Traffic vs weather…continued…

So a couple days after my last blog entry, written here in LA, the snow started to fall in Wisconsin. It turned into the greatest blizzard in over 10 years. While friends were trying to dig out of the snowdrifts in their driveways and canceling everything to stay home, I was basking in the sun, enjoying the cool breezes, and traveling on fast moving 6 lane freeways to get places. So this is where the rubber meets the road. Is weather in Wisconsin better or worse than traffic in LA?

Well, here I am still in LA, when I am supposed to be in Wisconsin. Our flights into Wisconsin were cancelled. A new flight wasn’t available for two days. Wow, two more days of vacation! A bonus day with my daughter and her husband. That’s the best part!

Which brings me to my point. Though traffic is a problem as weather is, there is no way that traffic in LA would ever keep me from getting there. Well, it might keep me from getting somewhere on time, but likely not take two days! Wisconsin weather can be a show stopper!

On the other hand, traffic in LA has no upsides that I can see. Believe it or not, I am sad to miss the blizzard. The snow is beautiful. That sense of everything grinding to a halt, staying cuddled up inside. The challenge of shoveling mounds of snow. Well, it’s not really fun but it is something to be conquered and has a certain positive challenge to it.

But then, traffic is something to be conquered too. But in conquering it you sit in a car and honk or something like that. Rather than get the great work out that snow gives you. And I can’t imagine anyone from LA ever saying they really miss the traffic. “Wow, that wonderful feeling of heavy traffic. It’s great isn’t it?”

As my friends in Wisconsin tell me to enjoy this bonus day in warm weather, I am sitting in the middle of LA near LAX surrounded by pavement, listening to cars whizzing by, and the occasional screech of brakes. Yesit’s a great temperature and you can find places to sit in the sun. But, guess what? I am wishing I was in Wisconsin!

Other than, of course that my wonderful daughter is in LA. I miss you already Krissy!

What is traffic?

I need some help here. Driving around the LA area I realize people here talk about traffic like we in Wisconsin talk about weather. Where the weather is what we whine about, fixate on, and messes with our lives, “traffic” does the same here in LA.

But what is “traffic”? Traffic in Wisconsin means there are lots of cars around. There can be several hundred cars in view here in LA and its not “traffic.” Driving last night on the freeway I asked my daughter “is this traffic?” She said no, not at all. Seems kinda strange to me since there were headlights going both ways in 5 lanes as far as the eye could see. But we were going over the speed limit, so it wasn’t traffic.

Traffic, it seams, only happens when you are inhibited in some way from going the speed you desire (which in LA is about 80 mph.) In fact, having to go 65 means light traffic. If you are down to 40 you are in heavy traffic. If you are inching along it is bad traffic. If you are stopped – it’s gridlock.

Last night someone from LA told me that the most annoying thing about traffic is when the millions of cars that are bumper to bumper are going slow (like less than 80 I guess) for absolutely NO REASON. Why go 40 bumper to bumper when you can go 80 bumper to bumper. He just didn’t get it!

I think I’ll take “weather” over “traffic” any day. But I admit the weather here sure is beautiful!

Which is better? California Sunshine? Or the Great White North?

We flew out of Wisconsin last Friday morning. It was 2 degrees. Actually a little warmer than it had been. By noon we were getting our rental car in Los Angeles, driving to visit our daughter and her husband in Pasadena. It was nearing 80 degrees.

We’ve all done these trips out of the deep freeze, into the sunshine. It is rather shocking. Or maybe the other way around is even more shocking. In any case these last 4 days have felt like it is summer. Winter can’t possibly be happening, it’s so warm and sunny. Can there really be snow piled up on the sides of my driveway? It’s so surreal.

So I’ve been thinking about what its like to live in California, in comparison to Wisconsin. I guess it’s no secret that there are way more people choosing California than Wisconsin. Here are some of my thoughts. There are definitely pluses either way.

Here’s for California:

1. You can leave the house year round in less than 1 minute. No bundling up to hustle to the car and sit and freeze while the car warms up. This is a huge advantage if you have 3 kids to bundle. Wow, no bundling.

2. You can have lots of speed bumps or little bumpy discs in the road for lane marking…no snow removal to mess them up. No road construction to speak of…there’s no buckling. No pot holes. (Makes driving pretty boring, really.)

3. You don’t have to watch the weather every night to find something to complain about. You can complain when it rains just a little. And stay in for that 30 minutes if you want to.

4. You don’t have to build as much hangout space. You can hang out outside. No lobbies in hotels, or churches. Just keep the doors open and throw a few patio tables and chairs outside. (Of course you can’t find any land to build stuff on anyway, so its a good thing.)

5. You can drive to the ocean, the mountains, in a very short time (if it is at 2:00 in the morning when there’s “no” traffic..the definition of “no” is you only see cars every 2 seconds).

6. You don’t have to have a seasonal wardrobe. The same clothes can go year round. Well, maybe you switch from short-sleeved to long-sleeved T-shirts, just to mix it up a little.

7. You get amazing fresh produce every month of the year for great prices!

8. You can have a tan and highlights in your hair all year long without faking them.

9. You can rest assured that not much will disrupt your life day to day. Oh, maybe you’ll need an umbrella.

10. You can feel sorry for all the people across the world that you see on CNN that have blizzards, ice storms, or tornadoes. It must suck to be them…let’s go have a lemonade!

Here’s for Wisconsin:

1. You get the thrill of the seasons. You can walk down a snow and iced-covered street in January and try really hard to remember that in July it will look totally different, and be a sweaty experience.

2. You get to change things up a little. From mowing the lawn and weeding to chopping wood and shoveling snow. From going barefoot to wearing smart wool socks. From diving into a lake to cool off, to ice-skating or snow-skiing on the same lake. Life just doesn’t get boring.

3. You can drive for miles and not see another car in the middle of the day in the middle of the week, on a country road, or even sometimes a highway. In fact, you can drive for days and days before you get to water or mountains…if you like driving this can be cool I guess.

4. You can enjoy nature most any day. There’s lots of green space (not just pavement.) You can hear birds, owls, wind in the trees, not just traffic. (Though in defense of California, the ocean waves pounding does drown out the traffic sound, and is pretty amazing.)

5. You can whine a lot because it feels like spring will never ever come, and when the first crocus pops up in the yard you can get super excited because you know that summer is on the way…maybe.

6. You can pay really high prices for really bad produce much of the year, but then you appreciate SO much the farmer’s markets in the summer!

7. You can actually afford to live in a house that has two bedrooms and a yard. You can even own one if you really work hard at saving some money.

8. You get to experience and brag about extremes – like frozen eyelashes, or numb toes, or trying to drive in a blizzard and scaring yourself to death, or living without electricity for three days in below zero temperatures, or going winter camping. I definitely think this builds character.

9. You have an excuse to relax. You can sit by the fire as the snow comes down, and enjoy a cup of tea, and feel all cozy because you are stuck inside for a while, and have an excuse to read a novel.

10. You can spend lots of money to get away from winter and go to California and have people there amazed at how hardy you are to live such a rustic life in the North Woods.

It’s really a toss up, don’t you think? California or Wisconsin? Hmmm….

My Dad once told me when I was a kid “California is the cute blond you want to date once in a while, but Wisconsin is the girl you want to marry.” Of course, he’s from Iowa…

Stuff and more stuff

I was at Macy’s briefly this week looking for a lamp. They don’t have lamps. But they do have clothes. It’s their big end of winter sale (it sure doesn’t feel like the end of winter…it’s below zero outside!) They have racks, and racks, and racks of clothing. A huge floor of all women’s clothing and rack after rack.

Now, I am not a mall person. I hardly ever go shopping. But I was tempted to look through these racks – 40% off of the lowest price which was already 30-70% off. This is about as cheap as clothes get. So I started looking through the racks. I finished one, went to another. After about 20 minutes I had looked at maybe 1% of their sale racks.

What happens to all this stuff? This is one store out of hundreds that all have racks and racks of stuff. Where does it all go? Who buys all this stuff? Where do they put it? Isn’t their closet full already? Mine is. What about all the purses, and the belts, and the shoes, and the racks of coats…Where does it all end up?

Sometimes I think America is going to get so full up of stuff that we have no place to sit. Why do we keep on making and buying more stuff all the time?

Today I heard that it takes close to 500 years for a disposable diaper to decompose. What if we get so full of diapers that we have no place to sit. Gross.

I have a friend who has a really bad cold. Her nose is completely stuffed. She is really uncomfortable. My husband just said this last line is unrelated. But I don’t think so. Being stuffed is really uncomfortable. So why do we have so much stuff!

The real me…

Thanks Jon and Mary, this is definitely me! Only I couldn’t add the wrinkles.