[eweissenbach]

I think a lot of it has to do with managing expectations. Your expectations often determine how you will feel about a given event. If you expect it to be warm and it is not, you feel cold, if you expect it to be cold, and it is not, you feel warm. Case in point, we moved to Fargo North Dakota, from Springfield, Missouri, after living all our lives in Missouri. The first week following our move in November, it snowed a few inches and someone on my staff remarked to me "you can say goodbye to the ground until April". I joked that I had moved there because I was banking on global warming. However, after hearing stories of incredibly vicious winters and blizzards that buried people alive, my expectation was that Fargo winters would be something just short of armageddon. The reality was that we had several thaws throughout that winter, and the five winters we spent there were mostly cold with a little more snow than we were used to, but nothing like we had been led to expect. The result was that we found the winters there relatively enjoyable. I think people who have lived in Florida for awhile have grown to expect warm weather, so that a mild cool spell is almost intolerable. We went to South Padre Island Texas a few winters ago and during the two weeks we were there it was unseasonably cool for that part of the country. Again, it was far warmer than it was back home, but our expectation was that it would be tropical, and we would relax on the beach every day, but not so - too chilly with a stiff wind, for much beach time. If I mention going to South Padre for a few days now, Lila will say "no, It is too cold there", as if that was the way it always would be ---- expectations!