Now THIS is living!

From a note I sent to my friend Shelly (who has known me forever, since high school in fact) in our Scrabble game:
I just had THE most invigorating, fun morning!! We got up early and took Casey home, then had breakfast at BK, then wandered around the St. V dePaul store which we love to do. After that we drove around our end of the lake (this lake is huge, the biggest inland lake in the state) and watched the ice fishermen and snowmobilers - HUNDREDS if not THOUSANDS of them! - and drove around the outside of TipUpTown. PACKED with people, all having a blast, lots of little kids on the rides and milling about. TuT used to be about beer but a couple of years ago they decided it needed to be a family event, now the beer tent is a couple of blocks away from the rest of the action. Then we came back to (world-famous, at least since Frozen Stupid was filmed here!) Lyman's and parked and walked about 1/4 mile out to the lake. It is SO COOL to see people driving and walking and snowmobiling and 4-wheeling all across the lake, I think I like it better in winter than I do in the summer! We stayed out on the lake for quite a while as I took pictures and videos of hundreds of people having fun, it was so exciting and exhilirating, especially after that long illness I just have to thank God that I can do everything again! Just to be able to walk - or drive - across the lake to get where you want to go, how cool is that????? Everything about today has just been awesome!!!!!! This is life, not sitting in a recliner holding my head in pain and being waited on for months on end...

I love living here, I love being able to get out and do things again, I love Houghton Lake in the winter!

Today I gotta gripe!

Lovely beautiful white fluffy snow falling, the air is crisp and fresh and clean...yet everywhere I go, people are complaining about winter! I live in northern lower Michigan, where lots of snow and cold temps are expected, and most of the people here just go about their lives. It is a given that our weather changes throughout the year, and we accept it, and life goes on. In fact, in our tourist town this weekend and next are thousands of downstaters and even folks from other states, here to celebrate winter! All sorts of wintry activities here in the 59th annual TipUp Town festival - and people LOVE IT! Those that came for it, and most who live here.

So, why so many people who choose to live where there is always a cold snowy winter, complain throughout the season? I don't get it. If I chose to live in Miami, I certainly wouldn't complain about the heat, although I'd hate it. I choose to live where the weather suits my preferences, and if I were to choose to live somewhere I hated, why would I feel I had the right to dump all over everybody else, rain on their parade if you will, and make them regret my own choices?

OK, so people have reasons to live in those parts of the country where there is a real winter: family, job, whatever. But it's still their choice to stay, whatever their reason, we always have a choice.

Quit trying to ruin MY lovely winter happiness, just because YOU are miserable, and I will promise not to whine to you about the heat and humidity of summer while you enjoy your beaches and your boats. Deal?