Porch envy

Over the past several months, I’ve spent an awful lot of time sitting out in covered, screened in porches. It’s one of my favorite places to go, well, either that or the beach. If I’m visiting someone’s home and discover they’ve got one I immediately ask if we can go out there. Turn on the fan, give me a cool drink, and I’m set for hours. However, I've discovered that many people don’t share my love of this space. Much to my surprise, many people feel they are too hot, too cold, too uncomfortable, whatever. I just don’t get it. Okay, okay, I know. I’m from way up north – not here in the south. And up north, there just aren’t enough days you can sit outside and soak up the beauty of nature. Well, not unless you want to freeze your butt off. Here, on the other hand, even on a so-called winter day, you can still be outside and not be overly cold. But then again, people around here so often find any excuse not to go outside for a walk either. It’s too hot, too humid, too cold, too sunny, too cloudy, too rainy, too buggy. Really, I’ve heard it all at this point any time I dare to ask a friend to join me on my daily ritual of a walk around town. Even when I lived up north, I used to go for a walk almost every day. Even when it was snowing you could find me out there, no excuses for missing as far as I’m concerned. No, I think somehow, the mentality around here has gotten to the point they think outside=bad. Fine, my new mission in life is to get more people outside on their porches. Most people around here have them after all. And from there, get them to go for a walk around the block. Come on people, outside is so much better than inside. Fresh air, birds singing, squirrels playing in the trees. Remember the saying, “Try it, you’ll like it.”? Yup, I bet if you spend some time in the wonderful world of your backyard you’ll come to see why I like it so much. And the next time someone asks me why I moved to the south, I’m going to proudly say “Porch envy!” And if they can’t understand that, it’s on them.