Science

The North is way too cold for me in the Winter, the Midwest and South way too hot. At least at home, I can live in a temperature controlled environment that doesn't have me sweating or chilling. But it wasn't always that way. I lived for more than a decade in San Antonio without A/C, plus no A/C in my car. But I was young, and my body could handle it. These days? Ha! I can feel a 5 degree difference in temp, I swear! And tho I'm past menopause (I think) I will still go into night sweats.

But I long for the solitude of the country, with basically the sounds of Nature the only ones to hear. No sirens, no screeching brakes, and no one yelling. Just the sound of crickets and birds and the occasional howls of a lonesome cat or dog. I actually like "hugging" trees... which is why we bought our house, lots of trees in the yard. But now at 70, we're relearning that trees in the Autumn in the Midwest mean lots of falling leaves all the time. In the country, you let them fall where they may and they become fodder for the next round of good black soil. In the city, ya gotta pick up that crap before you get turned in at the HOA or city police.

We left the "big city" around 8 years ago and moved to a small city. We've got some nice green expanses close to the house, and a creek running through it all (if we can keep the developers out). The houses are older, have character, and you catch the occasional glimpse of wild animals like deer, foxes, and coyotes.. and wonderful creatures like owls in abundance. We're also less than 10 minutes from a stop at the Dollar Store, less than 15 minutes from the grocery store.. and the same for Walmart (which is the extent of the shopping experience here). In winter, in worst case scenarios you can get almost any place you need to by foot. And that's good, because driving is getting to be a bit scary for me these days.

So I think the compromise we made by moving here was a good one. No big rush hour, plenty of elbow room, easily accessible amenities (tho they're not 24-hour), but on the other hand, we're still victim to the near constant din of sirens (mostly EMS in this area), and our last hospital closed down earlier this year. My husband has had bad luck finding a PP in town, and so we both end up driving up to KC for medical appointments... which, to me, is a huge drawback at this age. But we'd have the same issue if we were a little further out in the country, too.

I just wish we had MORE wildlife around us. That's the Nature I adore and could live with 24 hours a day!