Global Warming

To frame the whole picture, I have to go back 15 years. Back then my husband was still serving in the Navy,  and we received orders to move to Norfolk, Virginia where Thom would do his XO tour for the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush. The XO, or Executive Officer, is the number two guy in charge. For those of you that don’t speak Navy, if all goes spectacularly well with your flying career in the Navy, you may be offered to then be the Executive Officer (XO) of an aircraft carrier, then move on to be the Commanding Officer (CO) of a deep draft ship, and then ultimately the CO of an aircraft carrier. Being that there are very few places that we have these aircraft carriers, it would only make sense that the Navy might want to reduce costs and try to keep their officers in these roles in the same geographical location if at all possible. Right?

Hence, long story short, my husband sold me on the idea of buying a house back in 2005 in Norfolk, Virginia, as we could potentially stay there for eight years. We bought a big 3800 square foot house in Talbot Park at the peak of the real estate market. Beautiful house, beautiful area, but after two years we got the news that we were not going to stay in Norfolk, but instead move to Yokosuka, Japan. That stung for a while. Throughout the rest of my husband’s Navy career, we never did make it back to Norfolk or that house. We sold the house two years ago and the financial hemorrhaging has finally ended. As a side note, we absolutely loved Japan, but I digress. 

Fast forward to 2017 and Thom has retired from the Navy and we are contemplating moving to his home state of Michigan. All the stars seemed to be aligning with our two oldest attending Michigan State, as well as a few of my paintings just being accepted into a winter show in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The final push made by my husband, was that with global warming, Michigan shouldn’t be quite as cold as he remembers from his youth, as I am not a fan of cold weather.

Here we are this last week in January where the Governor has issued a state of emergency for the entire state of Michigan due to dangerously low subzero temperatures. This all occurring on the heels of having roughly 18 inches of snowfall in our area alone, some of that being windblown lake effect snow. Whiteout conditions creating some total shutdowns on portions of our interstate highways due to multiple car pileups. Wind chills at night dipping between 25 and 40 degrees below zero. Calgon, take me away!

Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. I know global warming is not something to scoff at, but I was kind of banking on enjoying Michigan a bit more with the whole idea of global warming. I do have to say though that even with this crazy weather, I am still very very thankful. Power never left, never even stuttered. One of the frustrating things about being new to Michigan, particularly with one last son at home finishing off his senior year in high school, is that Michigan schools do not typically close due to snow. Back in northern Virginia, we could get a light dusting and all the schools and the government are shutting down. Michigan certainly does have the infrastructure to deal with this type of weather, but even this week was a bit much, closing schools for the entire week.

Clearly, with little else that can be accomplished while being house bound, I have enjoyed some quality painting time in my studio…I mean pool room. Ha…that will all be explained next week! Happy February, and stay warm!