Revisiting Florida

I’m a big fan of Taylor Swift’s Folklore-Evermore albums and I enjoyed Midnights but I found The Tortured Poets Department empty and unlistenable, except for one song — Florida, which starts with “You Can Beat the Heat…”

I’m not sure you can beat Florida’s heat.

Florida appeared in my life — not counting the touristy and Disney World visits in the past — a little over three years ago. Part of my family moved to the Boca Raton area. I stayed behind in California with my oldest son who was finishing high school. The reasons behind these complicated multi-coast arrangements don’t matter for this story.

For several years I kept “commuting” between Florida and California. Every stay in Florida reinforced how I felt about the place — I fucking hated it.

Terrible drivers, fatiguing humidity all year around, drab shopping plazas — I felt borderline depressed in Florida and I don’t suffer from mood swings or depression. If there is one place in the US that can never feel cozy to me, it’s Florida.

In the end, we left both Florida and California and yet I’m finding myself back in Florida. One of my sons, who is entering adulthood, loves this place and will be living here. His work, studies, sporting arrangements, and network have all been centered around Florida in recent years and he’s determined to stay here, even if it means an extra expense for him. I’m spending a few days in Florida to help him settle down.

So I’m back to the place that I know well. I step out for my daily jogs and these sights reflect how I feel about Florida:

But there is something I like about Florida — Ocean Boulevard that stretches from Delray Beach to Deerfield Beach and maybe beyond. I’ve run here numerous times — in the dark, greeting the sunrise over the ocean or at dusk, in scorching heat, in pouring rain, and even in cold weather — there was a week after Christmas a couple of years ago when it was genuinely cold (by Florida standards — high thirties). The sidewalk goes uninterrupted for miles, to the sights of lavish mansions, modern hotels, some parks and golf courses, and cozy (cozy? I said there’s nothing cozy about Florida) small rentals. It’s safe and beautiful.