Yearning for the Villages
 

Well, Old Man Winter has arrived at our house up north. Although it is beautiful, winter is also why we became snow flakes (not birds). Wishing tomorrow morning we could wake up at our home in the Villages and jump in the golf cart for 18 holes and them some dinner and dancing at one of the town squares. I guess instead I will have to get up and fire up the wood stove and then go out and fire up the tractor and plow the white stuff. Getting kind of old for this! Cant wait until the holidays are over and we can head south.

Your home is lovely! Looks like a winter wonderland.

You are not alone in your wishes. It's 32 degrees here with 4 inches of snow so far.

As a Mainiac who left after the Blizzard of 1978, I feel your pain. The picture is beautiful - but why continue to put yourself through the pain? Sell your snowblower and get out of Dodge.




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Home for the holidays. Woke up to 4 inches. Love the white bright sparkle of snow in the sun. The snow brings out everyone to shovel, help each other, have conversations about the holidays. Makes the holiday displays and lights complete.

Beautiful home Tophcfa! consider yourself lucky too! You will be in TV in the blink of an eye. I have this and one more Michigan winter to go through before I will be there permanently. We are not getting a lot of snow in this part of lower MI but the recent change from the 50's to this blast of cold has me longing for TV too. I can take the snow (at least through the holidays LOL) but the bitter cold is not my cup of tea anymore.

I miss the snow but only the week between Christmas and New Years. We had a mile long driveway and some years plowing was a real chore. The snow was less appealing then and when spring or black fly season arrived, it was mud.

I have not felt really cold weather since leaving Itasca, IL in 1994. Do not miss it but that is quite a beautiful looking home tophcfa. Also spent time in Denver, Minneapolis and near Milwaukee. Native cheesehead here.

I feel your pain. This is the backyard scene we woke up to this morning. One more coffee before I start snow blowing my 125 foot driveway. The good news is that three weeks from today we will be in the sunshine state.

Low temperatures in the 30s last night. Only thing missing was the snow. Stay where you are, clean the driveway, start a fire in the fireplace, make something warm to drink sit back and watch the football games.

It was 20 degrees here this morning. You pretty much described my day except I will also take a trip to the YMCA to swim my daily mile. Wish I was going to a heated outdoor sport pool in my golf cart. Oh well, soon enough.

I remember the white stuff. I had the only snow blower on the cul de sac, and I typically did 5 driveways. Ours was 20ft wide and 30 ft long, and always had 2 cars that had to be moved to completely clean the drive. 2 neighbors had the same size, but not the extra cars, and 2 had single wide drives. Good memories, but glad I am not doing it now. Even with a larger Sears snow blower, this was a 2 to 3 hour process. During snowmegeden (Oct 31), I actually had to go out 3 times the one day just to keep up with the snowfall.
OP, looks like you have a great house, hang in there for a couple of weeks, then welcome back to TV!

We lived in Winthrop, Mass. during the '78. Since Winthrop is accessible only by two small bridges, the whole town was shut down for a week. You could pick up fish on the streets! And we walked through the Sumner tunnel to see movies in Boston!

We moved here because I broke my ankle checking a neighbor's house in Provincetown.

When it was snowing, I usually made soup.

Oh boy, I'm from Boston and lived through the blizzard of 78. All the snow was the very heavy wet stuff. Plows couldn't plow. In my eyes, 78 was the king of all blizzards to hit Boston..

Keep your eye on the prize...........


christmas trees at the villages, florida. - Bing images

Yes, remember it well. Our suburban town (20 mns from Boston) was literally shut down. I had a friend working at the Sheraton on 93 in Andover who could not get home for a week. The kids had a great time!

tophcfa I feel your pain. You reminded me of the daily ache we had and the new question every day I put those who lived here before us through. All that thinking, planning, longing makes it all the more sweeter once :pray: you get here and get settled in. I'm a Poolaholic and trust me unless you are a Polar Bear there will be no pool in The Villages today. We can't wait to have you here full time, be careful in that terrible snow.

Snow is a bad four letter word in my book. So is cold.

When we sold our place on Maui and moved here, it was because I was NOT going to go through another Michigan winter after being in warmth and sunshine for 17 years. I remember the Great Snow of January 1967 (26 inches), the April Surprise on April Fools Day ( 11 1/2 inches), the Blizzard of '78 ( 24 inches) and just the general little Alberta Poopers that would drop a couple inches of partly cloudy and then move on. By the end of a week of that you'd have a foot of snow piled up on the sides of your driveway. As a Chicago ex pat and now Las Vegas resident friend said to me "A dog shouldn't live in that weather".

Currently, where I am now it is a little too warm for my taste, 80 degrees, due to a Santa Ana condition; fortunately the fires are not affecting me.

Back in the early '70's I moved to Rochester, NY from the D.C. area. I did not even know what a snow blower was or looked like. Was I in for a surprise! Rochester received 144" of snow rather than the usual 72". Although the short summers were incredibly beautiful and enjoyable and I loved the finger lakes I tell people "It was the longest twenty years I ever spent in thirty months!" - the length of my stay.

Add to this sittings by the fireplace, doing genealogy on computer, playing games, reading, sewing, knitting, trying out new recipes, taking a class in CPR, catching up on necessary medical procedures, etc. There is so much to do during the winter when you don't want to go outside. We are not outdoor people anyway.

During that 1978 blizzard, the town grocery store hired a sleigh and a couple of horses to deliver groceries to homes. (Manchester-by-the-Sea, MA).

manaboutown, I know its off the subject but could you post that black & white Del Webb story about the beginning of the whole planned 55+ Retirement Community? It would be best under the thread that is running currently called RETIREMENT. I remember it was in two parts and it told a beautiful story and I think it may help some people struggling with the thought of retiring. It was excellent and I'm certain you did it about 2 years ago. :pray: Thany You Sir.:eclipsee_gold_cup:

Back on the subject, just came in from helping to put up the Christmas Lights and am more thrilled than ever that we are here and not in the Northeast. The family is a little hurt that we didn't plan to go back in the cold for the holidays so we invited them here and got several takers at this point. They just have to get ready for the new normal. We're here for the winter, visiting in summer time up north.

Don't miss it...
Kobelco SK235SR Excavator to pile snow In Sault Ste. Marie Michigan - YouTube

Done! Those old videos nailed it. I hope it helps the OP.

I like this thought, Nucky. Wishing you and yours a wonderful Christmas.