I’m not sure I’m liking Florida

If I were a ten-year-old kid, I might’ve said I hate Florida! My kids use the word hate too casually about all kinds of things and situations and I tell them it’s too strong a word.

This is not a political post in any way. I do pay attention to the news featuring DeSantis (and have a feeling he’s becoming a huge player in America’s politics) but in the end, I don’t care if my state or my county is Republican or Democrat. I form a view, or rather a sentiment, about places based on a broad range of objective and subjective factors. Weather, people, sights and sounds, infrastructure, ambiance, attractions, safety, character. Yeah, places have characters.

Maybe this post is not about Florida, but about California, which I love dearly despite its own limitations. These days I continue to travel between Florida and California. We moved to Southern Florida a few months ago, largely because of our kids’ tennis but our oldest son is finishing high school in California so we live across two coasts for now. It’s not easy, but no one said it’d be easy with four kids…

This is going to be a pretty shallow story because I can’t list profound reasons for not liking Florida. But let me talk about a few things.

Weather. I love warm weather but it’s obviously very humid in Florida. I run a lot and what creates the most discomfort is not even the humidity but the wind. It’s always strong. I can’t figure out whether it’s something seasonal.