Categories
Places

Old home vs New home

Now that the house purchase is a done deal (I don’t expect problems with loan), time to explore the differences between homes in Savannah, versus homes in Missouri.

TL;DR it’s like they’re on different planets.

Almost every home in Missouri has a basement. You get so used to it that home sizes such as 1270 don’t bug you, because you know you’ll have a basement of almost equal size.

Coastal Georgia homes do not have basements. Ever. Forever and ever. If you go to dig a basement, you’ll strike water.

Because there are no basements, do you know where hot water heaters are frequently located?

In the attic. In the friggen attic. Our home has both heat pump innards and hot water heater in the attic. Well, until we either replace it with a tankless hot water heater, or relocate that puppy to the garage.

In Missouri, every home has gutters and every Missourian constantly frets about their gutters. Why? Missourians live in constant dread of water around the house. The reason for this is Missouri is primarily clay and limestone. And clay. A drop of water is grabbed by the soil and held until next July. And all of it wants your basement.

In Savannah, few homes have gutters. If they have anything, it’s these wing things that direct water away from doors to the side, but no one gives a damn if there’s a swimming pool right next to the house. And the reason for this is the soil here is sand. In Savannah, we’re living on the world’s largest beach. Two inches of rain can fall in three seconds, and five seconds later, it’s all wicked away.
(Or evaporated into the air, so that every time you walk outside, your glasses fog over.)

In Missouri, homes don’t tend to have a lot of geegaws and frufrus, especially middle income homes. What you see, is what you get: typically a ranch, with a porch, and a deck. And maybe a flat lawn.

In Savannah, a significant number of homes have faux gables. These are little roof peaks with fake windows that are supposed to add curb appeal. Our new home actually has one, but thankfully it’s hidden by a good, honest tree.

And all the homes we’ve seen in Georgia have some variation of popcorn ceiling. Every single one. The home we bought is the only one that didn’t have a popcorn ceiling. I don’t know if that was a leading reason why it appealed to me, but it didn’t hurt. I don’t know why homes in this area rarely have smooth drywall. I suspect it must be something to do with the weather. In Missouri, popcorn ceilings will be the death of your home sale.

Trey ceilings. Georgians love their trey ceilings. True, many Missouri homes have trey ceilings, but here in Georgia, I’ve seen rooms that have trey ceilings stacked three levels high. Can you imagine painting the thing?

Lastly, grass. Missourians obsess over their lawns. They’ll stand at their property line and jaw about the mixture of seed making up their lawn until you’re ready to chew your own ear off to get away.

In Savannah, the grass is a tough old bastard that laughs at the sun. And you.

Oh, and azaleas can bloom at Christmas.

Categories
Places Political

Poor, Black, and Ugly

Missouri’s Governor Nixon asked the Missouri Attorney General to file suit in court to block the Army Corps of Engineers from blowing up the Birds Point Levee.

Blowing the levee will flood farmland and about 100 homes in Missouri, but not blowing the levee could very well endanger the entire town of Cairo, Illinois. A few years back, I wrote about Cairo, Illinois the town that pulls you in, as it pushes you away.

When Time covered Cairo, Illinois last year it described the town as poor, black, and ugly. It is, indeed, very poor and predominately black, but I cannot find it ugly. Or if I do, it’s an ugliness that reflects the south and our history and the civil rights fight and all that is both good and bad about this part of the country.

I guess the best description I have of Cairo is that it is a very real town.

Of course, none of this matters to the Missouri governor who wants to protect the farmland of Missourians. Missourians who happened to know they were building farms on lands designated as spillway, and that there was a potential for the Corps to breach the levee if flood proportions matched that of the 1937 floods. Well, we’re about to pass the levels of the 1937 floods.

But then again, who wants to save a town that’s poor, black, and ugly?

Categories
Critters Places

Pride of Place and puppy mills

Time is running out to prepare for arguments to save Proposition B, the Puppy Mill Cruelty Prevention Act. This afternoon, the Missouri Senate will debate SB 113, and most likely vote whether to support it or not. I expect the House to follow quickly if SB 113 happens to pass.

I’ve appealed to Missouri representatives’ compassion, by showing them USDA inspection reports that outline how cruelly the dogs are treated in puppy mills. Legally treated, which is morally reprehensible.

I’ve also appealed to the Missouri representatives’ civic responsibility to support the voter’s wishes. We just voted on this act, and it hasn’t even gone into effect, yet. The majority of this state supports this act, while special interests, and too much agribusiness money, are behind the effort to repeal our vote.

The only thing I have to left, is an appeal to pride. Pride in Missouri. Pride in what Missourians accomplish, what we do, the industries we have.

Fact: we have the largest number of large scale commercial dog breeding operations in the country. This isn’t hearsay, the USDA confirms this. More breeders are licensed here than any two or three other states, combined.

Yet, no one brags about the number of large scale commercial dog breeders we have. You won’t find Governor Nixon boasting of this number in any of his speeches. I’m sure he doesn’t bring up the fact when he meets with his peers.

You won’t find any of the representatives, even those who want to gut Proposition B, bragging about our number one position for dog breeders. Other than their work to repeal Proposition B, you won’t find these representatives talking about commercial dog breeding, at all.

I looked through the literature for the State and the Department of Agriculture—you know, the brag sheets. We export this much corn and soybeans, and we’re number seven for hogs, and so on. But you won’t find puppies among the listed exports, nor will you find any boasting on being the number one large scale commercial dog breeding state in the country.

Why don’t we brag about the number of breeders we have? Because deep down inside, none of us is happy at the numbers of breeders we have. None of us is proud of our position, or even of the industry. Those who fought in defense of the breeders have done so more to defeat HSUS—because of their concern about other forms of livestock—rather than because they really approve of the large scale commercial dog breeders. They just don’t care enough about the dogs, but they sure as heck care about HSUS.

The breeders, themselves? You can look at their web sites and all you’ll see is cute little pictures of puppies, usually playing with children. But don’t attempt to visit the breeder to pick up your puppy. No, they’ll be glad to mail the puppy or meet you at some neutral spot. If you do meet with them, they’ll surreptitiously hand the puppy over, like it’s made of crack cocaine.

In the days before we voted on Proposition B, if the operations were as good as the breeders said they are, all they would have had to do is show us. Invite some of the more interested folks to visit—have journalists tour their operations.

Yet I know of only three commercial breeders who were willing to meet with the public. Three out of 1,390. One breeder actually tried to run over a Fox news crew camera when they tried to visit the place.

What does this say about this industry, as a whole? An industry that keeps to the shadows, and hides from both scrutiny and public view? One that, in effect, lies to the public by pretending to be a little Mom and Pop breeder with a few dogs, when they have hundreds?

And what does it say about how we feel about this industry, when we never brag about it, never even talk about it—except when another mill is closed down because of horrid conditions. Or because of Proposition B.

If we choose to fight for industries in our state, shouldn’t we fight for ones we’re proud of?

Categories
Photography Places

July 19 at Shaw Nature Center

Sunday, lured by cooler temperatures, I ventured out of the city to the Shaw Nature Center. Typically I don’t walk on anything but paved paths in the summer because of allergic reactions I’ve had to bug bites. The weather was just too good to resist, though.

You can see from the photos where I got the idea for the name of this site, MissouriGreen.

path through butterfly meadow

Categories
Places

Apollo 11 and the dish

Do you remember the Apollo 11 landing? Where you were, what you thought?

I don’t remember the landing that clearly, because so much was happening at that time. I was 14 1/2, recently moved to Seattle, feeling lost in the city but connected to the times—getting caught up in both the anti-war and flower power movements. The moon landing was part of the blur that seemed to be around all of us, made up of equal parts scientific miracle, and hits of acid.

It’s only been in these later, quieter years that I’ve come to appreciate the Apollo program, in general, and the Apollo 11 moon landing, specifically. When you consider that computers were primitive, room size, and prone to failure, I’m still amazed we made it to the moon. The effort was as much an act of human perseverance, as an act of technology. Perhaps that’s why the Apollo 11 mission still fascinates, all these years later.

If you’re looking for something Apollo 11 related to watch this weekend, I recommend the movie “The Dish”. Read more about the movie, and access a clutch of links about Apollo 11 that I’ve been collecting at Secret of Signals.