Checking in from the Sunshine State!
Hey dudes. I just finished my first week in Florida and it was great. Jacksonville is a nice city. Of course, I don’t know jack shit about getting around it so I’ve gotten lost a half dozen times already but I am slowly beginning to learn my way around. That's always a slow process.
Jacksonville is a lot more like Houston than it is San Antonio. It’s flat and the landscape is dominated by very tall pines and water oaks. However, what lets you know you’re not is Kansas (or Texas) anymore is that there are also a lot of tall palm trees everywhere. The area I’ve seen of Jacksonville reminds me a lot of NW Harris county, especially from like 10 – 15 years ago. Back when Tomball Parkway was just a 4-laner called FM-149 and there was more undeveloped land than suburbs; that’s what Jacksonville is like. The city is, as you know, on the Atlantic coast so there’s plenty of beach there (maybe I’ll eventually take a page out of your book Rob and buy a beach house) and of course the palette (now there’s a word for all your dumb mindless asses) is dominated by more hues of the green and aqua variety than brown earth tones. It’s not as screamingly loud or boisterous as Miami or Ft. Lauderdale, but it’s still got enough to it to let you know that you’re in Florida.
So I got that going for me.
Also, one thing I like about it is that it’s got a good tax base. You can tell this by looking at the civil engineering projects like freeway overpasses and such. Jacksonville looks to have a good modern freeway system like we do in Texas. Texas has great public works like that. Hell, in parts of San Antonio here, the concrete girders on overpasses are not only well-designed and modern looking, but they are actually painted. Not so in Alabama where everything looks like it was done on the cheap, which it was in that tightass tax-phobe state. A good rule of thumb I’ve learned is that if a place has good roads it’ll also have good schools. And a good business environment, too.
I had a great week, guys. I was busier than hell as soon as I got there and felt great about it. That’s why I haven’t posted that much. If you guys see me posting all the time it means I’m bored and I don’t do well with boredom. You guys all seem to think that I’ve got the self-discipline of a Prussian general and, while that’s flattering, it isn’t always true. I do not do well with boredom. Boredom leads me to do all manner of foolish crap, the least of which is fucking around and wasting time on the internet and posting to the blog all the time. Boredom is the enemy, with me at least. The good news is that over there I don't think I'll be bored.
Mark, great to hear about your job. Slow and steady does it. Eventually you’ll know your product like the back of your hand. Rob and Mikey, I hope all’s well with y’all. I’ll try to post again next week with some pictures of J’ville.
Hope you all have a nice Valentines Day and that you all do something special for my sisters in law (and – in your case Mike – my eventual sister in law). Later!
Jacksonville is a lot more like Houston than it is San Antonio. It’s flat and the landscape is dominated by very tall pines and water oaks. However, what lets you know you’re not is Kansas (or Texas) anymore is that there are also a lot of tall palm trees everywhere. The area I’ve seen of Jacksonville reminds me a lot of NW Harris county, especially from like 10 – 15 years ago. Back when Tomball Parkway was just a 4-laner called FM-149 and there was more undeveloped land than suburbs; that’s what Jacksonville is like. The city is, as you know, on the Atlantic coast so there’s plenty of beach there (maybe I’ll eventually take a page out of your book Rob and buy a beach house) and of course the palette (now there’s a word for all your dumb mindless asses) is dominated by more hues of the green and aqua variety than brown earth tones. It’s not as screamingly loud or boisterous as Miami or Ft. Lauderdale, but it’s still got enough to it to let you know that you’re in Florida.
So I got that going for me.
Also, one thing I like about it is that it’s got a good tax base. You can tell this by looking at the civil engineering projects like freeway overpasses and such. Jacksonville looks to have a good modern freeway system like we do in Texas. Texas has great public works like that. Hell, in parts of San Antonio here, the concrete girders on overpasses are not only well-designed and modern looking, but they are actually painted. Not so in Alabama where everything looks like it was done on the cheap, which it was in that tightass tax-phobe state. A good rule of thumb I’ve learned is that if a place has good roads it’ll also have good schools. And a good business environment, too.
I had a great week, guys. I was busier than hell as soon as I got there and felt great about it. That’s why I haven’t posted that much. If you guys see me posting all the time it means I’m bored and I don’t do well with boredom. You guys all seem to think that I’ve got the self-discipline of a Prussian general and, while that’s flattering, it isn’t always true. I do not do well with boredom. Boredom leads me to do all manner of foolish crap, the least of which is fucking around and wasting time on the internet and posting to the blog all the time. Boredom is the enemy, with me at least. The good news is that over there I don't think I'll be bored.
Mark, great to hear about your job. Slow and steady does it. Eventually you’ll know your product like the back of your hand. Rob and Mikey, I hope all’s well with y’all. I’ll try to post again next week with some pictures of J’ville.
Hope you all have a nice Valentines Day and that you all do something special for my sisters in law (and – in your case Mike – my eventual sister in law). Later!
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