Heat Wave

Heat Wave

          I am starting to read that we should expect a very hot summer.  They are already posting record-breaking temperatures in some unusual places like northern Norway (Mr. Trump’s favorite go-to country of white, pale people), reaching up into the arctic circle in unprecedented manner.  When I hear about temperatures that are in the 120^oF+ I think about how uncomfortable I get at 80^oF if the humidity gets over 40%

          I think all this climate change (no political commentary in this piece about the politics of this) has forced everyone to think very carefully about their retirement plans considering how they feel about temperature and weather. As we age, I guess we all realize we revert to our infantile state and care mostly about basic Maslowian needs.  One of the most baseline needs is around comfort.  In fact, given that we live in a modern world where food is not in short supply in developed countries (yes, I know some grandmas must eat cat food and some impoverished food insecurity still exists in the U.S.), I would suggest that for most middle-class Americans, the big issue is about comfort and that translates quickly to weather.

          Florida and Arizona have held sway for many years as tropical or desert climates with more sun and less ice and snow rule the day.  Rising rates of skin cancer have taken some of the edge off that trend, but the lure of warmth, especially during the winter months, is a very powerful force.  I know that as I have aged, I appreciate a sunny and warm day versus cold and dreary, more and more.  If someone like me, that can get to a sunny place with ease, feels the draw to warm weather spots in which to reside, there must be a strong primordial instinct for this. 

Many people choose the snowbird approach of half year there and half year back home up north.  I think that gets old fast.  I have pondered and written about my abuse of the multiple home program and how tiresome that gets.  Splitting one’s time up north and down south seems equally tiresome in its own way.  Who likes to go through a semiannual ritual of migration?  That’s for the birds (tell me that’s not a perfect metaphor!)  My guess is that is at best an interim solution to what will become a full-time warm-weather fade into oblivion.

I think I would sooner have one abode for the rest of my life.  I am sure I can travel for any number of reasons to see kids and friends and to get to more exotic or more pleasant weather of the moment. Maybe even to do some occasional work. In fact, with the changing weather patterns, it might be very wise to maintain that sort of flexibility to allow yourself to go to wherever the extreme weather is not.  I like the idea of being a renter or hotel-stayer.  I’m no Howard Hughes in my desire to be a transient wherever I am, but there is a strong element of both convenience and opportunism (weather-wise) in being a visitor and not a part-time resident. 

First, everyone likes a tourist, and everyone hates a visitor eventually.  The adage of fish and visitors smelling after 2/3 days came out of somewhere. I currently have visitors (my wife’s sister and her husband) about 5 days with one of those spent away at a hotel.  That’s a perfect length of stay all around.  When I have gone to reunions, I have found the perfect stay before boredom or old rivalries and dislikes surface is about a day and a half.  Family gets a slightly longer timeframe.  There is a reason we don’t all live together all the time.  We all want our independence.  Hotel stays are also very comfortable.  Someone cleans and freshens usually daily and there is no cooking involved. In other words, even if you are in retirement, a hotel stay feels like a vacation (from what doesn’t really matter) and thus is pleasant.

I also believe that retirement is like any other progression.  You start in one configuration and slide gradually into your final configuration.  That may be starting as a snowbird, then a visitor, then a tourist and then a less frequent tourist and then a stay-at-home and invite others to visit person, and finally a total recluse visited only by your day nurse and the occasional relative who doesn’t want to be forgotten in the will.  I see nothing wrong with anticipating the future configuration and planning accordingly. The trick is to think about what pleases you and makes you feel good.

As for weather, I think its fair to say that HVAC is a critical element of our collective futures.  It’s the one thing that smooths out the edges of intolerability with the weather as it exists.  I for one, place great value on a properly functioning HVAC.  I don’t like being captive to it (say, like in Dubai or Las Vegas), but I sure do want the ability to retreat to it as often and as quickly as needed to stave off even momentary discomfort.  I believe the coming heat wave that will likely engulf the earth will make my thinking a necessity before long.

As for the theory that productivity is greater in cold weather climes rather than warm southern places, so what?  In retirement, you can be as productive as you want and as relaxed and lazy as you want.  That is the whole point I believe.  And most importantly, you can do either for as long as you want or need to and then pivot to a different model.

I have chosen to move full-time to San Diego County.  We are in the northern part of the county and about a dozen miles inland on a hilltop.  We get the view of the Pacific without the beach crowds and salt air.  We get the breeze, but also lots of sunlight.  The temperature in San Diego is just about perfect. Winters in the low 60’s and summers in the high 70’s.  That feels pretty ideal to me and the more desert climate that keeps humidity a bit lower but not at desiccatory desert levels seems just right.  The heat wave maps I keep seeing seem to have little impact on San Diego, so I may have been lucky enough to pick a neutral spot.  I know that it will be hot down summer in the city for the last time this year, so I am prepared to suffer through the sweaty July/August months.  I do so with the knowledge that San Diego and its temperate climate await these tiring older bones and joints.