Weather Wimp

I am officially a weather wimp. Actually I have been for several years now…it’s a side effect of living in the mild temperatures of San Diego. Growing up in Phoenix, AZ I was very used to the heat. It really wasn’t intolerable until it was over 105 and at that point you didn’t notice the increase in degrees so much. It was just DAMN hot! But as a kid, you play outside anyway. Or maybe you play in the pool for hours on end, which is what I did. That’s how I acquired the lovely shade of green in my hair for four to five months out of the year. Excellent look for those swim team pictures.

As I got older, I learned to make adjustments to handle the heat better. Don’t touch the metal seat belt with bare hands unless you want to get a second degree burn! Don’t leave the windows on the car rolled up all the way, otherwise the temperature hits 130 inside and you pass out from the mini heat wave that hits you when you open the door. Unless you’re in a pool, do not go outside for any length of time from 11 am to about 3 pm during the summer months (which are from March to the end of September). If you do go outside, you risk heat stroke! My Junior High PE teacher was nice enough to introduce me to that. Well, not heat stroke, but I did get heat exhaustion running the mile in class. At the end of April….at 2 in the afternoon. Great idea to have kids running in the extreme heat of the day!

I am not a runner, never have been really. I was a swimmer, that was my sport. Not sure if I will ever be a runner...not unless I decide to take up running late in life, like that bodybuilding Great-Grandma who started running at age 56! That is an amazing story!

Anyway...

In college I went for the other extreme in temperatures. Well, maybe not extreme but I did go to school in Flagstaff, AZ where they get a “real” winter. Many people don’t realize that Flag is so high in elevation but it’s higher than Denver! Anyway, not only do they get winter in Flag, it lasts for a few months and I remember having several blizzards in the years I lived there. It was great!! When spring came and the mercury hit 55, we were excited to wear our shorts outside! Very odd to walk outside with snow on the ground and be comfortable wearing shorts. When the temperature hit 70, we’d head outside to sunbathe….such bliss.

Now that I’ve been in temperate San Diego, I get cold at 70. I’m serious!! At work, our thermostat is kept around 70 for our patients who are exercising. For those of us who are not exercising though, 70 feels cold! So I am at work wearing my pullover and drinking coffee to keep warm. Very sad. I have dreams of living in gorgeous Colorado where the climate is very similar to Flagstaff but now I don’t know if I could handle it!

One thing that I have exchanged for my inability to handle weather is my tolerance for earthquakes. They didn’t scare me too much before I lived in CA but I hadn’t really experienced one. After a decade of living here, I’ve experienced several now and they just don’t bother me much. Several years ago I was working in a building on the fifth floor and we used to have the fighter jets from Miramar fly by regularly which made the building shake. It’s amazing how quickly you adjust to things like that. My boss at the time was from Chicago and scare to DEATH of earthquakes. He somehow managed to handle the shaking building when the jets flew by BUT one year we had an earthquake hit (about a 5 on the Richter scale) and that really made the building shake more than the jets. My boss ran down to the café on the corner and refused to come back into the office for the rest of the day! Too funny! It was just a little earthquake!!

Recently we had another quake hit; this one was 7+ on the Richter scale, so definitely noticeable! I was at home when it hit and although I noticed it I wouldn’t have put it at a 7, I was surprised at how long it lasted. I went to check on my aunt next door; who was standing bug eyed in the doorway, and noticed that the quake was still happening about a minute later. Very curious feeling…but not scary. Nothing broke, nothing fell, and no catastrophe befell us. No biggie, right? Apparently there were several aftershocks over the next couple of days, all around 4 on the Richter, and I didn’t feel ANY of them! Apparently it has to be at least a 5 or higher for the earth to move me. I think I’m ready for the big one, whenever it decides to hit CA. And I know how to swim if we lose CA to the ocean! HA!