It’s cold outside, so why do some people wear shorts?

When Jane Bergner and her husband moved to Mesa in 2010, a neighbor told her, “Now Jane, don’t leave your sweatshirts in Kansas City because you’re going to want those the third winter you’re here.”

She and her husband moved to Arizona for the glorious winter weather, tired of the snow and ice, and weathered their first two winters in shorts and short sleeves.

Sure enough, by their third winter, they were pulling on pants and sweatshirts.

“Why is that?” Jane asked. My predecessor Clay Thompson was asked this question often, probably because so many people move to Arizona every year.

Clay explained it is mostly a matter of how long you’ve been here and what you’re used to. Because your body adjusts to your surroundings.

When you’re hot, the blood vessels under your skin dilate and rise closer to the surface of the skin to help you throw off heat. When you’re cold, the vessels draw deeper toward your body core to keep heat in.

The longer you live in a hot climate, the quicker your body responds to the heat and the slower it responds to cold, and vice versa if you live in cold climates.

“In essence,” Clay wrote, “by moving to Arizona for our wonderful weather, you’ve become a softy like the rest of us, and your body is no longer accustomed to the cold.”

Which explains why new arrivals and students here for college from colder places are running around in shorts while we’re all bundled up. (Just this morning I hollered out the car window at one of my son’s friends from Wisconsin to put on pants. It was 37 degrees.)

“This week I am just dying from the cold,” Jane said. Not just her. Everyone is complaining about the cold in the same tones we whine about the summer heat.

There’s just no pleasing us, really. Reach