A Floridian in Wisconsin

[Hbomb]

I know this is kinda off topic, but since there's quite a few people from Wisconsin who post here, I thought it might work.

Anyway, I've been living in Wisconsin for about a month now, and I've noticed some quite a few differences from Florida.

Lack of restaurant chains. I think I already ranted about this in the ice cream post, but it's an adjustment. Plus, I'm currently staying with my parents, and they live way out.

Bagboys and 2-Liters of Soda, er, Pop. Maybe it's just the bagboys at County Market (who seem to be inept), but I believe it happened at Wal-Mart too. (Mini-rant: Merrill has a Wal-Mart, but not a Taco Bell (not since it closed down)? What's up with that.) In Florida, if you had 2-liter bottles, the bagboy just bagged them up. Here, we had to ask the bagboy at County Market to bag them up. I believe they asked us at Wal-mart, instead of assuming the obvious. Is this wierd, or am I too nitpicky?

Cool stuff. Ok, I'm not just complaining here. Last week, my dad showed me the Aurora Borealis. It's something we weren't able to see in Florida, and I enjoyed it. I'm also looking forward to the leaves changing colors (also something new for me). I've been coming up here a couple times a year since my parents moved up here in 1999, and several times before that when I was younger, but I've never been here for an autumn.

Weather. The obvious difference. This evening, the temperature's in the 40's. In Florida, we have a term for that kind of weather- January.

Ok. That's about it. How crazy am I?

-Hbomb, AKA Florida Boy

[ZOMBIE USER 487]

Ooohhh..
I'm an alien
I'm a legal alien
I'm a Floridian in Wisconsin...

----


Okay, I'll stop now.

[MNsane]

shoot, i've taken my garbage out wearing t shirt, swimtrunks, & barefoot in that weather

[Zorlond]

You're not crazy. Not until you've marched calmly to the mailbox, t-shirt, jeans, and barefoot, through ankle-deep snow. Then you're crazy.

[Katie J]

Heh heh. I love it when cold weather newbies shrivel up at 30 degrees. It's just a bit of morbid fun for me ^U^

Though, if you're lucky it won't turn (really) cold till mid January like last year. (MAN, that was freaky weather )

I was just in the Merrill area today, and I noticed the leaves were just changing. I like the neon pink/yellow trees the best.

Try not to get too depressed when all the trees around you look like they're dead (that outta be around mid to late November.) Forests of skeletons can look sad, but still, strangely beautiful.

Oh, and snow! It's great to see it fall gently from the sky, and I love it when it blankets the ground.

Wonderful....

[Hbomb]

I have been up here before in October (once, for a wedding), November (twice for Thanksgiving, one of those times was long before my parents moved up here), and 5 times for December/January winter break (all three years my parents have been up here (1999-2001), plus 1990 and 1992 visiting extended family). I just haven't been up here for the changes.

But there's no way I'm going to dress like I would in winter down there when it's winter up here. I'm just not that crazy. Plus, my parents have 35 acres. It's not just a hop, skip, and jump to the mailbox.

-H

[Zorlond]

Forests of skeletons can look sad, but still, strangely beautiful.

Especially after some freezing rain (I live in NH, winters can get pretty rough over here). After the rain goes away and all the water freezes, the forest takes on an almost crystaline appearance... If you're lucky, it lasts until sunset/rise, the light refraction is gorgeous.

[Red_Cedars]

Try not to get too depressed when all the trees around you look like they're dead (that outta be around mid to late November.) Forests of skeletons can look sad, but still, strangely beautiful.

One of my favorite hikes is at Deer Park in the Olympic Mountains. THe whole mountain side was burned severly a number of years ago and is in the process of recovery. Lots of dead, burned trees, interspersed with fresh, young ones. Beautiful.

R_C

[Jackiesfridge]

(Note - this was written on Monday, but the damn forum wouldn't let me post it until this morning...)

I know exactly what you mean, H. I was born in Pensacola, myself - my dad was in the Navy. We left when I was five, so there's not a lot I remember (other than the gorgeous beaches on the Gulf), but there's one brand that stuck in my head, and when we finally wound up in Wisconsin (via Okinawa, Japan and Lemoore, CA), I noticed that <a href="http://www.whataburger.com" target="_new">WHATABURGERs</A> were nowhere to be found. This really bummed me out - for some reason, my 5-year-old palate remembered those burgers as better than anything I'd had since.

Anyway, yeah, brands and chains are weird. Another funky example - did you know that there is no Hellman's mayonnaise (sp?) west of the Rockies? Same company, same mayo, but different brand. Found that out when I made my ill-fated move to Spokane in '94.

Um...bagboys, in general, just seem very poorly trained lately. You know, glass pickle jars packed on top of the loaf of bread, or two-liters in the same bag as the eggs. Dunno if that's regional or not. They seem just as dense in Appleton as they did in Wausau as they did in Madison as they did in Terre Haute. Which is why I usually use the "U-Bag" lanes. Don't have to explain my whole paper-over-plastic preference then, either.

The aurora is cool, when you can see it. I seem to be moving progressively south (Wausau -> Appleton -> Menasha -> Oshkosh) so the lightshow is pretty much lost to me now, but I remember the first time I saw it - WAY cool.

As far as weather - TELL me about it. Born in Florida, moved to southern Japan, then into the California desert, and THEN up to Wisconsin. My first winter I was thrilled, because fluffy snow was a novelty.

That wore off damn quick.

Anyway, yeah. No crazier than me.

-S, who's twitchy cuz he needs to lose 30 pounds, has stopped drinking soda, and is overcompensating with too much black coffee. Still not smoking, tho. Seven months, woo!

[DocMan]

Heh heh. I love it when cold weather newbies shrivel up at 30 degrees. It's just a bit of morbid fun for me ^U^

Hee Hee. Reminds me of a retreat I was at a few years ago in West Virginia. First two days it rained. Third day the sun finally came out and it was a balmy 65 degrees. I went into the main building and there were three teens huddling together on a couch. I asked them why they didn't go outside if they were cold. They told me I was crazy, it's freezing outside. It seems that Californians have a higher freeze point.

Doc