I'm Acclimatized to You

I’m Acclimatized to You

Ginny and I sat on the front porch. “Gin, I’m going to get my jacket. I’m cold.” I
stood up. “I wonder what the temperature is?”

“Check the weather channel when you go in. See what they say.” She replied and
returned to her reading.

I got my jacket and checked the computer. “I can’t believe it!” I said when I
returned and sat beside Ginny.

“What?”

“The temperature!”

“What do you mean?” Ginny asked.

“The weather channel said the temperature is fifty-eight here.”

“And?”

“I can’t believe it’s that high. When I lived in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and
even Ohio and Jersey, I would have been wearing shorts and a T-shirt in these
temperatures. Now I feel cold.”

Ginny smiled. “That’s what three months of ninety and one hundred plus degrees
will do to you. You’re acclimatized.”

She was right. I was used to one thing. As soon as it changed, I didn’t like it. How
many times have I felt this way and not just about the weather? I grew up and lived in
the same house for twenty years. When I had to move, change hurt. I bought a home,
married Georgia, and had children. We lived there for twelve years. We were warm.

Things changed. We moved and were cold in a new environment, but we adjusted
and were warm in a new life.

We moved again. This time we moved to the state of Ohio in a new country. We
adjusted and made a new home, but big changes were coming. We moved from Ohio to
New Jersey. Winter struck hard. Georgia died. I was cold – a change I didn’t prepare for.
We were a couple for more than twenty years. Half my warm life was severed away. I
shivered with grief. Georgia and I had a warm life together – acclimatized. The
temperature changed.

The cold front moved on. Warmth returned to my life in the form of Ginny.

Ginny put her book down. “What are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking about us.”

“What about us?”

“I’m thinking about us and the warmth we share. I’m acclimatized to you.”

She opened her arms. I slid into them. “You say the sweetest things,” she said and
kissed me.

I held her. “Gin, we’ve seen a lot of change in our lives. Look at us. We’re
hugging on a deck in Idaho. We’ve been here a year now. I didn’t think I would be able
to stand the high temperatures, but I got used to them. Now I’m shivering in what I once
thought was great weather.”

She snuggled in close to me. “I know baby. We adjust to whatever life throws at
us.”

“I love you, Gin. Change is not always easy, but with you by my side, I can
acclimatize to anything.”

“I love you, Mikey,”

“I love you more. Now let’s go inside where it’s warm.”

“Why? I’m warm right here in your arms, Michael. I’m acclimatized to you.”

Michael T. Smith

Story ID:	5409
Written by:	Michael Timothy Smith (bio, link, contact, other stories)
Story type:	Family History
Location:	Caldwell Idaho USA
Year:	2009
Person:	Ginny and I