Living in Florida

(This is me blogging about nothing of significance just for the sake of blogging.)

Most of you reading this either live in Florida now, or have lived in Florida at some point. In either case, you are going to know exactly what I mean with this blog.

I love living in Florida. The heat doesn't even bother me. The bugs are managebale. Bring on the tropical storms & lightning shows - love em! Beaches, seafood, Disney World, Key West, the Florida Gators - what's not to love? (OK - maybe the obnoxious New York transplants who are so rude, or the Illegal Immigrants sucking up my tax dollars, but other than that...)

One of the only things I don't like is the humidity. I went jogging last week, and when I stopped to catch my breath I couldn't. No - I wasn't having a heart attack. It was more that I felt like I was breathing underwater. Or breahing IN water. The humidity level was - seriously - 90% or something like that. I relate it to what it would probably feel like to breathe in maple syrup. Thick and wet.

Then today, I had the good sense to go jogging about 2 hours earlier. (DUH - 15 degree temerapture difference, if I could only manage to get my fat ass out of bed...) The humidity was better today, a manageable 70% or so. But if you've lived in Florida for any amount of time, you'll know the smell I encountered this morning. The smell of damp. Nightly rainstorms, partnered with high humidity and a high water table, all add up to, well, DAMP. Imagine if you put some mud and grass clippings in a garbage bag and left it in the sun for a week. Open it up, and that's what Tampa smelled like this morning. Not the rich, pungent smell of say - a wetlands, or the musty smell of a hay barn. More like a rotting, wet, decaying smell. It was not pleasant. A breeze might help, but usually there's only a breeze in August when it's blowing some rain around, so that doesn't really help at all.

On a related note...why is it that I like to sit on my lanai and drink beer and watch it rain? It must be in my genetic code or something, 'cause my Dad used to do the same thing. Only he sat on what the "regular folks" would call a "porch." (I actually hate the word lanai - it sounds so prententious.)

Only in Florida do you watch the news and see the Governor riding in an airboat through the Everglades to oversee a "Python Hunt." No - really. Apparently south Florida is being over-run by exotic snakes that some dimwits let loose in the wild. There have been at least 3 big news stories in the past few weeks involving big snakes. I mean, that's just entertainment right there.

If you have ever read any books by Dave Barry, he absolutely nails the "eccentric Florida" that I know and love. Carl Hiassen does a good job too. Florida is such a wacky place - you just gotta love it.

Just don't try to breathe in August.