Wisconsin

Today is a typical Wisconsin Spring day. I hesitate to call this spring as it in the last week in May and one would normally think of this as being a part of summer but it isn't. We have all our windows opened and yesterday I took my forty house plants outside to "sink or swim" as they may. I will be checking the nightly weather report to see if they need to be covered and I do have to water them today as I was expecting rain last night to no avail.

Years ago when I moved back from California, I had to purchase warmer clothes for. Even today I put on a heavy sweat suit because the damp cool air is everywhere. I believe I only own a couple pairs of shorts now and in California my wardrobe was full of them. I have found very few days that need cool clothes but I do have a few. One gets acclimated to the different areas, I guess I still like it a bit warmer but I also like it a bit greener. I found that on the west side of the Mississippi River, the green under goes a change and starts to take on more yellow as it goes west.

When we were growing up along the lake, the first time that we opened up a building in the spring, one could always smell the damp that went through everything. After living in California, I call it Wisconsin musk.

My sister, who grew up in Wisconsin but now lives in California, had to be reminded to close the crackers or cookies so that they stay crisp. It is the little things that one forgets from place to place.

How about hair dryers? In California, I could wash my hair and leave for work, by the time I got there my hair would be dry, not so in Wisconsin.

My California sister went to Florida to help take care of our Mother in the '90s and she told me that she felt like she was drowning because of the high humidity.

When I first moved back everyone wanted to know either "Why?" or "Which did I like best?" One of the things that I found interesting is that everywhere one lives has its good points and its bad points.

In California, we went from an air-conditioned house to an air-conditioned car to an air-conditioned work place. In Wisconsin it is similar. Here we go from heat to heat to heat.

The only thing that makes a place different is the people. I have always thought of myself as a nester. That means that I can create a home wherever I find myself.

Wisconsin has so much to offer but then any place that you find yourself does. It is just different. The world around you can change to a greater or lesser degree but the ME of me still stays the same.

I remember the first time I took my Daughter to Canada. She was so disappointed. She wanted it to be like the movies with the red uniforms on the police, etc. When she saw a McDonalds and other familiar businesses, it looked just like what we had left, she wasn't sure that we had really gone into Canada. We spent the night but it was never the same for her.

Basically where you are and how you look at something has to do with your version of reality. Wisconsin is different from California only from my view point.

One of the things that I liked about California was the fact that everyone was from someplace else. They didn't have your history on file, so to speak. I had a friend tell me that was what he liked about living in Florida. He was judged by what he did and what he said, not based on his family history.

My daughter had a problem with that when we moved to Wisconsin. She would have a friend with her and my Aunt would ask the friend her last name. Kathy didn't like that. She felt that each person should be judged by how she acted or what she did while there, not by the fact that her father was always in trouble or her mother's family lived on the wrong side of town. Kathy wanted to be known by who she was. She disliked the fact that people connected her with her Grandfather who had a business and had done well in town. "Why can't they just see me as Kathy?" Small towns are that way.

One of the kids that Kathy hung around with when she first moved here asked her if it wasn't hard cutting the grass with all those gold nuggets on the lawn. People have strange ideas of what is out there.

My advice is to enjoy where you find yourself and find out all the things that you can about that area. Whenever I move to a new location, I make it one of my special things to do, going out in one direction and finding out all I can about that area. I save another directions for different time.

By doing this I have been amazed at all the interesting things that I come across, like the old model T that had a tree growing through it in a woods just north of me. (Oh, it isn't there now but it was the first time I explored that woods.)

How about the quarry that is full of cool deep water and no one swims in because it is hidden from everyone? I found that on a bike ride down a path that I even ran into some teens once. I bet they swim in that quarry.

The world around us is an adventure. One of the television stations has a new program called A TRIP ON A TANK. That is because of the high gas prices and they are trying to encourage people to take day trips and see things that aren't a long way off. Wisconsin has more adventures than we could do in lifetimes.

We have a new paved bike trail in our county that is about 3 blocks from my house. It goes from the southernmost part of our county to the northern most part. I haven't biked on all of it yet but a couple of weeks ago I did go on a 10 mile round trip.

Because I am an herbalist, I love to find out what is growing and where. Each time that I venture out, different things are in blossom or in a different stage of growth. That in is self is an adventure for me.

Explore your world and find an adventure .