My husband and I have also been mulling over issue of where to live in our retirement, and we're somewhat at a loss. As we get older, he has more and more trouble with cold weather and I have more and more trouble with hot humid weather -- which he thrives on. We do both agree, though, that we're weary of the long, gloomy winters in the Northeast US.

There are some places which we can agree on -- like coastal California -- but they're too expensive for our limited means. New Zealand also sounds very appealing to us, but we're not willing to settle so far from our children and grandchildren.

I think what we're leaning toward now is to remain where we are but to spend more and more time during the winter in Spain. I'm not yet retired -- and we have an aging dog -- so it can be only for a couple of weeks at first, but I'd like to stretch it to a month or two, most likely renting a villa. Catalonia strongly appeals to us. My husband likes it well enough that he's willing to put up with less-than- summerlike conditions. At least it would be warmer and sunnier than where we are.

Landra from upstate NY