Here is something I hate: when someone makes a mocking remark about how people complaining about the summer heat are the same ones who will be complaining about the winter cold—as if that’s a ridiculous, contradictory thing to do. No, I reject that attempted mockery: I feel absolutely non-ridiculous when I complain about BOTH of two different types of discomfort. It is in fact possible and reasonable to dislike being too hot AND to dislike being too cold, and to prefer to be somewhere in the middle where it is not “too” anything.
What is it the mockers think is so clever here? “Oh, you’re TOO COLD when the wind is blowing icily and the snow is halfway up the door? That’s not what you said when it was blisteringly hot and humid out! You irrational idiot! Snork, snork!” “Oh, you felt self-conscious when you turned out to be overdressed for that party? Well, then, you’re never happy, because I remember on another occasion you felt self-conscious when you were UNDERdressed for another event! I mean, make up your mind!” “Are you wishing it would stop raining because it’s been doing it for days and your basement is flooding? That’s not how you felt about rain when we had a drought last summer! Some people are just impossible to please!” “What? You’re too full? Just half an hour ago you were complaining about being hungry! What IS it with you and your irrational changeability?”
I have heard it, “careful, because we’ll be complaining about the cold in a few months (weeks, minutes).” Or, There are people who are all, “It’s so cold! I wish it was summer and 95!!” And then you can be all, “right, so you can complain about the heat because you hate weather over 80.”
But, I hear what you’re saying and I agree completely! However, occasionally it does make sense to point out the contradiction.
It’s still pretty hot and muggy where I live and I am simultaneously impatient for it to be over already and kind of dreading winter, so there you go…
I live in an area of vast weather extremes and I complain about both, but try to remember on the hot, muggy days that in a few months, I will have to bundle up and cover every inch of skin lest I get frostbite in seconds. In weather as in life, extremes are usually unpleasant.
See also: “You think X-degrees is HOT/COLD? Try living HERE, where the buildings are designed for that extreme of heat/cold and also we have the appropriate clothing and therefore we remain more comfortable for a longer period as the temperature approaches that extreme of heat/cold!”
Also see also: “You think you’re tired NOW? Wait till the baby is born and you never ever sleep again, because things only get WORSE AND WORSE once you have the baby. How you will long for the days of unmitigated nausea, piercing sciatic, and an inability to breathe!”
Yes, this is so true! What is it about humankind and our insatiable thirst for one-upsmanship! I detest these comments, and yet I have to actively monitor myself not to say the same doggone thing to mothers of young children/people in milder climates.
Yes, liking weather that is not too hot or too cold does not make me Goldilocks. I have a WIDE RANGE of acceptable temperatures. Everything from 40-80, probably! But there are temperatures outside of that range and they’re not my preference. If they’re yours (HUSBAND), great! Enjoy this 95 degree day!
(I should mention I’m not trying to throw my husband under the bus – he’s not snotty about me hating the heat while he loves it. It’s just that his acceptable range is 60-100. Baffling to me, but at least someone enjoys it!)
Well. . . I live in an area that, last winter, we had temperatures in the ZEROs – a LOT. And we had 4 feet of snow at ONE TIME.
I have spent this summer, while it’s been 90+ and humid, off and on all summer, reminding myself that it’s going to take a LOT of 90 degree days to make up for four feet of snow. FOUR FEET.
An AWFUL LOT of 90 degree days.
Ha. My version of this, being a Midwestern girl, is that one can like living in an area where the seasons change and the weather changes, and STILL TIRE OF A PARTICULAR FLAVOR OF WEATHER AFTER IT HAS OVERSTAYED ITS WELCOME ZOMG. I really do enjoy a super hot day or two! Just not a week of them in a row when I still have to look presentable at work but the thought of using a blowdryer and putting on work-appropriate clothing makes me want to die! I like a snowstorm that forces us all to stay inside around the fireplace and wearing cozy robes! Just not so many in a row that we are all at each other’s throats, or when it’s also too bitterly cold to even play outside in the snow! I love a good thunderstorm! But when it has rained for a month and all my plants are drowned but my grass is horrifically shaggy and I’m on constant flood alert, I’m kind of over it, thanks! ET TO THE CETERA. I am a human person and I am capable of many feelings. Why is this…remarkable in any way?!
As a kid, I had an illustrated book of adapted Aesop’s fables. And I remember distinctly, one of the fables involved someone who came over for dinner when it was cold outside. When he came in, he blew on his hands to warm him up. Then he was served some very hot soup, and blew on the soup to cool it down. Whereupon his host immediately kicked him out of the house, saying that he could not harbor a guest who blew hot and cold with the same breath. Even when I was LITTLE, I remember thinking how outrageous that was. OUTRAGEOUS. How is that a fable? GUH.
I have been known to (gently) mock people for this, but it’s more aimed at the full-time, year-round weather complainers. It’s ALWAYS too hot, too cold too sunny, too cloudy, too rainy, too dry. Come on, now. Develop some coping skills, folks. I decided a long time ago that I would pick one season to complain about (winter!) and then never complain about the others. Strangely enough, after I decided that, I no longer wanted to complain about winter, either.
For me a perfect day is 27-30 during the day (sorry, I don’t know the equivalent in Farenheit), and 20-22 at night, so yes, I like it on the warm side. Apparently all my relatives take this as license to berate me if I dare suggest it’s too hot out. “I thought you liked it hot!” or “But you complain all winter about the cold!” as if I could NEVER be TOO HOT.
After reading this I will feel less obliged to apologize for being occasionally overheated. Thank you!
I see these comments all the time and it makes no sense. I rather doubt that anyone likes to freeze their ass off OR be in the blistering heat. And true, some people just complain about well, everything. But so what!
Really, what gain is there to mocking someone? It just makes them feel silly or worse and that is certainly worse than their complaints about the weather.