Contrasting Winter Seasons in America

The scene before you is my sister’s sidewalk in Minneapolis, representing contrasting seasons in America. She has experienced so much snow, and being a mail carrier at USPS, she gets more than her fair share being outside to deliver mail. My sister is not a well person. She likes to say I got all the good genes because I am the oldest, and she, obviously, is the youngest. Our brother died from cancer. Our middle sister went insane. Both parents are dead.

Her doctors say she should seek early retirement due to pain and injury from 30+ surgeries, but the post office refuses. The post office forces her to perform work that her doctor prohibits, and nobody seems to care. She is not offered jobs that accommodate her disabilities. So she works in pain. She claims there are no lawyers willing to fight the post office, except the dishonest ones who want to charge non-refundable upfront fees.

There is no better way to show contrasting winter seasons in America than to show you the photo I sent to her. It is the only recent picture I have of my lanai in Hawaii. Just replaced our patio furniture with something less lumpy, worn and uncomfortable. See below.

All over the country, we see contrasting winter seasons in America. In Sacramento, it’s been difficult holding Sacramento open houses due to the crummy weather, cold and rain. Buyers just haven’t been going out in high numbers. Not like previous years.

Yesterday, we had such hot weather in Kona. So hot that my friend Loli texted that we should go to the beach when she got off work. The beach we chose to visit was in the midst of a wedding, so instead we met some random woman from New York driving down the road, who also did not realize that beach was occupied.

Somehow, we jumped into her car and headed off to Kahalu’u when Loli suggested a beach just before that spot where the turtles show up in record numbers. You have to walk down a path just before Poinsettia and travel over lava rocks, aa and pahoehoe, to reach the place, but it was very private. Once we arrived there, we met another friend Loli works with, so the four of us hung out, checking out shells to determine occupied vs unoccupied. Careful not to step on sea urchin.

Life in Kona during the winter is probably the most contrasting winter season in America. It is unique in so many ways. I consider myself so extremely fortunate to experience this. Some people do not consider Hawaii to be part of America.