Welcome To Florida!

[Kat]

Coming home from swimming today, I pulled into my driveway and there was a group of these huge birds picnicking on my next-door neighbors front lawn. What a surprise!

I was very quiet- turned off my engine and just sat and watched them from about 16 feet away. They were very calm.
My neighbor had just been using the weedwhacker when I left. I suppose that rousted out some nice insects and seeds.

This is a picture of the biggest bird, and most handsome- I suppose it is the male. He kept watch while the mother and 2 babies ate.
These pics are not mine. They are taken from a site (and the text) which identified these birds. I have typed the web address on the picture.
They are "Sandhill Cranes." It says there are only 5,000 of them, but here are 4 more!

BTW: The male would have been as tall as my shoulders!

http://www.realestatesarasota.net/birds/index.htm

[kssunflower]

I think I might have seen one a couple summers ago when I lived in Georgia and made it down to Boynton Beach a few times. Huge but beautiful bird.

[Kat]

I was really surprised to see that many birds, one being so huge!
I'm glad we hardly have any loose cats around here and we never have loose dogs, thank goodness.

On Easter Sunday I walked out to my lawn chair to sit down under my magnolia tree out back and scared away a big black snake!

[Kat]

Update:
It has been raining for 58 straight hours!

Yikes!

[Kat]

It's still raining!
Last night there were tornadoes less than 10 miles from here- I Heard them!

[Tina-Kate]

Warm & sunny here today...I think we finally stole your nice weather!

I HOPE the tornadoes have passed you by!

[Kat]

Glad you have a bit of Spring where you are...where are you btw?

It stopped raining- and it's so quiet!- But it is going to rain again- 80% chance!

[Tina-Kate]

Hmmm...quiet doesn't sound so good. Calm before the storm & all of that.

I'm back in Canada. I don't have any internet in England anymore...they took it out after Mum died...Dad can't see to use the computer.

Weather was lovely in England & by the time I got back here it was spring.

[Kat]

Well, I was standing barefoot in the bathroom on the terrazo floor brushing my hair and felt millions of little ticklers go over my foot. I jumped a bit and squeaked and looked down and OMG! !!!
Ewww it was a HUGE Palmetto bug! I smashed him with a flip flop that was handy and asked the skies above why this big bug - with all the world to roam in - picked to walk over my foot in my bathroom!! Jeesh!

[Angel]

I can imagine you have pretty big spiders in Florida too. I'm still freaking over the wolf spiders we have here. Some of them could eat all of Delaware in one bite.

[Constantine]

Rhode Island, maybe, but Delaware?!!!

[Angel]

You haven't seen our spiders.

[Kat]

There are spiders where I swim. Water spiders. They come right up to my face and look at me- they seem to walk on water.
I smashed one when I reacted to it by reaching into the portal to change the filtering bucket. It turned out to have 50 little tiny spiders on its back and they jumped off and tried to get away. I smashed them too.

Last week, after the storms, there was a gigantic earth worm in the pool and a fat bloated dead frog! Yuck!

Today the cranes were back and Harry heard them over the phone. The father crane trumpted like a turkey! He was herding his progeny- the same bunch as the ones whose likeness I posted here, above.

Thursday on the drive home from the pool there was a toilet-seat-sized turtle in the road. He was just getting started in crossing and it was a blind curve and so I pulled over and picked him up and moved him to the other side. He was really big, but only about 15 to 17 pounds. A water turtle. I bet he was my age!

[DoGeeseSeeGoD]

I spent 27 years in Palm Beach County Florida. The bugs there are insane! The palmetto bugs are the worst. Especially after the first cold snap, and they swarm your house looking for warmth. We seem to have more spiders here in Washington state-- they are absolutely everywhere!, but they are usually small, and not too intimidating. Florida spiders can be monstrous. And the mosquitos, jellyfish, sharks, alligators, snakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, overflow of tourists, blazing insane heat...well those are a few things i dont like. I guess at times, when FL has great weather, it can be paradise!

[mbhenty]

I spent a little time in Florida.

It's not for everyone.

It's like someone sits you down and said they were going to give you an injection and when you wake up you will be in heaven.

Sure enough, you wake up and there you have it......... perfect weather.

You have a hat or head piece full of fruit.

You feel like dancing.

There's a gold chain around your neck supporting a huge gold and diamond incrusted medallion with an glowing image of you on it, as King.

You have a great tasting sugary drink with an umbrella in it and all your thirsts in life has been quenched. Gud!.....it tastes like gold.

Every day is a warm sunny one. When it rains it goes away in short order and rainbows color your world like a huge surreal ribbon from god.

Colors paint your horizon.

You sit and watch the silver pelicans fly across a tropical setting sun. The man in the moon smiles right at you and only you. You are truly in paradise.

Then.......... you wake,

you go and get up on your feet and discover..........you have no legs.

[Angel]

What? ?

[mbhenty]

Yes Angel:

While in Florida, I found it a wonderful place to visit. The weather in winter was fantastic.

To appreciate it even more, you have had to spend the last 2 or 3 weeks here in Southern New England. Every other day it has been cloudy or rainy. Raw, dark, very little sun in the past several weeks, but common northern weather.

In Florida the weather is marveloussssssssssss.

In Florida rain usually comes quickly and leaves quickly and the sun soon announces it's self, "I'M BACKKKK BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE".

BUT,

BUT,

There is something missing, something big.

After spending 7 months in florida, towards the end of my time there I began feeling like I was a prisoner in paradise. It was not that there was not anything to do. But, that there was something missing, something big, something that made a huge difference, at least for me.

[mbhenty]

Well, perhaps I should have said more above......or been more clear about it.

The "Legs" I was talking about was "Culture" historical culture, a sense of roots.

Everywhere I went it was highways, wide roadways and strip malls, strip malls, strip malls. Housing developments were all over the place. People constantly on the move.

People did not seemed to be ruled by a sense of heritage. Perhaps that is a good thing. But the awareness of origin, ancestry, the heart was beating and beathing strong but little to no blood.

Even today after thinking about it for a long while I can not put my finger on it. But after living in Florida for 7 months I could not wait to come home. Towards the end of my tenure I didn't even go out much, but instead spent most of my time in self imposed solitary confinement, without going out at all.

I would look out the window, the palm trees were swaying, egrets lounged on the fine lawns of expensive homes across the street, Marilyn Monroe types walked their poodles by my window, yet something big was missing...............somehow I felt like I had no legs.

I will not go as far as to say it is God's waiting room, but that is what it felt like.

As in Homer's epic poem, Florida was my Sirenum Scopuli. It lures and does so strongly. Its attraction for some, such as myself, is one of Jason and the Sirens. It lured me but........................well, let me just reiterate, it's not what some think it is.

Florida is not for everyone.

Florida is just not for me.

[kssunflower]

Hemingway would disagree....


I love Florida. To a landlocked Kansan, it's paradise. But I'll never forget the huge alligator we saw slithering across one of the coastal highways in the Keys a day before a tropical depression came in.

[mbhenty]

I can not really explain why I felt the way I did in florida.

I sat on my boat sipping a cool pina-colada, the portly Manatees circled my boat, swimming on their backs, feeding off the growth underneath my vessel. Ten to twenty feet away glinting gray dolphins burst out of the warm water, their blow holes announcing their arrival, as they trapped their fish catch against the marina wall near where I was moored. The 4 to 5 pilings along the docks each had a pelican resting on their crown all waiting to feed on what the dolphins left behind. All the while less than 10 miles away the space shuttle climed the white orange sky.

One can not deny that there was a wonderment about it.



Now Southern California was wonderful. I found a sense of family and neighborhood that I did not discover in Florida.



Oh yes, some would say that Hemingway never lived in Florida. He settled in Key West. If one visits Key West you will discover that those who live there take pride in the watery divide that separate them from the rest of the state.

Along with Hemingway, Tennessee Williams also lived in Key West where he made his home for over 30 years and where he resided when he died in New York.

[Angel]

I didn't like Florida either. It seemed to be unending concrete, houses, though pretty, all looking alike, and trillions of old people, of which I will never be. I loved California. I agree... it seems a lot more comfortable there, and the people are more laid back.

[Tina-Kate]

...Along with Hemingway, Tennessee Williams also lived in Key West where he made his home for over 30 years and where he resided when he died in New York.

I loved Key West. It was wonderfully weird. Don't know if I could handle it 365 24/7 tho.

[mbhenty]

Yes, in consideration of all Floridians or those who love Florida, the opinion of those who may not feel comfortable there is just that........an opinion.

Though it may be a viewpoint deeply seated in candor and truth it is not a condemnation of Floridians. ThIs is the way I feel. I am sure I can safely say the same is true for ANGEL.

But, it is truth non-the-less. Just as Texans who take pride in doing things there way, so do Floridans. Perhaps that is why it is so different there.

These dissimilarities go beyond the people to the landscape. And one can bear witness to the fact that it is the same in other places like Alaska or Arizona.

North Dakota in winter is not for everybody.

In a state which builds gated communities the size of small cities and where there are right to work laws where a business can fire you for any reason or no reason, there's no argument that things are done different there.

Part of Florida's problem was not having the time to grow with grace (problem for me, perhaps not for you). The mass exodus from the other states by retirees to live in Florida and WAIT FOR GOD does not help matters any.

Add to this the landscape which is very flat and soggy, which in its self is a wonderful natural topography, building tons of stripmalls, roadways and housing projects, along with millions of migrating Americans, gives Florida an "identity without an identity".

In summing it up, it does not mean that is is an awful place to live; just that it is not for everyone.

Some love it..............,

some like it...........,

some can take it or leave it............,

and some don't care for it at all.

It's just the way it is.

[Kat]

Gee wizzakers.

Way back when... our family had a choice- to move to Huntington Beach California, (from Sacramento) or back to Florida, where 2 of our siblings had been born-- we voted and Florida won!
After graduating tho, a couple of us did move back to California. So we are on both coasts. I have a permanent invitation to live in Southern California, but I have Florida in my heart, mind and soul now...
What Sky! My favorite beach! The Atlantic Ocean!
Wow!

A double rainbow the other evening, with the brightest colours I have ever witnessed. Everyone in my neighborhood outside gazing at it, and chatting to each other. Children playing safely in the streets. A shuttle launch and everyone pours out their front door to look due east and watch such a miracle, goosebumps rising.

That old turtle I helped on his way across the street...could likely be one my sister and I helped on his way 30 years ago. A huge grey crane landed not far from my car as I was driving down my street this past weekend. I saw my sandhill crane family again today walking quietly 2 streets down.
The same family of black snakes have been mating and breeding in my backyard for 44 years. Snakes don't travel far from home if there is no need.
Lakes lakes lakes lakes everywhere. Lushness...and exotic flowers and orange blossoms and huneysuckle and gardenia flowering scents in the humid evenings.
Ahhh!

I need to post more pictures here I guess.

[mbhenty]

Yes Kat. The description you give is a factual one. Nature, wild and other wise, is all around.

To you Florida is the "Bird of Paradise".

To me it is the "Venus Flytrap".

I have met tons of people who have moved to Florida or purchased property there and spend their winters there.

But all these people did so for the Weather. Nothing else. Of course with the weather everything comes up green.

All I am saying above is that it is not for everyone.

But, you are right to defend your home state and make a case for why I may be wrong.

Heck, even I have been looking for property in St Augustine.

[mbhenty]

Ah yes, the space Shuttle. A whole new can of crickets.

I would be lying if I did not admit that I was fascinated when watching the space shuttle.

The last time I watched the shuttle go up it was from 50 miles away in Orlando.

When they hit ignition the eastern sky lit up like a bomb went off a couple of miles away. Even from 50 miles away you could make out the shuttle climb in a small orange ball.

I was fascinated.

But I was also fascinated when the Kerr Thread Mill in fall river burnt to the ground and would probably be fascinated if I stood on Mount Fuji in August of 1945 as the American planes flew over Nagasaki.

Ok, ok, a little over the top perhaps. Not trying to be rude. Just trying to make a point. And that is that I consider the space shuttle a complete waste of money.

I understand that there is something about the space program that separated the country from all others in the world.

A bill was just passed, and the president signed it, to spend over 18 billion on just the new moon project.

Money could be better spent here.

But, then again I'm not on an ego trip.

(and if so, it is just when I post here)

[mbhenty]

OK, here are some pictures of how wonderful it is up here in fall river.

How's that? Why would anyone want to move to Florida?

Now, it's your turn to post your photos Kat....................

[Angel]

I've only seen the area near Ft. Lauderdale. I have a feeling that it would be more to my liking inland, with the things you described, Kat. Sounds beautiful.

[Harry]

Don't know too much about the weather elsewhere but if the daily downpours here in the upstate of South Carolina don't stop I'm going to work on building an ark!

[Tina-Kate]

Eeesh. South Carolina too?

I'll rescue you in mine, Harry...



At least everything is green...

[Harry]

Hey, nice ark! Thanks! (First time I've ever said that to anybody! )

We've had a drought here for the last 4-5 years. It doesn't have to make up for it all at once though!

Today's forecast - rain and thunderstorms.

Tonight more of the same.

[DoGeeseSeeGoD]

I think I still consider Palm Beach County, Florida home. Even after having been away for 10 years. I spent my first 27 years there (excluding my first year of life in Massachusetts). It is still hard for me to call Tacoma Washington home, even though I really do like it here.

Florida does have a culture all its own. and I dont think it all revolves around old, retired people. When you are growing up there it can be alot of fun! I miss Florida sometimes.

[Stefani]

I am the only living member of my family who was born and raised in Florida. I didn't know any different, and lived what I think now was a middle to upper middle class life. We had a huge house, 5 bedrooms and 2 and a half baths, and lived in a spectacular neighborhood. The house was purchased for something like $25,000 in 1963 or 1964.

Florida has no seasons to speak of. You never feel like you are growing old because you never see it around you. There is little real change in the weather (only what I remember as cold snaps and such), and so the pace of life is different there.

When I went to grad school in Pennsylvania I realized how amazing it was to feel the change in seasons, feel the world turning, and feel what it is like to deserve a spring after a cruel winter.

My blood is very much suited to high heat and humidity. I love the weather. I love my friends and family there. Can't say I miss anything else.

[SteveS.]

It's been 95-100 degrees every day here in west Texas for like a month now but I still miss Massachusetts so much. My next move though I think will be to Florida. I actualy like the heat and humidity there and I miss being near the ocean. When I retire I want to work in my yard and garden and I love tropical plants and fruit trees so what better place to retire?

[Kat]

Well, there's a lot of history in St. Augustine- I was just thinking about that!
I think you've been there more recently than I, too!

We do have "Forts" all over here- where I live was once a Fort- these were in the exploration of the area and also served during the Seminole Indian wars.

I was also thinking about the Florida railroads being backed by the big rich names of the North, in the 19th century, and their development of wonderful estates around here and down in south Florida.

You're not the only one I've heard disliking this state from Fall River! To each his or her own taste, no problem.