I've lived in the Southeast (first Georgia, now North Carolina) for most of my life and yet I have never made peace with the heat. I hate summer. I'm in my 40s so I don't see that changing, so I guess I'll just be miserable instead.
It had to happen eventually. I finally disagree with you. I was born and raised in Atlanta. I’ve lived in a lot of different places in my life- multiple different states, plus Japan, Saudi Arabia and Prague. We’ve been back in Atlanta since late January 2018. I’ve been ready to leave since early May 2018. I hate this heat with the intensity of the burning sun that’s obviously trying to kill me. It increases the number, intensity, and duration of my chronic migraines. Shorts, tank tops, A/C, tower fans, neck fans, ice packs… These are the only things keeping me from knifing the next person that says “Hot enough for ya?” If it gets cold I can layer like a sonofabitch. But 97+ degrees feels like hell even if you’re bare assed nekkid. Calgary, take me away.
Moving to the tropics from Detroit in just over a month. I have a lot of anxiety about the heat (though substantially less anxiety about living in the US), which is not the same kind of heat you get but it's brutal in it's own ways. I'm just pushing that anxiety aside and figuring it'll work out but I really look forward to one day realizing I'm acclimated. Oh, I have lots of shorts and now a couple of goofy looking sun hats!
Moved to Charleston 18 months ago from Phoenix and I tell you that I don’t miss those 117 degree days of summer. We are blessed with an abundance of back yard shade so much so that finding plants can be a challenge but we now have lots of green and some showy flowers. Plus the ocean is 45 minutes away.
Sounds like heaven to me, weather a person can rely on. Here in western Europe, it's always unpredictable. Ranging from 10° C to 25° C and back again over a period of a few days. With the occasional extended period hitting 35° for a week or so. Makes planning any outdoor activity risky at best 🤷
Such a roller coaster ride of thinking I would never ever want to live in a place where shorts are necessary and then finding myself thinking it sounds nice. How dare you. Hating the heat is a core facet of my personality.
I expect the heat might explain the southern drawl as well. :) My first job was working in a peach packing shed in middle GA - heat, humidity, thundering loud metal conveyor belts and industrial fans, gnats and ladies on either side of me, grading peaches with both hands while chain-smoking Marlboros. Add to that the peach fuzz! The peach fuzz was caustic, like fiberglass. That job was an all out assault on the senses. I must have been made of sturdier stuff back then. Haha!!
For me, a Yankee in the suburbs of Houston (now nearly 11 years), I do my best to wear my jeans as long as I can, but somewhere around now, I start switching to shorts. And once I switch, that's it, there's no going back until maybe October, usually November. I find September and October the hardest months to deal with the heat (which isn't to say I find it difficult, I actually like it for the most part) because I grew up where September and October were cooler. Maybe you got to get your shorts out for a day or two, but certainly not every day. I feel somehow betrayed by the hot weather by October. Then, I pull my jeans out and get over it.
I'm not playing the "oh yeah?" game, but I'm in San Antonio and today we are hitting heat index of 105. And I sort of welcome it. Tonight, we will throw some beer in a bucket, drag said bucket out to the pool and pickle ourselves. Unless the MOSQUITOS devour us first. They're back, and they're pissed. Love your writing!
I've lived in the Southeast (first Georgia, now North Carolina) for most of my life and yet I have never made peace with the heat. I hate summer. I'm in my 40s so I don't see that changing, so I guess I'll just be miserable instead.
It had to happen eventually. I finally disagree with you. I was born and raised in Atlanta. I’ve lived in a lot of different places in my life- multiple different states, plus Japan, Saudi Arabia and Prague. We’ve been back in Atlanta since late January 2018. I’ve been ready to leave since early May 2018. I hate this heat with the intensity of the burning sun that’s obviously trying to kill me. It increases the number, intensity, and duration of my chronic migraines. Shorts, tank tops, A/C, tower fans, neck fans, ice packs… These are the only things keeping me from knifing the next person that says “Hot enough for ya?” If it gets cold I can layer like a sonofabitch. But 97+ degrees feels like hell even if you’re bare assed nekkid. Calgary, take me away.
Cosigned as a lifelong southerner.
Moving to the tropics from Detroit in just over a month. I have a lot of anxiety about the heat (though substantially less anxiety about living in the US), which is not the same kind of heat you get but it's brutal in it's own ways. I'm just pushing that anxiety aside and figuring it'll work out but I really look forward to one day realizing I'm acclimated. Oh, I have lots of shorts and now a couple of goofy looking sun hats!
Moved to Charleston 18 months ago from Phoenix and I tell you that I don’t miss those 117 degree days of summer. We are blessed with an abundance of back yard shade so much so that finding plants can be a challenge but we now have lots of green and some showy flowers. Plus the ocean is 45 minutes away.
Sounds like heaven to me, weather a person can rely on. Here in western Europe, it's always unpredictable. Ranging from 10° C to 25° C and back again over a period of a few days. With the occasional extended period hitting 35° for a week or so. Makes planning any outdoor activity risky at best 🤷
10,000% accurate
0% exaggeration
-A Savannah native
Such a roller coaster ride of thinking I would never ever want to live in a place where shorts are necessary and then finding myself thinking it sounds nice. How dare you. Hating the heat is a core facet of my personality.
As a New Yorker transplanted to Atlanta 46 years ago, I knew your title wasn't referencing anything but summer rudely pushing spring aside.
Your new shorts are great advertising for a lucrative future. I can even tell where to put the money.
I expect the heat might explain the southern drawl as well. :) My first job was working in a peach packing shed in middle GA - heat, humidity, thundering loud metal conveyor belts and industrial fans, gnats and ladies on either side of me, grading peaches with both hands while chain-smoking Marlboros. Add to that the peach fuzz! The peach fuzz was caustic, like fiberglass. That job was an all out assault on the senses. I must have been made of sturdier stuff back then. Haha!!
For me, a Yankee in the suburbs of Houston (now nearly 11 years), I do my best to wear my jeans as long as I can, but somewhere around now, I start switching to shorts. And once I switch, that's it, there's no going back until maybe October, usually November. I find September and October the hardest months to deal with the heat (which isn't to say I find it difficult, I actually like it for the most part) because I grew up where September and October were cooler. Maybe you got to get your shorts out for a day or two, but certainly not every day. I feel somehow betrayed by the hot weather by October. Then, I pull my jeans out and get over it.
I'm not playing the "oh yeah?" game, but I'm in San Antonio and today we are hitting heat index of 105. And I sort of welcome it. Tonight, we will throw some beer in a bucket, drag said bucket out to the pool and pickle ourselves. Unless the MOSQUITOS devour us first. They're back, and they're pissed. Love your writing!