Winter

"Winter is coming".

Fans of the "Song Of Ice & Fire" series by freaking amazing author George R.R. Martin & the TV series based on the books, "Game Of Thrones", will know this as the motto of House Stark.  In Canada, this pretty well describes how I (and, I'm sure, other people) feel from spring right through to whenever the hell the snow decides to fly.

As a kid, I don't recall hating winter. Hell, I don't even recall ever feeling cold! I had frostbite in grade 3 and didn't realize it until my teacher pointed it out after recess and I think my reaction was "Oh...that's why hands and wrists are white". I remember the recess, too. The snow banks were piled freaking high and I remember something about "King of the castle" and getting pushed around in the snow a lot, laughing and somewhere in there, losing a mitten and a not giving two shits about it. I wasn't cold or I didn't feel it, that's for sure.

I also went tobogganing and don't recall feeling the cold. I went cross country skiing a few times. Winter was fun.

I remember I was around 17 or 18 when I finally felt the cold one winter. A bitter cold winter night and all I could think was "for shitshakes, are winter's getting colder?". Visions of Florida danced in my head and at the time, my family and I would take regular trips there.

I now can proudly proclaim I HATE WINTER. I have no desire to do winter sports, I hate the cold and I am counting down the days until spring! Last winter, we were lucky here in Canada and had a rather mild winter. This winter? I'm done. And I'm pretty sure it's not as bad as some of the previous winters we had back when I was a kid. I swear I now wear like 50 layers before going outside and about 25 when I'm in the house. Maybe I'm getting old ;)

My partner and I have pretty much decided that IF we win the lotto, we are packing our shit up and moving to Florida. Well, at least for the winter. He hates the winter, too.

Also, if I won the lotto, I would have a house in Tennessee because who wouldn't want to wake up to this everyday:

I'm pretty sure Tennessee has milder winters than here. I could live with that.  :)