Rarely, it seems, does the weather co-operate with the timelines we schedule our lives around. This year may be the exception.
So, as we turn our calendars from a summer that was everything we normally hope summer to be—except for those impacted by the fires, of course—a timely turn in the weather may help us transition into our fall schedules.
For some, that’s a happy thought. They like schedules, routine, the more “normal” lifestyle that September returns us to. For students and teachers, it’s a return to that undertaking around which their lives revolve.
For some parents, especially of young children, it’s a relief, offering them respite from the 24-7 commotion of summer.
For some, the switch from summer mode is the best time of year, never mind the beauty of the fall colours that are still to come.
I think I understand those types. But I’m certainly not one of them.
For me, the change of weather and the onset of fall invites sadness. I could wish for perpetual summer (with perhaps a month’s break around Christmas): hiking, camping, water activities, long days, shorts and sandals, warmth–25-30o every day would be about perfect for me. (BTW, I have little sympathy for those who complain of heat when the temperatures reaches 30o then spend thousands of dollars every winter to find those temperatures in Mexico, the Caribbean or Hawaii. But I digress . . .)
Seems I’m not alone. With every passing year, I encounter more and more members of my cohort who are taking action to extend (or return to) their summers: Arizona, Palm Springs, Mexico, Costa Rica, the list lengthens. One reader of this blog mentioned to me that he’ll be off to Arizona mid-October, then to Mexico for a few months, then back to Arizona for a few more, before returning to these parts around mid April.
Most of us are not so intentional, nor have the freedom to maximize the six months, less a day, that we’re allowed to spend out of country without impacting our benefits.
Before retirement, most people don’t even have those options (though a digital nomad culture is changing that). I’m one of them.
So, we make efforts to adapt to the change in season.
For me, it’s taking up fall and winter activities that I enjoy. From mid-September through March, I curl. During the winter months, it’s also skiing. And I do more writing.
None of those activities help me to extend my summer, though. So, I do tend to take occasional short trips to sunnier places during the fall and winter. Hey, with a business to run, even though that’s relatively flexible, I couldn’t take the longer ones even if I could afford them. Plus, I have a 95-year-old mother to consider.
I hope there’s a measure of transition shaping up, too, for my endeavor to help people get into their own homes. It’s been an incredibly slow summer for applications to our program, likely due to the uncertainty that rising interest rates have inflicted on would-be homeowners.
They can’t see themselves getting into home ownership in this environment. Meanwhile, those rising interest rates keep pushing their rents higher, too. They’re “between a rock and a hard place,” as the expression goes. Just today, the news came out that the average rent in Canada has now exceeded $2000 per month.
But everyone needs housing. And the market typically adjusts to the pressures of the time. As I explained a few posts ago, an environment of higher interest rates and stable home prices has its benefits over the kind of market we had during the covid crisis. It’s not all doom and gloom for would-be homeowners. It’s not time to give up!
And, on the transitions theme, three rent 2 own tenant-buyers, having successfully completed our program, are transitioning into happy homeowners this Fall.
What transitions are you facing? How do you adapt to the new season? How are you adapting to the challenge of housing in this environment?
I’d like to hear from you.
If you overwhelm me with responses to these questions, or with applications for rent 2 own while I take a short transition from summer to a warmer climate over the next two weeks (before curling starts), I can deal with it.
Even Cuba has wifi I can access.
