Spanky's Place

1 - Hey Devin!

I grew up in Michigan, just north of Detroit, went to college at BGSU, just south of Toledo, Ohio and now live in the suburbs of Cleveland. So, I've been around this area all my life. Can't say I've never thought moving to warmer climates would be nice, but it is good to have changing seasons and actual large variations in temperature. Granted, it is cold in the winter usually, and there can be lots of snow from time to time. But it's not Canada or Alaska or anything.

I'd encourage you to give it a shot, if you are really wanting to get out of the blast furnace out there.

Feel free to get with me directly via email if you have more you'd like to discuss.

Phil

2 - Well, I'm not on the Great Lakes, but we have some decent winters here in New England. How bad can it get? When I was a kid, the Blizzard of '78 meant I didn't have to go to school for an entire month. That's a once-in-a-lifetime event, though.

For a winter newbie, I have a few suggestions: Make sure you buy a house that has a garage for your car - dealing with morning frost is a minor annoyance that gets REALLY old when it lasts 6 months. Get a snow blower (or, better yet, a plow attachment for a riding lawn mower) - us old folks shouldn't shovel entire driveways several times a month. Look into a 4 wheel drive vehicle if you don't already own one - when it snows more often than not, the plows leave a fair amount of snow and ice behind for us to drive over, and automatic traction control and 4 wheel drive come in handy (but don't be fooled - the better traction makes it seem like you can drive faster in the snow, but it doesn't mean you can *stop* any faster...).

Other than that? It gets cold. You buy better coats, some decent boots and gloves, and you occasionally shiver a bit. No big deal, really.

3 - Can't say about Michigan, but I've lived in New Hampshire for almost 28 years now, with five of them in Northern New Hampshire. I also spent the better part of one winter in Minneapolis. The worst it gets has nothing much to do with snow. Ice is far, far worse than snow. And a couple of weeks without the daytime temperature never once going above zero and typical nighttime wind-chills of 40 below... that's the worst. But IMHO that's far easier to deal with than a couple of weeks in a row with the daytime high being over 100. You learn to dress in layers to keep warm in cold weather. In hot weather, there's a limit to how many layers you can take off, and beyond that you're out of luck

Now, I'm going to disagree with the Good Captain about the snowblower or plow. If you have an excessively long driveway, perhaps; but otherwise I think it makes more economic sense to pay someone to plow for you. Why? Because it makes no sense to get a wimpy snowblower. If you get one, it needs to be big enough so that when you get a 24 inch dumping you will only need to go out twice. That runs into some big bucks, and you'll need to do annual maintenance on it and even then it won't last forever. When you total it all up you find that you don't save a lot of money versus just paying a plow driver... so for a couple of bucks savings per snowfall YOU'RE DOING THE WORK.

4 - Rich is definitely NOT wrong about the plow service. That's what I do, too. I think the ramp-up people go through typically looks like this: shovels, snowblower, [optional riding snowblower,] plow service. Economically, though, I bet Rich is right - going straight to the plow service isn't that much more expensive than maintaining the equipment. And I value my time pretty highly, so the fact that I don't spend a couple of hours per storm dealing with the snow is worth a lot to me.

5 - Thanks for the tips guys.

I've got a 14 year old boy, so normal snow shovel work isn't that much of a problem for me (for him yes, but for me not at all). The houses I've been checking out are all in areas where the roads get plowed (but water is well and sewer is septic) -not really rural, but not really what I consider to be urban (or even suburban).

-Devin.

6 - Just mentioning the word SNOW makes me shudder. Spanky, I've lived in numerous places in this fine Union including the Northern Chicago area, Central Illinois, Maryland, Alaska, Oregon, Seattle, Spokane, San Francisco, South Carolina, Alabama, and Arizona. I now regularly visit, Dallas, Atlanta, Boca Raton, Orlando, and Miami, Florida. And yes..., it's hot here in Phoenix and Sunblock 2000spf isn't such a bad idea but at least I don't have to shovel sunshine or make alternate plans in case it rains. I don't worry as much about how the "other guy" drives in bad weather. I don't ruin my pants or shoes stomping the mud or slush from my car to the office and I don't have to constantly wipe down the inside of my windshield from the moisture still trapped in my floormats from the first rain 3 months ago. I've dodged many a rain drop in the Northwest and literally kicked 2-inches of ice off my truck in an ice-storm just so I could get in and drive home. I'll take a little heat over rain, snow, and cold...but that's just me.

Also, everytime I go back to visit these other places, I easily fall in love with them again because it all seems to be so wonderful as a tourist. But when I watch the weather person talk about the "Lake Effect" up around the Great Lakes and the 100 feet of snow in the Midwest...I thank my lucky stars, flip a few burgers on the grill, and tap one of Spanky's Christmas Ale's

....in January.

7 - Thanks for helping to remind me how nice I have it....sometimes I tend to overlook my fortunes.

-Devin.