A Floridian’s Winter perspective

Cool Title, Huh?

Well, I thought so. A long time ago, in a land far, far, away, one of my English Teachers told me that if I wanted someone to read my writings, I had to grab their attention with the title, pull them into my story with the first sentence or paragraph and then the story itself should keep them “enthralled”.

So, here I go.

It’s only January the 8th, but today is the coldest weather we have had down here in SouthWest Florida this winter, so I feel this situation itself deserves some kind of comment.

Oh, I know, before you start to curl your lips and sneer at my low temperature of 38 degrees last night, I know that pretty much everyone in the US had much lower temperatures than what we are experiencing at the moment.

My family, in Lynchburg Virginia, which is only halfway up the east coast from me, are slammed by the same storm that we are experiencing the lower edge of, and they long ago became tired of my Floridian comments on how nice our weather happens to be, pretty much year-round.

With that in mind, I will mention that my wonderful, tropical domicile became quite uncomfortable yesterday afternoon and i eventually had to do something I rarely do; I turned on my furnace. It’s a new HeatPump unit I had to replace only two years ago, and it cools the house quite well. So, I was happy with it just for that.

But, we people down here in Florida, don’t use our furnace very often, as I mentioned, and when mine did came, it was only in the low fifties, so the unit went into the “heat pump mode” at first. I smiled because this mode is much cheaper than when those electrical heating elements come on at temperatures lower than 40 degrees, when the heat pump is no longer efficient.

We were quite comfortable all night though, with just the Heat Pump keeping us warm. In fact, it was as if we were sleeping with the AC set to a much lower temperature than normal. But, just as we were getting up this morning, I smelled it.

It is an obvious thing to a homeowner, when the electrical heating elements of a furnace are first used for the season. All of the dust that collects on the elements, during the Summer, becomes heated and puts out a distinct odor for the first few minutes of use.

I tell my wife its the smell of the Power company’s increase in profits for the winter. It stinks but you have to live with it, anyway. So, I just wanted to let everyone know, I did have to use my furnace this Winter.

Anyway, I feel I’ve started rambling, so back to the point here.

I’m just being fair and letting you know, as you slog through your snow and ice and cold blowing winds, please realize we Floridians do have our own form of Winter. And, yes, it is colder than out Summers. But, our Winters are, on average much milder than our northern relatives and friends experience.

So, for your enjoyment, I need to let you know that I rooted around in my closet and found an old pair of sweatpants along with a long-sleeved T-Shirt to wear today. I even have on socks because If I go outside it definitely will not be in Flip-Flops, in such frigid weather today.

As my final acceptance of this cold weather, and while we were drinking our morning coffee, we received a text call from the organizer of our regular Sunday morning Golf league, and the message was; “Sorry folks, it’s far too cold and the wind is horrible, so we are canceling the golf game for today”.

With that message, and what I’ve already described to you. I’m letting you know that we Floridians have accepted this uncomfortable weather and you should understand that we have a “Winter”, just like you Northern folks do.

Oh, on a good note, according to the weather people, things will warm up by tomorrow, so our suffering will be brief. Thank Goodness; then its back to; shorts, t-shirts, and flip-flops.

Have a good day.

by Don Bobbitt, January, 2017