8:46 p.m. - September 11, 2007
Some Tidbits About Minnesota
Things I am learning about my new home:
� The weather is as unpredictable as Indiana weather. It�s hot, no it�s cool. It�s humid, no it�s rainy, no it�s time to get a jacket. No, you need to blast your cars a/c. I would say �make up your mind� but I�m rather enured to it now.
� You don�t have to eat at a chain restaurant unless you really want to. There are enough local restaurants to satisfy your palate. Note, there are some local chains, like Khan�s Mongolian Barbeque, but that doesn�t really count does it?
� The people at the church we are going to go to are really sincere, and they truly let their actions speak for themselves. It�s also liberal, as they are encouraging members to march to the Statehouse in a protest against the war. That wouldn�t have happened at my BFE-land church.
� There is traffic, but no one seems overtly rude. Yet not everyone is polite either. I have noticed a lot of �merge deniers� � people who won�t let you merge into your lane even if you have put your turn signal on. In fact, they seem to relish speeding up to your rate and just letting you decide whether to jet forward or hit the brakes.
� There are more people who pass while not upping their cruise control. That means someone doing 63 passing someone doing 60 will take f-o-r-e-v-e-r.
� Like I said, there are a LOT of blonde haired people around here, but there are also a great number of other races and religions around.
� It�s blissfully smoke free in Minneapolis and most of the suburbs.
� There�s a lot of $$$ in Edina. The 50th and France area just screams opulence and garish over-consumption.
� One columnist in the Star Tribune is rather much a right-wing nutball. She probably should transfer to Indiana because she�d fit in pretty nicely there. Here, for a day or two after one of her columns run there are at least 3-5 letters to the editor basically saying that she�s a wacko. Oh, and she is a reactionary wacko.
� The public radio station is the bomb! It does an excellent job of regional and state news, so I�ve really gotten up to date on what is happening in Minnesota.
� This state will be interesting to watch come election time. It�s way more blue state than Indiana, but the governor is a Republican, and the representatives and senators are split evenly. The statehouse is in Democratic hands.
� Oh, wait, they�re not Democrats up here. It�s Democratic-Farmer-Labor party (or DFL). Back in the day, Minnesota had a significant Farmer-Labor party (just like Wisconsin had a very significant Socialist party) and in 1944 they merged with the Democrats up here. But to this day, they are the DFL and DON�T you forget it, Baba Louie.
� But it is good, because you can say DFL and GOP and they waste the same amount of breath!
� I feel sorely out of shape, because it seems EVERYONE is walking or running or riding bikes. I had better get on the stick next spring. Or now.
� I�m feeling comfortable up here, which is great. I so much want the family up here, now! BUY MY HOUSE!
