The first day in March that the temperature gets into the 70s is always special. We know that the winter is not over and that it will snow again, but it gives us hope that spring is near. This year I was so excited that I wanted to call someone and talk about it. I don’t remember who I called, but I know I didn’t call my parents. They live on the beach in Southern California and all of their days are beautiful. But they never get as excited as we do about the weather. It’s not like they would call and say, “Wow, what a beautiful day we are having today! It got up to 73.6 degrees after a whole winter of being only 73.1!” They are also very polite about not rubbing their good weather in our noses. They never call during our snowstorms to brag about their nice weather. If my dad calls, it is just to talk about the UCLA game or to ask what gasoline costs now in Denver.

When the temperature is in the 60s at my parent’s house, they get out their winter coats. In Colorado, when it gets up into the 50s in March, all of the school kids wear shorts to school. A lot of it is what you are used to. Sometimes I wonder if we appreciate our good weather more precisely because it is not beautiful all of the time. Maybe my parents can appreciate their good weather just by seeing bad weather elsewhere and don’t need to experience it themselves.

Where would you choose to live if weather were the only factor? Colorado is very nice – you get a change in seasons, it is sunny most of the year, and it usually doesn’t get too hot or too cold. On the other hand, the weather by the beach is really nice and if you want some snow and cold weather, you can always drive into the mountains.

I definitely would not choose to live in Greenland. I have never been there, but I imagine it is almost always too cold there. Does anyone live in Greenland on purpose? Or are people just born there and are too cold to leave? Do they have a professional football team and the theater there? How about cable TV? I would hate to miss any episodes of Lost.

To be fair to Greenland, I went to the most optimistic source of what it is really like – the tourist site on the internet. It told me that the three most popular tourist attractions are the Aurora Borealis (the Northern Lights), dog sledding and the ice formations. I have always wanted to see the Northern Lights, but it is a long way to go just to pet some dogs or watch ice melt.

I also looked to see what they said about their weather. The website had this uninspiring comment about the weather in Greenland. “There is no such thing as bad weather, just the wrong clothes.” They probably paid millions of dollars to some PR firm to come up with that. In my mind, it is only slightly better than “Come to Greenland, where fingers lost due to frostbite were down 17% in 2006!” or “Visit Greenland – our crime rate is so low you are more likely to freeze to death than to have someone steal your money!” or “Come to Greenland and you will never complain about your weather again!” I know some of you were probably thinking of going to Greenland for Spring Break next year, and this information is not very encouraging. After all of the bad things I have said about it, if I ever go there, they will probably give me the cold shoulder.

Seven years ago, at the age of 50, I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. Today I am confined to a wheelchair. Metaphorically speaking, my body has moved to Greenland. It was much nicer living by the beach or in Colorado. Heck, even Nova Scotia sounds pretty nice. But I have always wanted to see the Northern Lights, my friends come to visit often and Greenland is still very pretty.

David LeSueur lives in Littleton and admits we sometimes have bad weather even with the right clothes.