Thursday Thirteen #11

Thirteen Thoughts About Our Ten Years In Florida We just passed our tenth anniversary of moving to Palm Bay, Florida. My, how time flies. 1. We have lived in our present home nine years, longer than any one place we've lived in 22 years of marriage. 2. I consider my home town to be Monroe, Louisiana, but my daughters have lived here in Palm Bay longer than I lived in Monroe. Seems impossible to me. 3. I thought I would never get used to how different Florida looked with the palm trees and flowers and all, but I have. I have to remind myself to appreciate all the things we have to be thankful for here. 4. I love the beach, and thought I would never take it for granted to live so close. But the past few years I HAVE taken it for granted and go months sometimes without even seeing the Atlantic Ocean, which is only a 20 minute drive from our home. 5. I never tire of watching the Space Shuttle and rockets go up. Even if I can't go up to Cape Canaveral, and just walk outside where I work or at home to watch, it is still cool. 6. Palm Bay has, in the 10 years we've been here, gone from 75,000 people to over 100,000 people. It's the largest city in Brevard County, much larger than the better known cities of Titusville, Cocoa, and Melbourne. 7. I like the 'cold snaps' we get sometimes in winter, where the temperature may drop to the 30's and 40's (F), but I also like being able to walk outside in January in shorts and barefooted most of the time. 8. Florida is NOT a bicycle friendly state. I love to ride mine, but it can be intimidating. Consequently I don't ride as much as I'd like to. 9. I love the Disney parks, but at $60-70 per person, per park, just for admission, we haven't been in a while. Even if we don't stay overnight in a hotel (they're only an hour from home), that's about $100 per person, per day, including vittles. 10. I've been thinking quite a bit lately about setting some new goals for the next ten years. I've let the last ten slip by without getting much done. I feel like I've just been coasting since I finished engineering school. Seems like it anyway. 11. I still haven't gone over to Orlando and played on somma dem spiffy put-put golf courses they have. I mean it, they have some really cool looking ones. And put-put is the ONLY golf this boy plays. I'll have to get right on that. 12. For ten years I've been talking about how we need to go to Key West at least once, but we still haven't. I'd get right on that too, but it's like a 9 hour drive from here. One way. 13. I reckon I better start learning Spanish 'fore too long. Seriously. The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!