So what’s the downside? Shocker, it gets hot in Florida.

Weather
 

I love the weather in FL and detest the cold and snow. I play golf 3 afternoons a week and drink alot of water. I have no problem with the heat. When I get home I jump in the pool and relax.
Mid September it starts cooling off. October is one of the most beautiful months in TV.
There is not anything to convince me to move move back sno,ice and extreme cold. I love living in sunny weather.

Yup that's what we're here for.

I thought most hired the snow guy for the drive. My heating bill dead of winter is never more than $125. Cars of choice, Jeep, Rover, never missed an appointment or day of work because of snow for 50 years, that includes all the 24 hour calls.

Some love to ski, snowboard, and just love the snow. Others not so much. We are able to keep homes in north and south, and in between. I love that first white snow, and if you own the right clothes cold is not a big deal.

It is when you get 4 feet at a time. Snow guy may as well move in for the winter and was of no use until the roads were cleared. Places are closed and streets and parking lots are blocked. Power is out and generators are running. Our heating bills were several hundred dollars a month. We not only had to clear the driveway but the roof as well so that it would not collapse. I never want to see it again.

Catwoman, I've never seen a cat that likes snow.

I'd like to know what kind of heat you have. Ours is always much higher than that even if we are using firewood to supplement.

Our last year in Jorsey was approximately $4200 in heating oil and the electric budget was $325 a month.

Couldn't get a person to shovel even if you stood on your head and spit Chicklets, at any price. A girl who lived across the street had m mercy on us and saved us many times.

I always dreamed of the calls to Jorsey to bust on them after the snow. I couldn't do it when the snow arrived. It would have been Cruelty!

I agree.

Growing up and spending my whole career outside of Rochester NY, I personally do not miss snow. Folks who have not lived there think snow is like a Hallmark card, pretty snowflakes lazily drifting down to earth, so magical.

Yes, it can be. However, most of the time it accumulates, turns dirty, icy and gray. Gray everywhere. For weeks. No sun. Every car coated with salt so bad that if you get real quiet, you can HEAR your car rusting.

Old people having to decide if they will "Heat or Eat".

Walk across the carpeted living room and kiss your wife, you get such a big shock your lips blow off. This is from the air being so dry folks get nosebleeds. And you go through a box of kleenex every few days by the constant sickness.

Starting your car 30 minutes before you leave just so you can see through a 6' circle on your windshield to drive. Getting up an hour earlier than you have to just to shovel or snowblow the driveway, praying you can leave before the snowplow buries you again. Brushing off your car and scraping ice off the windshield.

Wrecking tires, hubs etc, from all the hidden potholes. Getting your studded snow tires on and off. Having your door locks freeze.

Going outside when it was so cold it hurt even to breathe.

Pushing shopping carts through ruts, potholes, etc.

Ice damming causing roof leaks, etc.

Keeping the hydrant in front of your house shoveled out, so if your house had a fire the fire department could FIND your hydrant.

Having an icestorm knock your power out so your basement floods from your dead sump pump, your pipes freeze because of no heat, and you need emergency shelter.

So...yes, I do miss the snow every so often, but not that much. I do miss that it can look pretty sometimes, and I miss cutting my own Christmas tree and dragging it through the snow. Some folks love snowmobiling, skiing, etc, etc. Some love the change of seasons....I miss the fall...the color of the leaves, the smell of them, the crisp apples, etc.

Florida is not for everyone, but I now like living here more than I miss some of the great things about the north.

Up north, it was cold all day, all night for months with NO break. At least here, with A/C in our houses, our cars and our stores, etc, , the summer months are bearable. Everyplace has it's good and bad points, and no place is perfect for everyone.

I like up north, and I love it here. Great we live in such a great country that we can even make that choice freely.

Frank

Add to that the snot inside your nose freezing your nose together, wind burn on your face and eyes running in the bitter cold wind. How about driving your car back into the garage with its load of dirty frozen slush around the wheels, then having that melt and make a huge mess in the garage, and you can't hose out the garage because everything will freeze.

Getting into a freezing cold car that you haven't been able to pre-heat because it was in a parking lot while you were shopping.

Walking the dog and having to stop every 50 feet to clean the snow out from between his toes.

Cabin fever. Lack of sunshine. Falling on ice while trying to get the mail at the end of the driveway.

Being cold to the bone.

Why not instead go off on a winter vacation for the month of February somewhere in the tundra and see how you like it before committing to buying.

And snow and cold in Michigan can start end of September and last until beginning of May.


At least in Florida you have sunshine when you walk outside. It was the dreary gray days that got to me in Michigan. Endless. It has been proven to affect people's moods.

Hi efficiency Trane duel stage room control. Have gas fireplace but rarely use it. We downsized after kids went to college, and now have a tiny home only 2400sf with a 1800sf basement.

Winters are not what they used to be. Our oldest lived in Alaska for 7 years, and now in St Paul. He laughs when people complain about the snow in StPaul.

For us Depending on depth of snow what car comes out of the garage. Cars now with remote systems can be started from anywhere. When you are on call snow can not be a factor.

Of course we have choices on what weather we enjoy some don’t. We love the winter as well as summers up north to enjoy the lake without a gator. I get it as you get older you don’t want to deal with cold or snow. Not sure I will every get to the stage of only enjoying two seasons.

This would be my ideal winter: Sunny and warm until midnight on Dec. 25. Then an inch of snow and temps in the mid-30's for 24 hours on Dec. 25. Then the snow magically melts on Dec. 26, and temps. return to 70 degrees with daily sunshine for the rest of the winter.

I am approaching my 58th winter season in the Midwest snow zone :( If I never see another snow pile or ice on the sidewalk I would be very happy. Snow was fun to play in as a kid, but those days are long past. What I dread is having to allow an extra 60 to 90 minutes to drive to work or get home from work because of snow. Can you tell by now I don't like snow?

Thank the stars my 88 year old father finally decided to hire someone to plow the snow off of his sidewalks and driveway a few years ago. The last thing we need is him falling and breaking a hip while trying to save money plowing the sidewalk or driveway himself. The worst part of winter for him is not leaving the house for 3 or 4 days at a time because of snow and ice -- very isolating for him. Hibernating in the house from December through March is not how I want to spend my golden years. But to each his or her own.

Thanks for responding. Maybe having to hold onto 2 places for awhile will be a blessing and not the curse I feel it is. At least we're still young enough to manage it.

Actually we have more than two homes. We have great people who watch our homes, and take care of things for us. It’s nice to not have to pack a bag every time we travel. In the next 5 years or so we will probably pair down to two

Thanks for the encouragement. Nice to hear some positives to it. I think the key is as you say having people to look after things for you. We have great friends and neighbors here so I don't think that will be a problem.

Keeping things on topic here, at least it will give us time to see if we miss snow.......or not. :laugh:

What’s nice about two homes is when the snow gets to much, ya just get on a plane. You will adjust well.

Frank, great post .. I forgot about the joy of the snowplow undoing 45 minutes of hard workclearing the driveway and depositing another round of snow and ice chunks to clear .. and of course waving thanks to him in NY style

As long as the airports are not shut down due to weather...

Thank you for your detailed post most of which I have edited out, Frank. It brought back memories.

I took a job with Eastman Kodak in 1970, lived in Pittsford, worked up by the lake. I remember the winter commutes. It felt like I was taking my life in my hands at times as the windblown snow coming down was so visually obstructive I could not see 10 feet in front of my car. My boss had lived in the area all his life. I could not believe how fast he drove on an all white interstate until he told me it was salt, not snow and ice. He had his cars Ziebarted but my cherry 1967 SS Camaro convertible with the 375HP 396 soon started to rust. It made me sick to my stomach to see it happen.

The first winter we had 144 inches of snow, double the average year. The sun shone through the heavy cloud cover only a few minutes per week all winter long. I drove to work in the dark and drove home in the dark most of the long winter.

After I realized what it was like living there I found another job in a tolerable climate with lots of sunshine between winter storms in Los Alamos, NM. It was colder there than in Rochester at times because of the elevation but it was a dry cold, not a damp cold. There is a difference!

As for my time in Rochester I tell people it was the longest 20 years I ever spent in 30 months.

That happened to me a few years back. Thankfully I was "stuck" in Florida instead of up north. Didn't mind that one bit! :)

Guess it depends on whether it's the first or last day when it's icky!

Why is snow bad? Because it has to be cold first. Freezing cold.

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best answer so far

Amen to that!

I forgot to add....try driving in Winter sometime. You think it's bad here? Folks drive crazy then spin out on the ice. Ice-covered roads are THE worst. Sometimes we not only had snow BUT freezing sleet (rain) that stuck to everything. At times the power would go out. One year that I remember---all the southern third of the state of Wisconsin had NO power for days. Try that in frigid winter. Oh the snow is pretty and I used to like to watch it fall (from inside where it was warm). I used to love to snow-mobile and to down-hill ski---but I was young then too. Also to ice skate and slide down hills---even more young then. BUT to bundle up to just go out for the mail, to have those sets of clothing plus boots (which track in all the ice and crud). Do NOT miss any of it anymore. Year around shorts and sandals are the way to go these days.

Yup...I do not want to get off topic, but there are good and bad things about everyplace, including here. I miss the fall, the apples, the GREAT pizza places you cannot find anywhere here, Beef on Wicks, Garbage plates, etc, etc.

Getting back to snow, I do not miss kicking hundreds of pounds of ice and snow off my car, the crazy ways people park in parking lots when no lines are found, bundling up like an eskimo, sitting down before you open that RG&E monthly bill, chopping ice off the roof, walking under massive icicles praying one does not fall and impale me, Having someone who does not know how to drive in snow rear end me, even when I know how to drive in the snow, watching out for "Bridge freezes when wet" signs, etc, etc.

Frank

I LOVED the summers. We used to water ski on Lake Canandaigua after work as the daylight lasted so long. I enjoyed fishing on the St. Laurence River up in the Thousand Islands, crisp air and the color of the leaves in autumn.

What I observed and could not comprehend when I first arrived in June was seeing people up there during summer cramming in back to back activities (and summer seemed very short as it actually snowed lightly in early June one year) as they of course knew a long winter was coming. I laid back and didn't understand why until my first winter. Growing up and through college I had mostly lived in Albuquerque, NM and spent time in LA and San Diego. I moved up to Rochester after spending six years in the D.C. area which I enjoyed; it had some winter but not enough to trouble me back then. Boy did I find out about living through a long cold snowy winter!

OMG, I totally agree. However, I simply loved watching when it was snowing; it was exceptionally therapeutic. It was beautiful. When Robert and I lived in Provincetown (not Providence) we had windows on three sides and expansive forest views. I LOVED watching the snow while making gallons of (I froze it) a long cooked something, such as chicken stock, pasta sauce or even a time consuming supper.

The reasons we moved are:
Ptown population dropped to about 1,500 during winter (from up to 60,000 on Fourth of July).
25 out of 160 restaurants are open in winter—five are REALLY good.
In winter of 2015 we had so much snow (loved it). Temperatures went to 20s, a stayed there for a month. Couldn’t use the front door entrance until May.
In March 2015 I broke my ankle checking for frozen pipes for a neighbor. Robert hurt his back trying to push the truck (!) out, with me, so we could drive. Last straw. Hello, Villages!

I do miss it. A moderately heavy snow storm is a beautiful thing.

Up until the part where you hurt yourself, you were causing me to recall with pleasure the blizzards at Lake Michigan that snowed us in, the bread-baking-stew-making marathons, and watching football in front of the fireplace. Bundling up and walking on the beach, breathing through my scarf till it froze.

But those were some days here and there, usually in the beginning of winter. Overall, unfortunately, the bad outweighed the good parts for us.

So far snow was never a delay for us, the hurricane delayed us by 2 days, but that was going into Orlando.

The only other airline delay we had was 2 day delay after 911, but everyone one was a no fly, so I try not to dwell on that airport closure

You might like snow when after a winter with 199 inches of the stuff, you are praying for one more snow storm in June just so you can break a record. Could this happen?


For those who want to experience a winter, try it for a month just like you would want to try any other place. Then if you still like it, try it for another month. And if you start praying for more, you might want to move further north. If you find yourself going south for the winter, you might not like the snow, but rather the place in summer.

I still vividly remember my first visit to Florida. It was probably in the late 70's, in February, and I was visiting my snowbird parents who lived in St. Cloud. I left the Syracuse airport in a driving snowstorm after waiting out a several hour delay, landing in Orlando. I was a smoker then, and decided to walk outside for a smoke before arranging for my rental car. I can still feel that beautiful, bright Florida sun on my face, palm trees everywhere, and the soul warming 78 degree temperature. My thoughts then were, "Why in the heck do I live where there is snow and ice?"

:bigbow::bigbow:

If you've never lived through a winter I suggest you do it! After one winter you will really appreciate the warmth and sun of The Villages.
A snowfall is very pretty. You can sit by a fire and look out at the snow. OK... now that it has stopped snowing, what are you going to do? Cross country ski? Downhill ski? Go to the gym? (you can do that here and the pool here is outdoors in the sun). You can't play golf, bocce, tennis, pickleball, shuffleboard, etc. because there is snow on the ground (unless you do it indoors). Just remember when you do anything outdoors you have to bundle up. It can get cold. Really cold. I can remember going out to walk the dog in below 0 weather. I had on snow pants, ski jacket, ski mittens, boots, a scarf, a hat that covers my ears and a face mask (yes... because it's really cold and you don't want frostbite). It was windy... I didn't make it 10 minutes and it was so cold I had to come back inside. My eyes watered from the cold so I had "ice" on my eyelashes.
There is so much more... black ice, ruining my shoes because of the white line from road salt, having nothing to do...
I lived in a 4 season climate my entire life. Snow is pretty - I don't miss it. Autumn leaves are pretty - don't miss it a bit.
On Facebook, I see all the people from my hometown in March and April complain about winter and wonder when spring will come. There's a reason for that...

I think you should go North for a month in the height of snow season. A fresh snow is absolutely beautiful. Do those things you mentioned. You will have fun. Depending on where one lived up North the Snow is not the real problem. Its the lack of sun and the bleak grayish environment. NO green to be found just a brown and gray all around. Look at this for about 5 months and it will just depress the H out of you. I lived near the Great Lakes and the Lake effect was depressing. Gray sky, no sun for months at a time. As you get older the cold weather takes more energy to cope. The lack of moisture in the air dries out the skin. However when spring arrives its amazing to see life come back from the long sleep.

My reason to move was because Indiana has a lot, I mean a lot of gray days where you may not see the sun for weeks on end...........depressing

After 63 years living thru upper midwest winters I've had enough. Think about not seeing sunshine for weeks at a time. This is most depressing. Minus 15 degrees Fahrenheit quickly freezes your extremities and frostbite happens real quick to any exposed skin. Cars are difficult to start, if they start, and take a long time to warm up. Snow shoveling gets old real quick and lots of seniors die from heart attacks while shoveling snow. Driving on ice covered roads is scary and dangerous. God forbid sliding off an icy road an getting stranded in the middle of the night. When it gets really cold the water pipes in your home can freeze up and break. Ever hear of cabin fever? It is real. Our main exercise comes from our daily walks of 3.5 miles. Too cold in the winter to do that so we have to use a treadmill which I really dislike to walk on.

Oh, did I mention that I fell on the ice last winter and spent five days in the hospital?
I will gladly trade Florida winters for upper midwest winters every year.

Blizzard of 1978! I didn't get home for week and didn't get my car back for another week! Very long story, but it was an adventure.