I find it easy to romanticize the cold weather at home. If I go too far into Winter without it, I start to think I miss it.
I was excited to “re-connect” with that cold during my holiday trip home this year. Get some cold weather in. Enjoy that icy breeze across the brow. Naturally, Wisconsin was unseasonably warm with 30’s and even lower 40’s for much of the trip.
Then the last 3 days it dipped into the lower 20’s and teens. That’s where you leave the house and you’re cold by the time you enter the car. You can’t stop shivering the first few miles of driving. And you wonder why car designers haven’t figured out how to heat up faster. Next thing you know, you’re sweating because you forgot about the blasted heat.
It was beneficial to experience the cold temps at the end of the trip. It prepared me to appreciate the mild temperatures back in San Francisco.
The cold season, and the suffering with minimal complaint, is still a part of my identity. I associate it with my sense of home. But the reality is I never enjoy the cold that much. I’m still working through that competition between nostalgia and reality.