When we moved to Colorado from Texas I was so excited. We arrived with a travel trailer to live in and very little cash. My husband already had a job so that was a plus.
We found a little trailer to rent temporarily (after living in a 14′ travel trailer for 3 weeks…what an adventure!) and settled in. My husband then got an out of town job (5 hours away) and was gone for 8 months (he’d visit on weekends or I would head up there). I realized that I was going to have to rough it a bit and during the summer it would heat up only for about 2 weeks. Compared to Texas it was nothing. I had no idea the adventure that awaited me. (more on those soon)
I would turn the air conditioner on and close the house up and watch as my neighbors would open windows in the morning
and close them at around 10am. Why? I had no idea. When we moved to our upgraded digs and were looking to buy in this town, I had finally found out the issue.
Apparently the people that remodeled the home we were in were from Texas and they installed an air conditioner. It was RARE and I was the only one in about a 5 mile radius with one. At the time I just thought I had neighbors that wanted to save money or something. Here I was thinking THEY were odd and they were jealous of my air conditioner on warmer days. Now that we found our ‘cabin in the woods’ we’re settled into the life here and loving it.
My brother will call and talk about the heat in Texas and I’ll casually say, “well, it’s around 65 here and we’re out on the deck cooking steaks” just to make him jealous. My parents love to sit on the deck or outside and visit and in Texas you can only do that at certain times of the year. Here, you get quite a few sunny/warm days.
Many are amazed that we do not have an air conditioner. What with the pine trees looming over us and the wind that is carried through the mountains we’ve not had use for one. We use a wood stove for heat in the winter and it does its job very well. In the summer I copy the old neighbors and open windows until around 1pm (earlier in August) and then close the house up and it stays very cool.
The picture in this post is of a sunrise in Amarillo, Texas on my way to visit my family there a year ago. The windmill sillhouette was one of my favorite shots. I thought I would share that one while speaking of Texas and air conditioning so much.
Gorgeous picture. I’ve driven through the tippy top of Texas (I can never remember the name of the city) and eaten at an amazing restaurant that serves the best catfish I’ve ever had, but never ventured further down. Partly because of the heat factor and partly because it’s Bushland. I need to get over it.
At 65 I’d have already closed up the house and had the heat on lol Living down here must’ve warmed up my blood for it to be really cold to me at that temp
I have to agree the Amarillo sunsets are probably the most beautiful. I’m probably biased though having lived there most my life.
I know you’re not bad-mouthing the weather in Texas, Cat. And here I thought you were my friend.
Heh
No air-conditioner?