Cold Turkey
by Scott Hardie on November 29, 2009
Last night, we visited friends to celebrate "orphans Thanksgiving," for those of us who don't travel north to see our families. My family lives right here in Sarasota and we already had a nice holiday dinner on the beach (mmm grouper), but I wasn't about to miss a gathering with friends. The food was good and the company was great, but what I didn't expect was the cold, or I'd have put on more than a t-shirt and light slacks. Our friends live in too small of a house to host a dinner for 15+ people, so we sat on the back porch for hours and ate there. I shivered and tucked my hands under my armpits for warmth. (After eating! Sheesh.)
Here's the part where northerners make fun of Floridians for complaining about any kind of cold. "I ride my motorcycle when it's below freezing, without any face protection!" Sorry, but when you boast that to a Floridian, the Floridian doesn't feel like the dumb one in the conversation. Every northerner who moves here used to make fun of Floridians too, until they got acclimated to the warm climate. After that, a cool breeze feels like ice on your skin. Cold is relative. When Chicagoans complain about a wind chill below 0 degrees, somewhere an Eskimo thinks they're being a bunch of wimps.
Maybe this is just psyching myself up for a trip up north. Kelly and I are trying to get some time off so we can visit her family for Christmas. I want to see old friends and family too, but forgive me for preferring to visit in the summertime instead. I spent twenty bitter, frozen winters in Illinois, and they're the main reason why I left. If we have the chance, I'd like to pay a visit to certain Illinoisans reading this, but can we eat indoors please?
Four Replies to Cold Turkey
Steve West | November 29, 2009
Oh, yes. Retiring where it's warm. I don't even know exactly why I'm waiting for that. I shiver when I open the stinkin' refrigerator.
Lori Lancaster | November 30, 2009
[hidden by author request]
Amy Austin | December 2, 2009
This is one Floridian who will never make fun of anyone for being cold. Even after returning from Rhode Island's nine-month-long chills, I, too, get "cold" as soon as it drops below 60. It was a welcome temperature up there, yes... but this isn't Rhode Island, and this house wasn't built like it's RI, either! ;-p
Logical Operator
The creator of Funeratic, Scott Hardie, blogs about running this site, losing weight, and other passions including his wife Kelly, his friends, movies, gaming, and Florida. Read more »
#FFFFFF
I love how MSNBC.com's new slogan is "A Fuller Spectrum of News," complete with online ads featuring brilliant rainbows, and yet their entire site design is plain white except for one strip of blue across the top. (link) If I didn't give up reading it years ago because the entertainment section is spoiler city, I'd give it up today because I can't stand to look at it. Go »Downtown Disney
My mom's birthday present to me was a mini-vacation in Orlando, since we're too broke to take a real vacation. We weighed the options for a few days, theme parks vs small local attractions, and settled on something we had wanted to do for years, DisneyQuest and some of the Downtown Disney complex around it. I knew DisneyQuest had a lot of motion-simulator and interactive video games, but I didn't realize that the entire 5-story building is just one giant video arcade. Go »Not to Be Confused with Denise Sawicki
It's been two months since I first mentioned my new love Denise on the site. She's overdue for a proper introduction, since I plan to continue mentioning her on a first-name basis around here. (I don't know why some men continue to tell me about their woman by calling her "my wife" or "my girlfriend" even though I've known her and socialized with her for years.) Go »Bill$
Saving up is hard to do. I'm spending every dollar I have after the holidays to move Kelly here next week, then we have to move again in two months to a larger place. And I have more than a grand to pay in taxes. Go »Bad for Business
CNN Money published an interesting look at the 101 Dumbest Moments in Business in the year 2006. Go »
Jackie Mason | November 29, 2009
[hidden by author request]