How is Winter Treating You? Are you Feeling Chilly Yet?

How is Winter Treating You? Are you Feeling Chilly Yet?

'What's the temperature like at your house? Do you have the furnace on? Don't you miss shoveling the snow, or building a snow man?'

These are frequent questions that people ask me from my home town. Then I laugh when they ask me, 'When are you coming back here?' 

Since I get asked these questions so frequently, let me explain my answers to  these questions.

1. What's the temperature like at our house? 
Before I go into my answer, look at the pictures above for the temperatures from our home in the Philippines, and Ohio. With not more than a 5C change in 1 day, the temperatures are very consistent  Maybe the max range of temperatures is between 18C (65F) and 32C (89F) on Tablas Island, Philippines. But when I compare them to -17C (-3F) to 35C (95F)... that is extreme in my opinion. Sub-freezing cold to Damn it's HOT. Whew! I don't miss the extreme cold for an instant. (By the way, we didn't have any rain here. Only a nice tropical breeze).

2. Do we have the furnace turned on in our house in the Philippines?
This makes me laugh. Why? Because every home in the USA has a furnace in the home. But in the Philippines, we don't even have a furnace because it never gets cold here :-D

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3. Do I miss shoveling snow or building a snowman?
A few years ago, I took my wife and daughter from the Philippines to the USA for 2 weeks. While we were there, several inches of fresh snow fell. Enough to cover the driveway and the yard. The girls were super excited and they ran out the front door onto the porch. Within seconds, they rand back into the house and closed the door. 'Snow hurts!' My sister then helped. She brought out some cold weather clothing, coats, gloves, hats, scarves, and boots. 'If you put these on, then you can play in the snow and you won't feel the pain from the cold'.

Then Rose asks, 'If I put on that much clothing, then I am going to look like a puffy marshmallow man. How are we supposed to be able to move, much less walk, if we are dressed in all those layers of clothes?'

Everyone got a laugh at Rose's observation. Regardless, my girls still dressed in the gear and plodded into the frozen weather. 

Their first instinct was to lay in the snow. Then they threw the snow at each other. Then they tasted the snow. 

After this initial reaction they asked me to teach them to build a snowman. I showed them how to make the first snowball, and I let them do the rest. At least that's what I expected. But after the second snowball, they were to cold to continue with the snowman's head. 

So inside my sister's house we went and we undressed from our winter gear.

'I'm still cold. My fingers hurt. When does the pain go away?' my daughter asked. 

I smiled and let her know that it would take about 20-30 minutes before she would warm up again. 

'Twenty to thirty minutes of fingers, toes and face pain to build a snowman? Dad, it's not worth it. Next year, let's stay home and we can go tot he beach and make a snowman out sand'.

So I think the answer to this question is obvious. When you have the sea, the sand and sunshine, you won't miss making a snowman because we can build a sandman.

Stay Warm! Better yet... come visit us in Paradise. I don't think you'll regret it.

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Please share with your friends who are fans of warmer weather.

This article is written by Greg Pasden. American Expat and International Best Selling author of 'Like Winning the Lottery'. Get your copy today.