I’m a remote worker nearing retirement age and I’m great with that. In the summer, I try to keep a flexible routine and I can do that since I don’t have to go elsewhere to do my job. Sure, it’s not always perfect. When deadlines crop up — no matter the time of day for me or time zone for the client — they still must get done.
My summer days look different now — geography does that.
Having lived in the City of Seymour for just at 10 years, I’m doing the same things as I did before but they look different — and for the most part, they feel different too! My mornings now look like this…
Next comes daily exercise. During decent weather, instead of walking through a community and past a football field, I walk down a dead-end road that offers this for a view:
There’s a difference between a small city and a small town.
All the controversy over Jason Aldean’s song “Try That in a Small Town” has many of my friends that live in Seymour posting their political thoughts on Facebook. Many are butt hurt… and most refer to Seymour as a small town to make their point. It’s making me crazy and I can barely keep my fingers from responding with some scathing, ugly comment.
People, Seymour is not a “SMALL TOWN” no matter what John Mellencamp says.
Seymour, Indiana is a CITY with a population of 22,000 plus people. You want to call it a small city? Go ahead! Vernon township — that includes the Town of Crothersville — has a total population of around 3,400 people. Having lived in Seymour and on the outskirts of Crothersville, I can tell you — Seymour people have NO IDEA the vast difference there is between the two.
Mellencamp — and ME — were born in a small city.
I don’t claim to live in a small town, but I’ve lived close to one for the majority of my life… and I attended school in one. I figure that makes me enough of an expert to state that there’s a distinct difference between life in a small town and that in a small city — and it’s not just the evening views. 🙂
Today I Learned: The average number of hours per week that Americans work is 34.4. Alaskan residents work the most hours in America at 41.6. 80% of all Americans are dissatisfied with their jobs.
My home state of Indiana ranked as the 7th worst in the nation to live and work. Florida won top honors too, coming in as the 10th worst — with a photo featuring DeSantis holding HB 7 (stop Woke Act). By the time I got to the 8th worst to live and work, Tennessee, named because of the laws passed “targeting LGBTQ+ rights”, I had this list figured out.
Indiana was sucker punched for childcare and inclusion — CNBC didn’t much like those 5 laws passed in 2023 that target trans and LGBTQ, and they obviously didn’t care for the near-total abortion ban either. Florida got a big fat “D” for a grade and Indiana got a D-. Click here if you want to check out the CNBC list of the 10 they chose to pick on.
But wait! Indiana made another CNBC list too!
CNBC named Indiana as the 13th top state for business! Florida also made that list at #8. (Nevada came in at #30.) So… the Hoosier state and Florida are at the top of the list of states for doing business — but people shouldn’t live and work in them? Whatevah!You can check out the full rankings here of top states for business according to CNBC.
As an aside… do you know who owns CNBC? Comcast does. 🙄
I have my own complaints about Indiana right now!
I couldn’t be more sick of rain and these cooler temps as we’re nearing the end of July. The Jackson County, Indiana Fair (one of the world’s largest fairs) started yesterday and rain will make a sloppy midway mess. It’s a mess here in the Ville this morning, that’s for certain.
No matter the weather or what others may say… Indiana is home for me. ❤️
Today I Learned: July 24, 2023, (today), the Twitter bird logo became an “X” — but you still tweet.
Did y’all know that in China, retirement age for women that work in factories is 50 — and 55 years-old for white-collar women? Retirement age for men in China is 60. In France, the retirement age was just raised from 62 to 64. With this bad thumb thing I have going on, I wonder if I can go ahead and resign my current position.
I probably can’t afford to sit around and eat bon bons, but maybe I could afford jelly beans?
My thumb is getting better… just not quickly enough. The contractor delayed us for one more day. Now we’re set for Thursday. That’s fine by me since there’s a whole bunch of stuff to do beforehand. Our security system hub has to be moved along with a bajillion other things.
I just can’t seem to get motivated to do what needs to be done!
I did move the dining room area around so the computers will fit in there. I can’t tell you how much I dread moving the office in there. Even if it’s only 2 weeks, it’s still a huge inconvenience, and I’m not excited about my desk facing the deck and an East window that’s lower than the desk.
Hello spring!
The good news is — today is the 1st full day of spring. Would you like to guess the weather here in rural southern Indiana? Let me give you a hint — windy. And cold. 🙄
TIL (Today I Learned): Alaska is the largest state in the U.S. It’s bigger than California, Texas, and Montana combined, and over 2500 miles from east to west.
Thrillist Travel ranked all 50 states by their beauty. Obviously, no one on the panel ranking them knows anything about Indiana. If they did, the Hoosier state wouldn’t have ranked #47. The only uglier states were Illinois, Kansas, and Iowa. 🙄
Of course, I don’t agree…
Here’s the description they provided for Indiana:
At its top edge, Dunes National Lakeshore offers a crackling little playground and views of Lake Michigan. Near its southern border, Indiana’s hilly contours give towns like Bloomington an idyllic feel. In between, though? There’s not a lot to recommend, aside from summertime drives, and discovering the soothing, almost hypnotizing allure of watching corn flash past your window at 60mph.
Yes, we have corn. I wonder how beautiful they would think those crops are if they could no longer enjoy bread and beer.
Other interesting rankings to note — all said to be more beautiful than my home state:
#26 Nevada #18 Florida #3 Alaska #2 Hawaii #1 California
I’m not saying that any one of the 50 states isn’t beautiful — they all are!
TIL (Today I Learned): In 2008, the city of Chicago sold the rights to collect revenue from its 36,000 parking meters to a foreign-owned company based in the U.A.E, receiving a one-time lump sum of $1.2 billion against a 75 year lease. These parking meters generate about $200 million in revenue annually.
Our local Marathon gas station serves Hunt Brothers pizzas. I’d never had a gas station pizza before Katie suggested it last night. Enough left for Perry after Katie and I had it for dinner, he ate the rest… and purchased gas station pizza again tonight.
For a little guy, he can EAT!
$20 bucks for 2 meat lover pizzas is cheap unless you consider the little dude ate one all by himself. 😯 Limited food choices is one downside of rural living. We have very few choices of restaurants — fast food or otherwise.
Still, the sky is pretty even when it’s not a spectacular night here and that makes up for it.
TIL (Today I Learned): In 1941, USS New York opened fire on an object, believing it to be a japanese aircraft. Fire commenced until a navigator realized they were shooting at Venus.
