Arrival

We are back home after eight years in Florida. Some things are different, most is the same. I am here at the perfect time, before the snow and gray sameness of winter months has me going batshit. I do not miss the South. Read my Yankee in a Red State blog to know why.

I am happy to be back among friends and family, where my northern habits do not surprise people, where my haste and noise blend in with others of my kind. I have figured out that I need periods of dormancy just like my beloved lilacs and spring tulips. I do not thrive in a tropical climate. The heat and humidity wear me out.

Here, the cold makes me get up and move around. I no longer sit, sluggish and sweating, surrounded by a cacophony of mosquito buzz and traffic snarl. Songbird voices replace the maternal calls of the alligator. The roar of the train passing with its cargo of precious poisons has been replaced by the near-silent passing of woodchuck, white tailed dear, black bear and wild boar (I am told that the boars come to gore the local Holstein kine).

I am off to the local flea market to see what the tschochke du jour is. I may pick up a home-baked pie at the Trading Post. In the meantime, there are pictures of my view taken with my ne'er do well camera phone.

Please send good digital photography equipment ASAP.