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Published On: Mar 17, 2007 02:40 PM
Total entries in this category:
Published On: Mar 17, 2007 02:40 PM
Paradise?
I find it quite amazing that I can go through my
life complaining about how things are in my life, when I can be blindsided by a
foreigner who really puts things into perspective for me.
It has been hot in California. The temperatures
in July were reaching 115 degrees F (45 degrees C). It was abysmal. Now that's
not to say that this isn't normal. It does tend to happen every July or August
here in California's Central Valley. However, I bemoan it every year--especially
after having lived in Santa Barbara, CA for two years. In Santa Barbara it runs
70-80F degrees all year long. Every day I wore shorts in Santa Barbara (even on
Jan. 1st!).
I really don't like the heat in July mainly due to the high utility costs. I have had heating and air conditioning bills in excess of $600/month! I have been complaining about this incessantly. I have even gone so far to tell my husband that we have to move out of California since I can no longer afford to pay the mortgage plus a $600/month utility bill! (Ever since the 2001 energy crisis my bills have been triple what they used to be! And I even have a 2Kw solar panel system!) And don't even get me started about the West Nile Virus and how I am now paranoid about going outside at night for fear of mosquito bites!
So as usual I am bemoaning my fate to be living here in California when my friend Sharon (from Israel) put things in perspective for me. She was going to leave California and go back to Israel. Her husband has a research grant here at the University of California Davis and once that research grant runs out they have to go back to Israel. But luckily she said, things have been good to them and she says that at least she has "...another day here in paradise."
"Paradise...?", I asked her. She said that her husband was offered a job in Israel when they get back. However it was in the northern border. He was offered the job at the height of the hostilities between Israel and Lebanon. And of course even now the situation is unstable. She didn't want her family to leave (they have two small children--a 6 year old and a 2 year old) and then end up in the middle of a war.
We sat back. We were watching our children taking swim lessons at a pool in Davis. The weather was idyllic. Not too hot and not too cold. Mother nature had been giving up a reprieve in August. The evenings here are downright pleasant! Our children were laughing and splashing around in the pool. She said how much she loved the town of Davis. The school system, the friends, the safety, the weather, the paradise... And we certainly weren't having to deal with a full scale war with our close neighbors! No--war for us is some distance place that never affects us unless a friend or family member gets shipped out over seas to fight it. It's not like we live in Israel--having to constantly fight with belligerent neighbors...
Maybe I need to rethink some things. Maybe I should stop taking the wonderful land of California for granted. Maybe I should start to appreciate the little paradise in my own backyard. Maybe I can deal with high electricity bills for a little while longer...
I really don't like the heat in July mainly due to the high utility costs. I have had heating and air conditioning bills in excess of $600/month! I have been complaining about this incessantly. I have even gone so far to tell my husband that we have to move out of California since I can no longer afford to pay the mortgage plus a $600/month utility bill! (Ever since the 2001 energy crisis my bills have been triple what they used to be! And I even have a 2Kw solar panel system!) And don't even get me started about the West Nile Virus and how I am now paranoid about going outside at night for fear of mosquito bites!
So as usual I am bemoaning my fate to be living here in California when my friend Sharon (from Israel) put things in perspective for me. She was going to leave California and go back to Israel. Her husband has a research grant here at the University of California Davis and once that research grant runs out they have to go back to Israel. But luckily she said, things have been good to them and she says that at least she has "...another day here in paradise."
"Paradise...?", I asked her. She said that her husband was offered a job in Israel when they get back. However it was in the northern border. He was offered the job at the height of the hostilities between Israel and Lebanon. And of course even now the situation is unstable. She didn't want her family to leave (they have two small children--a 6 year old and a 2 year old) and then end up in the middle of a war.
We sat back. We were watching our children taking swim lessons at a pool in Davis. The weather was idyllic. Not too hot and not too cold. Mother nature had been giving up a reprieve in August. The evenings here are downright pleasant! Our children were laughing and splashing around in the pool. She said how much she loved the town of Davis. The school system, the friends, the safety, the weather, the paradise... And we certainly weren't having to deal with a full scale war with our close neighbors! No--war for us is some distance place that never affects us unless a friend or family member gets shipped out over seas to fight it. It's not like we live in Israel--having to constantly fight with belligerent neighbors...
Maybe I need to rethink some things. Maybe I should stop taking the wonderful land of California for granted. Maybe I should start to appreciate the little paradise in my own backyard. Maybe I can deal with high electricity bills for a little while longer...
Posted: Sat - September 2, 2006 at 06:34 AM