Climate Change

I always said if I had to live in the mid-west I'd live in Chicago.  I'm not sure in what scenario I would have to be forced to only live in one region of the country, but whatever.  Instead, not only do I live in the Mid-west, but I live on the prairie.  Now before all of you who ever read Laura Ingalls Wilder books start to romanticize the prairie you can just stop.  It's pretty flat (there are slight elevation changes), with tall brown grass, and not much wildlife.  Oh and very windy (although Chicago is the windy city....).  However, it's been a pretty good two weeks here for a couple of reasons.

First off, it's been sunny and warm here.  While most of our friends and family have seen snow or gray skies, it's been mid 60s to 70s here and sunny.  I don't care if this is "unseasonably warm", I'm going to enjoy every second of it!  We've barbecued a few times and Josh built a picnic table for our back yard (see below).  Josh and I both said that the weather has made living here a little more bearable.

I've realized how much weather effects you and even your reality.  Things that I thought were just true or ways of life, I now know are actually part of growing up and living in the Northwest.  For instance our car gets very dirty here (there is a lot of sand on the roads left over from people piling sand bags around their house prior to the flood) and I checked the weather report and it had no precipitation.  So I thought it was a perfect time to wash the car, that's how I've always determined when to wash my car-wrong.  A lot of sun here while there is still snow on the ground means puddles everywhere.  Another example brings me to the other reason it's been a great few weeks.  We (with another couple) bought a 5th wheel to rent out.  It's an older 5th wheel and I had been warned it needed some work.  To my surprise when I went in, it didn't smell.  When I think "old" or "needs work" I think smelly.  Josh reminded me that this vehicle came from Minnesota and it's not wet there so it wouldn't smell musty or like mildew..riiiiiight!

So we bought a 5th wheel/RV.  As most of you know our plan was to buy flooded houses, fix them up, and then rent them out.  When we told most people this plan a lot said something like, "well if there really are that many houses for cheap prices, why aren't companies buying a bunch all at once?".  Guess what-they did.  There are very few flooded houses left to buy and unless you have $30,000-$50,000 in cash it's hard to get a loan (I won't go into those details).  A co-worker of Josh's was saying a while ago that he had thought about buying trailers and then renting them out.  Before we moved here Josh noticed how much people in the area were paying to rent a trailer and how much less they were selling in surrounding states.  So since we came here to invest and make money, they went into business together.  We should have the first trailer rented in a few weeks and already have a second one lined up (I'd been told it needs no work, but costs a little more).

Josh and I point out patches of grass that have turned green on our way home everyday.  You can almost watch the grass turn green.  The last day or two it's been cooler and it's supposed to rain.  Today is the first really gray and cloudy day I've seen since I moved.  The forecast calls for thunderstorms this week, we're kind of excited for that because we've always heard about Mid-west thunderstorms.  I have no idea what to expect for the summer.  I've heard all different things, but I think I'll stick with one local who said, "Who knows anymore, nothing is normal.  We had a huge flood last year and then a very mild winter- you just don't know these days."

Adjusting

When Josh and I decided we were in fact moving to North Dakota we decided we need to stop saying "if we move to North Dakota" and instead say 'when we move to North Dakota".  In the same way I have been making an effort to stop saying "at home..." and instead "in Washington..."  As weird as it is and whether I'm ready or not, this is my home.  We're still not sure if we go visit somewhere else and are asked where we're from how to answer that question.

There are adjustments everyday and there really are times that I think "I can't believe people live here!".  One time recently was when I was walking from my car to the store on a half frozen, bumpy parking lot with the wind blowing side ways and you couldn't tell if it was snowing or the wind was blowing the already feet of snow on the ground.  I wanted to scream out "Seriously you're ok living in this?!"  This may be why a town of 40,000 is the 4th largest in the state.  I have also learned that Minot may have almost all of the same stores as  Washington, but they're all a smaller version.  Let's take Best Buy-Josh wanted to check it out yesterday.  Every Best Buy I've ever been to you walk in and are overwhelmed with all the products and different departments.  The second we walked into Minot's Best Buy you could see the ENTIRE store.  As my friend Michelle would say "Wah wahhhh..."

I do wonder if sometimes the transition is harder because I spent the last few years living in affluent Gig Harbor and not say...Kent or Puyallup.  For instance Walmart- in Gig Harbor Walmart is a cheap, unethical monster.  In North Dakota, Walmart is convenient and a great value (coincidentally "Great Value" is the name of their generic brand.).  It is also normal and acceptable for people to simply put their trash bags on the curb for pick up instead of in the trash can.  In fact when we put our trash can out, they did not take our trash.  We think it's because we didn't take the lid off for them, but we're not entirely sure.

Not everything is "hard" here.  In fact the water is soft (har har).  Seriously it takes longer to wash your hands and hair, but my skin doesn't need as much moisturizing.  Also, Dr. Pepper is EVERYWHERE.  I love Dr. Pepper so this is a good thing.  The only other place I've experienced that has the same love for this drink is Texas and I'm pretty sure that's because it's made in Waco, TX.  Probably the best thing I've experienced here is the nice people!  I'm not sure if it's because Minot still has that old small town feeling (post on that later) or because we're so close to Canada but in the few weeks I've been here I have numerous stories to tell about the great people.  I'll tell you my most recent experience.  This week we had a very angry customer at work. Whatever, strangely being the manager at a place that hosts kid's birthday parties I am used to angry customers.  Later my boss was telling me that in the twenty some years he's worked with the company he's only experienced 4 or 5 people that angry.  I laughed and said that was a weekly occurrence where I was from.  This led to a conversation about the culture of this area.  It is almost foreign to people here to ask for government help (no wonder this is such a red state), mostly because there is no need.  You make a friend here and you're considered family.  He then asked me, "After the flood out of the 14,000 people effected how many do you think went to a shelter set up by the Red Cross?"  I guessed a third. Nope- less than 100 people!  I was speechless.  People took in others, there was just no need.  Hmmm, maybe that's how people live here.