10 things this southerner has learned about living in Maine and having my first proper cold-climate-living experience:
- You become a master of moving from one laceless shoe to another, from indoor slippers to rain boots to snow boots and back. And birks in the summer. You only lace up for cardio.
- There is what they call a January thaw, which is when a tease of January warmth melts the December snow, but there’s no question that the real wintah is still on its way. Proof of that started last night.
- There are some mornings you wake up to new snow and shrug. Back in South Carolina growing up, you eyed a potential snow day as if it could be the Second Coming.
- Low-forties is T-shirt and shorts weather up here; low-eighties is unbearably hot for Maine-uhs.
- No matter how bitter and cold the wintah, the old timers at the barber shop will still tell you that it’s nothing like it used to be. “Back in my day, you’d see ten feet of it in an aftuhnoon! I’d have to dig my cah out with a backhoe.”
- Sweats are an acceptable attire for leaving the house
- Shoveling snow is one of the great joys on earth. Something about being out there in the frigid cold after it dumped, the sky melting into pinks and purples, your heart kicking into gear as you work the shovel through fluffy powder and breathe in what is an almost impossible silence.
- There is no need to shovel if warm weather is forecasted the next day, as the sun will do all the work for you. Sometimes, I shovel anyway.
- Even if my son stays here and has kids and then his kids have kids, even they will not be considered true Maine-uhs. They will always be “from away.”
- Using window A/C units is perfectly acceptable up here–even in the fanciest of houses; down South, you wouldn’t be caught dead with those things protruding from your windows. You’ll find what is called central heating and air…
I love it!
I’m a born and raised Nj-it’s but I had the pleasure of living in Baton Rouge for a year. How life can change in a thousand miles.
And groundhogs fast is fast approaching, light at the end of the tunnel so they say.
Anyway, you two look so cute in your winter wear…
Keep each other warm ❤️
Thanks for chiming in!
Thanks, Diane! I love BR!
7. “Shoveling snow is one of the great joys on earth.”
As only someone from away could say! Shoveling snow is what steals Grandpas and Dads and even Moms from families. Sometimes the heart-attack is mild enough to be a “Here’s your sign” kind of event and you either get yourself a good-sized snowblower (none of this snow shovel blower kiddy crud) or, even better, a grizzled contractor –a career path Gawd made for out-of-work landscape contractors– with a plow and snowblower and two teenage kids to handle the edges and sidewalk/porch clearing/salting. You can enjoy a short amount of shoveling out the back door, making a few paths for the doggos.
9. “Even if my son stays here and has kids and then his kids have kids, even they will not be considered true Maine-uhs.”
When my ex- and I were looking at acquiring land in Maine for a family compound, the two advisories we heard time & again were:
a- you can’t push heat North, and;
b- a cat may have kittens in the oven, but that don’t make ’em biscuits.
Thanks for writing! ♥️
Hmmm, no LLBean winter gear showing signs of being well worn in sight….the real sign you are from away. lol
bahahhah!
Up here in frozen North – Seattle. Oh yeah – going to be 62 today!
You make me angry!!!