YAYlight Saving Time!

Our winter has been the mildest Colan and I have experienced together. That’s no surprise considering we lived in New York before chasing the sun, but what has been surprising is how wintery our winter has been. Best Laid Plans are no match for our superhuman power to find (cause?) terrible weather in locations that otherwise rarely have it. A historic cold snap in Houston? Count us in! Hunker down in South Padre Island during a significant winter storm that brought unrelenting rain and wind, pelted us with sand, and bullied the sun into total submission? What an adventure! Go south to the Texas/Mexico border to check out Big Bend National Park during freezing temperatures? Thought you’d never ask! A Sedona visit so wet and cold, it begs for hibernation? You get the point! As long as we don’t discuss our last two weeks in a cold, windy, sometimes rainy San Diego, we’re fine. 

We generally plan our nomadic life by “chasing the sun.” The freedom to go where weather conditions are best, which also means the days are longest, is by far one of the top benefits of this lifestyle. Sun radiates through all aspects of life thanks to its maniacal control over our mental health, which, of course, then maniacally controls our physical health. Fortunately, no matter how bad it seems (if you tell me right now the world is ending as I sit in grey, dark, rainy, cold Santa Barbara, I’ll believe you), the sun mostly finds us, its rays a much-needed IV drip. Frigid yet sunny hikes are possible and have us shedding layers more times than not. Campfires still happen. It makes it so much easier to live a vibrant, health-focused life. When the rain keeps us in and the sun sequestered, the difference in mood and motivation is stark. The life problems I have no answers for start to get loud and consume. They weigh heavier, so much so that I suspect Barometric Pressure is one of those misery-loves-company types that wants everyone to join in the low. It's so heavy sometimes, and the lack of fresh air certainly doesn’t helps.

Still, we’re so much more fortunate than most.  I can’t help but think of people white-knuckling it through months and months of short days spent mostly inside. Like my best friend, who has to leave the house early and in darkness, often fighting her way into an icy car to ensure she can get a good gym session in. (All the while keeping her kids from killing one another after one too many Snow Days, which they’d probably do loudly and while she’s on a very important work call.) Or my parents, who spent two active weeks with us for Christmas and New Year in the Florida Keys, then went home to brutal, icy weather that kept them practically homebound for a month. (My current go-to ghost story is the one about the broken hip and the nursing home. I alternate that one with the one about the shovel and the heart attack. You can borrow them if you want.)

Thankfully for all, the eve of Daylight Saving Time is almost here(let’s join together in screaming a collective hallelujah!). If I can barely wait with our mild-adjacent winter, I’m confident that most others are losing their ever-loving minds and in danger of bonking before Sunday. As trite as it sounds, it’ll be here before we know it, and we’ll forget what short days are for a while. And in gratitude, let’s commit to spending as much time outside and under the sun as possible, mkay? Properly SPF’d, it’s the healthiest, most Fountain-of-Youth-y place I’ve found, and there’s room for all of us. Happy Almost Daylight Saving Time, everyone, let’s get outside and celebrate! (And get this mane of mine lightened. Talk about depressing.)

Hope to see you out there! —CL