Everyone thinks it's always warm in Florida, and while it is much warmer than up north, we do have our cold days. This winter had been dismal. It's supposed to be our dry season, and it's usually sunny and cool, very nice weather for outdoors adventures. This year it was cold and rainy or cloudy most days. Late February is usually the beginning of spring, but we're still having some nighttime temps in the low 30s and I have to keep bringing plants in and out of the house.

The bad thing about all of this is that we have had no spring, so no spring garden, no spring veggies, no second crop of fall veggies. This year, it will likely go straight into summer-like temps in April and we will have another year of only a month of spring, and spring is my favorite season.

I'm planning to move out of Florida in about another year, possibly to a mountain city in Mexico that has spring-like weather all year long. I look forward to warm days and cool nights perfect for sleeping. And sunshine -- I want sunshine that isn't so hot it burns you after ten minutes.

As I get older, extreme weather is harder on me. I can't take the horrendous summers here anymore. I don't understand how people live where it snows all the time! I want something temperate, easy on these old joints.

It seems strange that I have to leave this country to find the climate I need. As big as the US is, it has no perfect climate zones, unless you can afford to live in Southern California, which I certainly can't!