Frazz by Jef Mallett for April 26, 2022

Just think of them like migratory birds.

We’re snow birds of a sort. And we have friends who definitely are. They take the RV and then live in it in Arizona during the winter. We take a lot of luggage and live in a cabin up in the mountains during the summer.

It sure is fine being retired!

The boy doesn’t understand that the journey is part of the adventure.

My parents took an annual vacation to Florida. But moving there was never an option. Strange as it may sound, they liked PA winters.

I never even heard of a snowbird when I was growing up in the ’60’s. People must have done it. ??

Putting on more clothes is not always the best answer

Snow Birds as a topic always raises interesting facts, opinions and emotions. Fact: people live to be a lot older, many of them think winter sucks. Opinion: as G-20 citizens we all have huge carbon footprints, even in our sleep, so why pick on Snow Birds. Emotions: jealousy? Maybe a little??

Why Florida? Savannah, Georgia is warm enough.

“Why not change clothes?”

Golf.

I would die in the South’s heat plus humidity.

I’m with Frazz. As long as you have your your health, or a reasonable facsimile, winter is cool. When the laws of friction no longer apply, it’s a strange new world of skating, skiing, curling, and the like. If you don’t have to go far, even driving is fun. As a teenager, all my friends would gather at my house whenever we got more than six inches of snow, bringing dad’s car. We would all pile into one car and race around a prescribed course, with a stop watch. Because of the road conditions, and lots of corners, we were never going fast enough to raise any alarms. And on top of that, if you need more, there’s no yard work.

Maybe they like traveling. And like both of their houses.

If they don’t like “too warm in the summer,” Michigan ain’t the place to be.

Wow Frazz, where do you think they live, Copper Harbor?

If it’s cold, yes, you can usually put on more layers – but you can take everything off and still be too hot…

Some people, as they get older, lose their ability to regulate their body temperature. My mother couldn’t tolerate cold weather, because no matter how many layers she put on, she was still COLD!

On the other end of the spectrum, I can’t tolerate hot weather, and if I could afford to move north I would. I can stay inside in the air conditioning, of course, but cabin fever is ugly. At least up north the high temperatures only last for 2-3 months. Here in Florida, it lasts most of the year.

I can’t think of a single reason that his grandparents shouldn’t just pile on the clothes and slog through the snow even though they don’t have to. :-/

I deal with Wisconsin weather by dialing my thermostat to the appropriate indoor temperature, regardless of what’s going on out there. Cuts way back on travel bills. Yay, technology!

Changing clothes wouldn’t shovel snow for them, or keep them from having to walk or drive on icy pavements.

and there’s a limit to how much cooler you can get just changing clothes. At some point, even taking off EVERYTHING isn’t enough to get cool.

Frazz, if you think that a change of cloths is the difference between Michigan and Florida, you are sadly mistaken.