12 months, cars that get dirty the day after washing them, house windows that get dirty the day after washing them… After living in both climates the results are in: warm weather climates are the way to go.
