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Some people say that the Green Bay area of Wisconsin is mostly Tundra. Let me tell you...it's just like living in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, or Kansas, just about ten degrees (or more) colder year round. That means we have FANTASTIC summers. The sun's out from about five in the morning until after nine at night, with major sunshine. Everyone, and I mean everyone plants beautiful flowers as many places as they can find. The place comes to life, with temperatures rarely hitting into the nineties. Then comes winter. Oh boy...when they mean cold, they mean cold. Last year, when we hit a windchill near -35, they finally closed the schools (they only close about once a school year, and it's usually not for snow but for cold). That meant I had to deal with the kids all day long, inside the house. It was too cold to play outside, so we went to the local grocery store...to buy ice cream. The clerk thought we were nuts, but I explained that we were buying the ice cream to warm up. We laughed the whole way home! Winter starts later here than you'd think it would, depending on the year. It's colder in November and December, but we get most of our major snowstorms in January, February and March. I can handle the cold. We don't get ice like they did in North Carolina, so as much as I hate driving in snow, it's easier than on ice. It's the dark days of winter through early spring that are the toughest to get through. We go days and even weeks without any sunshine, not because we're too far north, like in Alaska, but because we have a lot of overcast days. When we first moved here, I couldn't figure out why I was so depressed. My oldest sister was dying (she died in April, but found out she was terminal on her birthday the previous February), my leg hurt, I had no friends yet because we weren't related to anyone here, and my car wouldn't stop...it slid through most stop signs because the idle was set too high to make the old thing work. I mentioned the sadness to others, but no one understood. Then I talked to my mom. We'd lived in Erie county, PA, when I was young. They got snow year round, because of lake-effects, and it even flurried once on the fourth of July...no kidding. She said it was the lack of sunshine that was making me sad, along with my sister's cancer. Once I realized that, I understood what some people told my husband before we moved here. They said 'find a winter hobby, because you won't make it through the winters, mentally, if you don't.' It now made sense! I needed something else to focus on besides the darkness. So now, I keep myself busy. I write most of the time, spend times dealing with our crew of pets (most of which were bought to get us through the winters), and have a ton of email friends. I don't ski, I don't like snow, and I don't intend to become a snow bunny any time soon. I wear short sleeves all winter long, and when I go out, I throw on a parka to keep warm. Those short sleeves give me the illusion that it's still summer time. Also, I've taught myself that if I make it through Christmas, then winter's over in my mind. The rest of the snow (which is ALL of it), are just fore-runners to spring and rogue snowstorms. Yes, it sounds crazy...but spend a winter or two up north and it'll make sense. |
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