My connection to the misery that millions of Americans have been experiencing this winter is confined to the news reports and the weather channel. From the comfort of my recliner I can view, on my 54 inch flat screen, the toppled trees, the downed power lines and the stranded vehicles strewn about on icy roads. I can see it all. Yes, it has been like watching a bad movie, indeed.

But the perk of being a Snowbird in Arizona is that I can bring it all to a merciful end by reaching for the remote.

Earlier in my life, it never dawned on me that there might be an alternative to the yearly drudgery of shoveling snow, scraping windshields and defending myself from the onslaught of winter. It was the only existence that I had known. I grew up with it. Every year like clockwork, you could look forward to four or five months of bitter cold and the occasional paralyzing blizzard. So what? It was life.

In the 1980’s my perspective changed. My parents retired and decided to join friends in Arizona and spend their winters there. I talked to them on the phone and kept in touch whenever I could. But I was oblivious to the paradise in which they were living. Seeing on the six o’clock news that it’s a balmy 72 degrees in Phoenix doesn’t mean much after just coming in from a raging blizzard with your ski mask frozen to your face.

Then one winter my wife Diana and I decided to drive to Arizona to visit my parents, not necessarily to get out of the cold, although that was a nice byproduct, but we wanted to spend a few days with them and check out their new winter home.

We were shocked!

It was like being dropped into a time warp. Yes, we expected it to be warm; we were watching the six o’clock news back home after all. But amidst the cold, snow and ice and the added stress that every winter brings, we had forgotten the sheer joy, the unbelievable ecstasy, of warm sun against bare skin. We didn’t want to go back!

But we did. but we were changed forever. Walking around a wonderfully manicured retirement resort in shorts and t-shirts while everyone else in the country was shivering was a new-found concept. With retirement years away, we now had a goal.

So here we are almost 25 years later living the Snowbird lifestyle in Mesa, an eastern suburb of Phoenix. My parent’s generation has passed the torch to us and for the last few winters we have been living out our dream in the warm Arizona sunshine.
Life is good here.

And the snow is just a remote click away.