For those of you that have been asking how life is in the warm sunny
state of Florida for this Northerner girl, blogging is the easiest way to
respond. First know that those down here call me a Northern, inspite of the
fact I have lived in Nashville for 16 years! I guess, in Floridians mind that
is not the south.
When we first moved in, we found out quickly, we have a neighbor much
like Mrs. Kravitz on the Bewitched show. Ours is named Wally. He is a very
likeable fellow but makes it his responsibility to fill us in on everything not
limited to but including:
·
If
we pull our trash cans in off the curb and see others, we are to pull theirs up
at the same time, as that is the “neighborly” thing to do
·
Our
dog, since over 100 lbs. should be wearing a horse saddle
·
Instructions
on how often the grass should be cut, how things should be planted
·
We
must get Direct TV so he can get $25.00 off his next bill!
·
The
bugs on the front of our car have been there for two days and need to be
cleaned
In driving
around the area, trying to get familiar with the roads, we have discovered our
GPS is also unfamiliar with this area of Florida. Apparently the woman inside our
navigation system has blonde roots or prefers the scenic route. She frequently takes lunch breaks and leaves
us in a lurch.
We quickly
discovered, Florida is the one place everyone makes U turns, and I mean do mean
everywhere. Turn signals must not be mandatory or break easily and are never
fixed as u turns are down with
relatively no warning and at the most inopportune times. Imagine, driving down the road, and all of
the sudden, in the left-hand lane, the car directly infront of you hits its
breaks and makes a u turn in the middle of a double sides highway. Welcome to
Florida! Roads aren’t marked well and either are locations, stores, or
restaurants. I constantly miss the turn off for Starbucks. That is downright sinful! So u turns it
is, we have begun to conform to the
norm.
I am enjoying
seeing all the tropical plants I use to only see on television and on
occasional vacations to the beach. Palm trees are everywhere, lining many
streets. Drivers are not good-natured when I stop the car though to snap an
occasional picture of one to text a friend so I have had to refrain doing so.
And our neighbors, they are removing their large palm trees from their yard. As
they do, they are gleeful about it and I am sad. Apparently these trees, once
large, are a nuisance and yet, I am new to the area and love them. Slowly but
surely, I fear the large ones will disappear from our neighborhood.
One of the most
bizarre things I have seen in our neighborhood is pots of plants literally lying
on the ground as landscaping! Some folks
put the pots half in the soil. I found this silly looking so took it upon
myself to take two of ours that were left like that on our newer home to transplant
in the ground. Now, as they are quickly
dying, I took the time to ask neighbors why they keep them potted. Now I learn
it is because it allows the water to be held in the pots much better than the
sandy soil to keep the plants from dying. I come home and look at my dying
plants and say lesson learned. Wally
peeps out the window at me shaking his head and laughing.
Our lanai, also
called a Florida room is much like a sunroom in the North. We had no idea, if the door is left open
long, those strange reptiles found in the south can find their way in. Baby
lizards called salamanders and yes, even last night, frogs. One night, two were found in it and we
fought over who was going to catch the critters. I think we would have left
them there with the door propped open but our fear was that Charley would eat
them. It is preferably though to mice in the house
in the north.
We lucked out
that we are located within ten houses of the doggie park. Charley is overjoyed.
However, wow, every time he is taken outside to go to the bathroom, he is
pulling at that lead as if there is no tomorrow to walk down there until we give
in and off we go to appease him. And
wouldn’t you know it is right by the last hole of the golf course so carts seem
to go by frequently getting him all riled up. The good part of this is he comes
home exhausted. My arm is pulled half out of the socket too.
Oh we also have
had a bout or two of poop in our new home! Strange huh when the HOA insists
everyone pick up their dog’s poop. We
thought so too until we learned coyotes are located here too. And we then
learned what their waste looks like and found it was that. Disgusting huh, it somehow landed in our
living room. So now, we are on guard for their stuff in our yard. I am hoping they don’t like oranges as there
is a nice orange tree in our backyard.
We have both
been busy, my husband and I working on things fixing up the house, putting our
touches on everything. Constantly we are asked how is the beach? We want to
say, “What beach, are there beaches here?”
We really need to take a break and start doing more things Florida is
known for. Home Depot is everywhere and even in Florida it looks exactly the
same.
Interesting bit
of trivia we learned regarding the county we live in Pascoe County. This is the
nudist capital county in the United States. Clothing is optional in many areas.
Isn’t that nice to know? Perhaps when my grandchildren come down, I should be
certain I know where those areas are at!
While painting
our rocking chairs green, one neighbor was extremely friendly. Ed. He drove his
golf cart right up through our yard to the garage to chat with me. As he
watched me he kept commenting on how good a painter I was and how much I seemed
to enjoy it. That should have been my cue, but no red flag went off.
He then went on
to tell me where he lives in the community, towards the front where a huge
Buddha is out in the front yard. I told Big Ed I would never have known that.
He goes on to tell me Buddha needs very badly to be repainted. Okay, here I
sensed what was coming. He told me he can’t handle painting Buddha. It hurts
his back too much to bend over. He went on saying he would pay someone to paint
it, “Hey why not you?”
I got out of it
but have decided, from here on out when painting I need to look more in pain
when I do outside work if Ed is around. He is a sweetheart but I don’t see Buddha
in my future!
