It's been a very quiet day in South Florida, and I paused to reflect on things that I have noticed that are different than Ellsworth or the Twin Cities. These are what I noticed first, I'm sure there will be more.
1. It gets dark early. Of course, it gets dark early up north also, but up there, when the weather is in the high seventies it is light later, because of course, it's July then. Here we have summer weather and winter hours of daylight. And it feels very strange.
2. We have neighbors. Everyone has neighbors, but in Ellsworth they are at least a tenth of a mile away, and here they are 20 feet away. Very different. Luckily, the houses are made of cement, so sound doesn't carry very well. The neighbors next door have teenagers, so sometimes they have pool parties on weekends, which we can sometimes hear, but it is no big deal.
3. Half the neighbors, and really, half the people down here, speak Spanish. One neighbor, from Chicago, has lived here 22 years and still has a very Spanish accent. There are a lot of Indian people here also. Lots of diversity compared to Ellsworth or Wisconsin.
4. It is FLAT. There are no storm sewers here. There are, instead, drainage ditches that cut across all the neighborhoods. So the roads are a kind of maze that goes around the various drainage areas. Sometimes you'll be walking the dog and may be tempted to cut across a block only to find you can't because of the drainage. (I've never tried this)
Some things are the same. Home Depot is the same except that the plants are significantly different.
Target is pretty much exactly the same, and Target really feels like home.
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