isn't it cold for you?

That was what Roy's mother asked me this afternoon as I left her house for the one-mile walk up the hill to Roy and Nancy's house.

She wasn't the first. Several people around Reno have looked at my short sleeves and given me that look of pity mixed with bewilderment that we bestow on guys sleeping under bridges. I suspect they wonder, at least to a degree, whether I am four cards short of a royal flush.

If you have hung around these pages very long, you know I did not move to Mexico for the weather. Barra de Navidad is a tropical village -- and it has the weather to prove it.

My ideal day is 55 degrees, overcast, with a slight drizzle. In eight years, I still have not seen one of those days.

My sister-in-law has been cold at my house in the morning because the temperatures have been dropping to the mid-60s for the past month. She was even chillier with Pátzcuaro's 40 degree mornings. For me, mornings in both places were a relief from the ongoing Costalegre heat.

Reno has proven to be a surprise weather mecca for me. On Friday, it snowed. Not heavily, but enough to drop the temperature into the 30s.

This morning, I decided to take advantage of the weather. I slipped on my walking shoes, a pair of shorts, and a shirt to walk through the neighborhood. The main loop is about 2 miles covering some challenging grade increases.

I had intended to walk around the loop at least twice to meet the major part of my daily walking goal. I made it around once.

And it was not the weather that drove me inside early. The 34 degree weather was perfect for exercising.

What I failed to account for was the altitude. Combined with the steep hills, 2 miles was just about the right amount of walking for the morning. I felt refreshed, if a bit winded.

By afternoon, I had completed just under 7 miles of steps. Not a bad day.

I realize Reno can have rough winters. This has not been one of them. I hate driving in snow and ice. I have never lived anywhere that had enough of either to give me the driving skills. So, I will certainly not move to Reno for the weather.

What I do know is that the last four days have been refreshing for me. There is a certain beauty in the desert.

I will miss that tomorrow. We fly to Los Angeles in the morning to overnight before our flights to Australia -- starting on Sunday night.

But that is another story that has yet to be written.