Tuesday, February 1, 2022

Peachy Georgia


More on Georgia after the initial experience after we moved.

Atmospheric pressure in Georgia is different from Minnesota. A pleasent surprise in the first week. Food was boiling hot in 1-minute-Microwave. Any kind of microwave; anywhere. And then the food stayed hot outside microwave. My Tea water boiled up even before I could leave the table. In MN, I could leave the kettle for boil & could enjoy a Spa visit before it started boiling. Made my tea breaks real zippy.

There are trees everywhere. Did I mention the greenery ? Trees, dense growth. 

The frequency of Landscaping/Lawnmowing vehicles in Minnesota is matched with vehicles ready to do Overgrowth management in Georgia. There was a truck with a very humorous poster; totally distracted me while driving. 

And like we talk of the weather in MN, topic of trees is the prime small talk here. Neighbors welcome the newcomers with topic of trees. "Hey welcome. Do you plan to trim your trees ? It's coming to my side." That's how ever-present trees are in Georgia. My kids told me the story of how one group of friends ate in the outside-cafe everyday and their table had a huge tree for shade in summer and rains. Suddenly the school chopped that tree down and now those school kids eat in inside cafe. So parent-kids talk about trees too.

One time we both were driving through a very dark lonely stretch of McGinness Ferry road, and it seemed unfamiliar. My kid felt so too. I could see places I had never seen before. I was worried I took a wrong turn at this time of dark night. Then we realized that acres of trees had been chopped off for the new exit to 400. That's why it looked bare and new.

More pollution than MN. Maybe its the annual Fall increase when the cold fog forms a dome & traps all smoke. Or the one where Canada wildfires throw smoke southward. It was showing 70-90 AQI while it was 30-40AQI in MN. Either way I had a terrifying weak questioning (again) why did I move ?

Plus why not ? Every kind of car exists here. All roads are always packed. And I am talking of non-highways. There are so many routes and you can survive without taking the highway. In MN , I felt like I zipped the 494 everyday.

Highways have some epics stories about rush hour traffic. Its purely crawl traffic, I have heard.

There is no chance of driving from one place to another, as the crow flies. There are no parallel or perpendicular roads. Every route is like an oval. Going from any point A to point B, is like driving the circumference of an oval or sphere. Getting out from any place involves driving around something, to get out of a place. We do see loads of people walking and there are bus in the suburbia.