Becky's Bottom Line: I Hate Winter

Becky's Bottom Line

By Becky Brownstein

Somewhere over the rainbow....

...there's something Becky calls, "real summer." 

I HATE WINTER 

Growing up in Southern California had many perks. The number one perk is the weather. It took me having to move to Pennsylvania to appreciate the weather I lived with for 18 years of my life. Now that it’s summer and school is out, the kids are home a lot. Yes, they do have camp but the days are long. The days are even longer when it rains. I never knew it rained in the summer until I moved here. What the heck is spring for then?

On the pesky rainy days, when the kids are locked inside, I find myself humming little tunes here and there.
One in particular is an offshoot of “somewhere over the rainbow, where skies are blue.” As much as Judy Garland’s song was spot on, I can’t help but change some of the lyrics to include California, the beach, and no rain in the summer. I sing a lot at home and the kids are my little audience. They heard this little bit I was humming and asked me to tell them what it was about.

“Well children, there is this place far, far away. It’s a land called California. Now this isn’t just a regular land. This land has a ‘real’ summer. What’s real summer you ask, children? Why, it’s when you don’t get locked indoors. It’s when the sun is always shining. It’s when you can open your windows at night and feel a cool breeze and then wake up to the birds chirping and the sun shining warm on your skin. But no rain kids, no rain.”

“Wow mommy, can we go there?” 

“Sure, go ask your father.”

When winter rolls around - which is very soon, since the stores here have to put out their fall things and rub it in your face that snow is imminent - I remind my kids of the place far, far away that doesn’t get snow. The place that you only dress for the snow up in the mountains, where you can go for like a day and then come home where it’s warm again.

Yes dear readers, I am bitter. My mood changes with the weather. I try to be pleasant mommy (humming my tunes and staying upbeat) but there is nothing like what you are accustomed to and there is nothing like good weather. The seasons changing are a beautiful thing to watch, for a year or two. Then, like my 7 year old put it, “the snow gets boring, but then it stays.”

Bottom line is: I’m kinda glad California got robbed of its nice weather this summer. SO, STOP COMPLAINING!