Clean and Green

I've always loved living in Michigan.  I have NO desire to winter in Florida or Arizona, like some of my friends.  The longer I live, the happier I am that I live in the Mitten State--surrounded by 5 Great Lakes--4 of them filled with nice, clean water. We won't discuss Lake Erie at this time. HAH.

Sure we get an occasional tornado--quite rare actually, but it only effects a small area.  We don't have hurricanes and unlike what Bernie Sanders replied to one of our State congressman, where he said, "Texas today, Vermont tomorrow, even Michigan," I seriously doubt we will EVER have a hurricane.

Sure we might have a snowfall of 12 inches in a 24 hour period, but before it stops snowing, snow plow trucks and salt trucks are out on the highways and the roads.  Snow plow company's are out, clearing people's driveways, shopping malls parking lots--it's all very manageable.  Not  like what they get in Upstate New York or the NorthEast.

No Nor'Easters here.  No earth quakes--well there was one in Ohio about 25 years ago that some of us felt, must have been all of a 1.2.

Perhaps a small wild-fire in one of the northern forests, but quickly quenched--it is much too green in the Upper Peninsula for anything to burn very long AND we do respect Smokey the Bear and drench our camp fires and would never think of setting off fireworks in the woods!    

Occasional flooding--down in Detroit, where the concrete highway runs low, near lake level--in the underpasses.  It doesn't last for too long. 

Our elevation here is 925 feet.  In Saginaw, where I used to live, it was 584'.  When the great glacier plowed its way south, the deepest part was in the Saginaw Valley Basin.  Around Brighton, where I now live, was the edge of the glacier, where the dirt was pushed up, not as deep a trough.  Everybody in Saginaw, including me, had sinus problems.  My Doc there called it the "Saginaw Nasal Basin".  I haven't had those problems since I moved. 

Wouldn't I love to live in Nag's Head, North Carolina--on the Outer Banks?  Yes. Yes. Yes!!!  BUT, in my opinion, if one is dumb enough to build on a flood plain or at sea level, one must know that at certain times, one will lose everything they own from a hurricane and flooding.

Which makes me wonder.  If you have lost your everything, every few years...how many times will the government help you to rebuild in the same spot? 

Don't live where there is so much concrete there is no place for the rain to drain too.  I would advise anyone I know, not to live in Southern Florida.  It was a swamp to begin with.  Just because contractors brought in tons and tons of soil and built on top of it--that swamp is underneath and sink-holes can occur and--well--hurricanes do occur in the area, with frustrating regularity.

Oh--I guess you can't help where you live.  Usually you were birthed there and stayed or moved there for some other reason.

I'm just so glad I live here, where the clean air comes down from Manitoba or Alberta, sweeps across upper Minnesota, across mid-Wisconsin, across the clean waters of Lake Michigan and cleans all the pollution out of the upper and this part of our Mitten, and sends it down to Detroit--where it belongs. HAH!

I feel quite confident, says the Ostrich in me, if the North Korean maniac sends a nuclear missile into Washington/Oregon, the air will be clean by the time is reaches me.  
(Sorry JB, Kathleen and Dianne).