I Love Winter

I envy you here in dank mild London - but the American gays don't like snow, OP, hence the non-response.

Yep, you're definitely alone, OP, and you'll die in isolation and be found three weeks later half-mummified.

I like winter but I’m glad it doesn’t last all year. Cold air just feels cleaner than warm air, and you feel like you’re in better shape after you’ve walked around in it.

Also, give me a cozy bar with a fireplace over a pool party any day.

I would like winter a whole lot better if the days were longer.

That's the most depressing part, that it is after 7AM and the sun is just coming up

Yes.

You walk alone, DC.

I preferred it more when younger. Need to force myself to go out now that I'm an eldergay. The early darkness is a bitch. But the days seem lighter and the air crisper than summer.

You are definitely NOT alone, OP! I love winter as well. The air is crisp and clean, I just feel more energized. I live in an apartment building so snow shoveling is not something I need to be concerned about! I do wish the mornings were a bit brighter a bit earlier, though (like R4 mentioned). However, Fall is my favorite season! Not a fan of summer...AT ALL!

[quote]You are definitely NOT alone, OP! I love winter as well

You two gurls should meet up and go sledding.

R9 OMG, like we totes should! Bitch.

Snugglefest with mugs of hot chocolate.

I hate it! What’s to like about being cold?

I only like winter for the drama of a snowstorm. Give me a good snow day, then transport me back to summer. Hotter the better.

No, not alone. Hate summer. Love winter. Wish we still had the snowstorms of years ago.

And as far as the temperatures: you can always layer on more clothes to get warmer, but there is only so much you can remove in the summer and it's still hot when your nekkid.

Not alone, I love dark, gloomy days. I feel like they somehow envelope me. I also like that gloomy days loose their sense of time. Mornings look like afternoons without shadows giving time of day away

Don't care for it.

R12 Part of what I like about being cold is bundling up. I'm one of those people who likes weight on top of me to sleep, whether that's three blankets or a weighted blanket, and I likewise feel most comfortable with several layers of clothes covering most of me, especially if it's a heavy sweater and/or coat. Obviously, you can only do that when it's cold. It's not shame that makes me want to cover my body; it's the protective feeling of weight draped on top of me.

But wait! There's more than that!

I actually like the limited daylight. Here in DC, anyway, it seems like the days are brighter in the winter because there are often fewer clouds and it's not "hazy, hot and humid," as they say. The air is cool and crisp and the sky is clear and sunny.

Or else it's overcast, which is not my favorite—unless it's snowing. I love the snow so much. I live in a rented condo—so basically an apartment—and I walk mostly everywhere I need to go, so no worries about driving or shoveling. Just looking at the pretty snow.

And finally, I like the limited daytime hours. As much as a bright and sunny day can be uplifting, I feel most alive in the dark. I tend to get sleepy and sluggish a lot during the day, and I start to really wake up when the sun goes down. (In the summer, I try to go to bed while the sun is still up because it is a lot easier for me to fall asleep then.) That's when I get energy to write or to paint or to clean the house. My favorite time of day is 2-4 a.m., whether I stay up all night (never these days) or wake up then (commonly these days). And when I am up at that time and open the blinds to see a bright, glowing nighttime with snow falling, it's just the best.

I’m fine with today’s weather but the last couple weeks have been bitingly cold here, more so than usual, and I hated that. My heating system starts limping along once the temps start dipping into the 20s.

I like a few months of winter. I actually enjoy snow shoveling and I love to run in a snowstorm. I kind of wish we'd revert to the colder and snowier winters my area had as a kid so we'd kill off the ticks and other creepy-crawlies that have made their way up north.

But I don't like driving in snow and ice.

I don’t mind the cold but I hate that snow turns to either slush or ice so walking is hazardous.

R19 A brand new study makes it clear that temps have to go VERY low to kill off ticks, and ticks that carry Lyme appear more resilient than those that don't:

[quote] In this study, ticks were observed for a winter season with temperatures ranging from -18 to 20 degrees Fahrenheit. The findings revealed that 80% of ticks infected with the microbe that causes Lyme Disease survived the cold season. Those not infected with the microbe had a 50/50 chance, only 50% surviving.

Being 4th generation Californian, I like driving to the snow, spending the day skiing and then driving home to nice weather.

One day I surfed at the beach in the morning and spent the afternoon skiing. Let's see you do that in DC, OP.

Today, Mamouth Mountain has got 14 feet of snow at the peak!!

I even hate the winter here in FL! So I'm glad there are people like the OP out there or there would be even more people moving here.

I love the winter in DC we get the odd 50 degree day and that just helps so much

[quote]The findings revealed that 80% of ticks infected with the microbe that causes Lyme Disease survived the cold season. Those not infected with the microbe had a 50/50 chance, only 50% surviving.

The Lyme bacteria gives the bugs some extra added protection against the elements? Nature is weird!

I sleep much better in the winter.

R25 Lyme bacteria, Borrelia burgdorferi, are freakishly "smart." They can disable end hosts (human beings) but rarely kill them, and so they are not self-defeating. They can out-maneuver a lot of antibiotic approaches because they can change forms and create protective hibernating states with protective biofilms around them. If they make ticks infected with them more resilent, that is good for the bacteria by way of natural selection; over time, most surviving ticks will carry the bacteria as a protective symbiotic relationship. Ticks habor the bacteria but they don't become infected as we do. Likewise with mice; mice carry the bacteria, ticks acquire them and pass them along to larger mammals who become sick from them.

Love winter. Love the landscape, the muffled silence against twinkling lights. The coziness of music with comfort food on the stove. Winter is an introvert’s dream world.

R28 >

R28 here. I am so bummed it is snowing less and less in Detroit!

Well the key word here is D.C. They have the most disgusting and unappealing summers on the planet. Washington summers turn people into fucking slugs. Oddly enough I even found the summers in Savannah, Georgia to be less awful. Which logically makes no sense because they have high humidity too. But still.

Another cold weather lover here, my time of year is October through April. Holed up indoors, in a sweater and sometimes a hat, maybe crocheting, wondering what I should make for lunch. The house is cool, but I'm comfortable, making we well-satisfied.

When it snows I enjoy the quiet, it's amazing how much noise is blocked by falling snow.

I'm still hale enough to shovel my own pavement, and a few others, after a snowstorm. We never have kids anymore knocking on doors to see if you want your pavement shoveled in exchange for a few dollars. They'd probably want 20, or more, these days.

Winter is the perfect time for all those foods and meals that seem out of place in the warmer months: hearty soups, thick stews, something gooey and cinnamon-y in the oven, really good hot chocolate(shades of what Judi Dench was sipping in the film 'Chocolat')

The days are getting longer now, sunrise is earlier, and I'm sad because I know warmer then hotter weather will be "gracing" us once again. Once the trees leaf out it's all over for me. And that's why I always make the most of enjoying Winter, because it's over far too soon.

R31 OP here and yes, you are correct. I think our summers are among the worst. I was once in the office of a Congresswoman from Louisiana and she came bursting through the door complaining, "I don't care what ANYBODY says! Louisiana ain't got nothing on DC heat! It is HELL OUT THERE."

Although that said, my dad's hometown in eastern North Carolina is almost always hotter and just as humid.

Miami is worse.

despise winter. January, February and March can fast forward.

You are not alone OP. Beautiful winter day today.

I'd rather be 40 degrees too cold than 20 degrees too warm. I'd rather it be 34F than 94F in most situations. Of course, on vacation, I'd rather it be warmer. But, for day to day living situations, cooler is usually better.

People tend to prefer the climate of the region they grew up in, and oddly, people tend to prefer the season during which they were born.

Interesting, R38. Right on both accounts for me. Spent a number of years in another region - hot - and couldn't wait to get back to the Northeast. Was born in September and Fall is my absolute favorite season.

Could just be coincidence, though.

I hate MA weather. There’s probably a month of Spring where I’m comfortable. The rest is cold as fuck or hot and humid. And all it did was rain this last summer. Every weekend!!

Too bad for you, she died a few months ago

Appropriate...

I love winter also OP. Sadly it doesn't snow as much in Denver as it used to. I loathe the heat.

I love winter, most of my reasons have already been stated, but winter also (usually) means freedom from outdoor allergies. Spring, summer, and autumn all bring with them allergies, pollen, crumbling leaves, molds, etc...

When there is snow on the ground, it helps to contain the allergens.

I lived in Atlanta for 25 years and Florida for 7 years I now live in the upper midwest and will never EVER suffer through another 6 months a year of 90 degrees with 90% humidity. Nope

It's 60 degrees and sunny here.

^ It's 50 and sunny here

I love the winter months as well. My favourite month is December when it's dark by 4.00pm, the streets are busy with shoppers, and the Christmas lights are all out. I wish it snowed in London but I'm happy with the short days, I can't see any reason for the sun to rise before 8.00am.

I'm one of those who still has an electric fan blowing on me even in Winter. Never cold, only hot. And my power bill is cut 2/3rds because I barely use the heat. Get a lot done this time of year.

Yeah, I love it when it’s 33 degrees and sunny/not raining.

I don’t like it when it’s 7 degrees with 30-40 mph winds.

I don’t like it when it dumps 28” in my driveway & front yard.

I don’t like sleet.

I don’t like ice storms.

I don’t like slush

I don’t like slush that froze over, then more snow fell on top of it, so you can’t tell that you’re about to walk atop someone else’s bookmark from 2 days ago and you will slip and fall

I don’t like dog poop that snow fell atop and is hiding from me

I don’t like 3 day nor’easters.

LOVE the snow ! Especially when you are out in the country and the snow falling on snow makes a beautiful sound, sorta like a hush hush hush multiplied. Lovely .quiet just the falling sound sound.

The colder and snowier the winter, the better the spring and summer

I grew up Syracuse ...DC seems tropical. DC summers are hellish.

[quote] I Love Winter

Me too, OP.

When I look at map in summer to see if storms are coming, it looks like DC, Delmarva, PA a d South Jersey are a thunderstorm corridor. Southern CT too, but the storms dissipate somewhat when they hit the LI Sound.

I rarely get thunderstorms because I’m in a bubble about 5 miles long & wide that gets “passed over” all the time. We’ve got a little bay and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, a midsized bay and LI Sound to north and lots of big ponds in between. You can watch storms rage all over the place on weather map, but they dissipate before they hit my town. Some years it gets extremely dry while everywhere else is deluged. In winter and spring we get rain, rain, rain.

I was shocked when we had tornado warning a few months ago and even ahead a few minor ones touched down.

I don’t think I could live in a place where there were big thunderstorms. I hate loud noises. I bet dogs don’t like living in a thunderstorm corridor.

Big thunderstorms at night in the hot DC summer are really lovely.

It's colder than a witch's tit in Massachusetts this weekend

Let’s enjoy these New England winters while we can.

A rather frigid weekend for us in N. NJ. Still prefer it to the sweltering summer heat/humidity.

It's dark, gloomy, snowy and 21 degrees here in the midwest. I feel invigorated, but I also feel like cupping a mug and snuggling down

IT’S FUCKING COLD HERE IN MA 🥶

I love Winter for many reasons, most of them stated above (cozy, beautiful snow, comfort, ambiance etc), but another reason is now that I'm hitting 50, my body just isn't what it used to be, and shorts and swimsuit weather is now a big no for me. When it's Winter and Fall, I can cover it all up.