Nebraska Discoveries 12: Lauritzen Gardens…Omaha’s Botanical Center

28. April 2010 · 1 comment · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , , ,

Since I won’t be in the Omaha area forever, I realized recently that my time is running out for visiting the many attractions in the area.  Thanks to my boys’ field trips, Cub Scouting and birthday party invitations, they’ve already been to several area attractions.  But I’ve set a new goal for myself and the family: to visit every attraction on the Omaha Convention and Visitors Bureau’s “Pin Map”.

You probably can’t see it that well, but just click on the “Pin Map” link above and you can see the original PDF.   It’s called the “Pin Map” because in front of each of these attractions is an enormous mock up of a blue-tipped pin.  I’ll get a picture of one as soon as I can…
So…my goal is to visit each of the 15 attractions on the “Pin Map” before I leave the area.  So far, I’ve covered 7 of the 15 attractions (numbers 3, 5, 7, 8, 11, 12, and 13)…and we have this summer to make our way through the rest.  Maybe I’ll blog about these “pins” as we visit them…I hope to, but I won’t make any guarantees.
Today I’ll share with you my first visit to #8 on the list: Lauritzen Gardens.
Timmy’s preschool class took a trip here on Monday.  I can’t believe I’ve lived here nearly 2 years and hadn’t been here till this week!  I guess it goes with living in a house full of boys, right?
This is a beautiful place, full of pretty flowers (of course) but I also really enjoyed the gardens “repurposing” sconces, corbels and other ornamentals from throughout Omaha…the pieces were rescued and help decorate the gardens.  The kids really enjoyed the flowers but the weather wasn’t very good and the walking was pretty tough on that group of 4 and 5 year olds.
So here are some pictures of the lovely visit.  I won’t include everything, just some of the more summary-type pics.  I STILL can’t believe I left our camera sitting on the counter as we headed out the door…so these pictures are with my iPhone camera.

This piece was repurposed from a downtown Omaha building:

Nebraska Discoveries 11: Flowering Trees

17. April 2010 · Comments Off on Nebraska Discoveries 11: Flowering Trees · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , ,

Today I went on a number of errands, including to our nearby model train store to pick up a boxcar Dave ordered, and to the local large children’s consignment sale that’s wrapping up this weekend. I decided to grab my camera and capture some of the pretty trees that are gracing eastern Nebraska right now. I’m not sure why I didn’t notice these last year — it could be that I was just coming home from my deployment at this time a year ago…and my mind was on other things, like looking at how much my little boys had grown instead of at the blooming trees.

Anyway, I’m definitely now noticing these pretty trees throughout Eastern Nebraska, and I spent several minutes this afternoon photographing assorted trees in our neighborhood, and then later today I was busy uploading the pictures and investigating what kinds of trees I photographed.  I’m no professional photographer, I just wanted to capture some memories of these pretty trees, we don’t plan to be in Nebraska forever.

Really…we won’t.  We really like it here, but I’m afraid we don’t LOVE it here.  We LOVE Pennsylvania…we LOVE North Carolina…we really really really LIKE Florida.  But that’s for another topic….

So first, we have a plum tree in my front yard. The one on the left.  Pretty, isn’t it? Unfortunately, it’s chosen to bloom BEFORE the tree to its right, which is an apple tree. They’d be so pretty together, wouldn’t they?  The apple tree is covered in buds right now, will probably bloom next week…

From 2010 04 16 Nebraska Flowering Trees
From 2010 04 16 Nebraska Flowering Trees
From 2010 04 16 Nebraska Flowering Trees

After the tree in my own yard, I drove over to the next block, where there were some pretty trees that reminded me of my college days. In front of my dorm building were similar trees, that bloomed just as we were cramming for finals!  You can see the referenced tree behind these folks barbecuing in August 1991, but since this picture was taken in the summertime, it’s well beyond blooming.  Pardon the confused-looking tailgaters.

From 2010 04 16 Nebraska Flowering Trees

I vaguely remembered that the tree in front of Irvin Hall was a member of the magnolia family (it was nice having a Forestry major for a roommate my Junior and Senior years). Upon further checking, I learned that I had captured two kinds of magnolia trees today…a Jane Magnolia (pink) and a Star Magnolia (lighter pink…almost white).

From 2010 04 16 Nebraska Flowering Trees
From 2010 04 16 Nebraska Flowering Trees
From 2010 04 16 Nebraska Flowering Trees
From 2010 04 16 Nebraska Flowering Trees
From 2010 04 16 Nebraska Flowering Trees
From 2010 04 16 Nebraska Flowering Trees
From 2010 04 16 Nebraska Flowering Trees

Next on our little trip was to the neighborhood park, where we had a great variety of flowering trees — 3 kinds: redbud, some sort of apple or pear blossom tree, and a crabapple tree. I’m having a hard time telling pear from apple blossoms so I could be wrong here with the white flowers.

From 2010 04 16 Nebraska Flowering Trees
From 2010 04 16 Nebraska Flowering Trees
From 2010 04 16 Nebraska Flowering Trees
From 2010 04 16 Nebraska Flowering Trees
From 2010 04 16 Nebraska Flowering Trees
From 2010 04 16 Nebraska Flowering Trees
From 2010 04 16 Nebraska Flowering Trees
From 2010 04 16 Nebraska Flowering Trees
From 2010 04 16 Nebraska Flowering Trees

Then I headed up the road towards my errands, and I knew there were some bright yellow shrubs that I wanted to photograph.  For some reason I was thinking they were goldenrod, which is Nebraska’s state flower.  I took these pictures all along thinking they were goldenrod, but I was wrong, they’re actually forsythia.  I remember seeing forsythia everywhere in Korea in the springtime…pretty.  Fascinating fact: forsythia can produce its own lactose.

From 2010 04 16 Nebraska Flowering Trees
From 2010 04 16 Nebraska Flowering Trees
From 2010 04 16 Nebraska Flowering Trees

Before our errands, Timmy and I had lunch at Culver’s, which is a local fast-food/frozen custard chain. I caught some pictures in the parking lot of their pretty flowering tree: I think it’s an apple tree of some sort, but I could be wrong.

From 2010 04 16 Nebraska Flowering Trees
From 2010 04 16 Nebraska Flowering Trees
From 2010 04 16 Nebraska Flowering Trees

Finally, I’ll post this picture nice and BIG so you can help me to identify it. I’ve no earthly clue:

From 2010 04 16 Nebraska Flowering Trees

Nebraska Discoveries 10: Snow Geese

14. March 2010 · Comments Off on Nebraska Discoveries 10: Snow Geese · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , ,

For the past 2-3 weeks, it’s been slowly warming here. I wish I had blogged a little more about the extreme bitter cold we experienced here, and the record-after-record-after-record snowfall we had here in the Omaha area since December. I’ll be updating our “Vollmer Weather Curse” post soon with this past winter’s craziness and I promise more details then.

With the ever-so-subtle signs of spring coming, we’re noticing the skies (“skies?” there’s only one sky!) absolutely full of snow geese. Thousands of them flying in their trademark “V” formation…as far as the eye could see across the sky. The first couple times the boys and I have seen them, they were clearly flying north.

I haven’t taken any pictures of the geese migrating (I know, Maryann’s going to murder me!), but I found this blog post that summarizes my first impressions of the geese in the sky, along with a picture of what I’ve been seeing. Note that the post was about the same time of year, just 3 years prior.


At first, I assumed that these were Canada geese. After all, they were loud and prolific, right? But driving down Platteview Rd., which is the way I usually drive from my house to our church and our local shopping center (Shadow Lake Town Center), I saw one of the formations put themselves down on a rural field. Again, since I don’t take pictures while traveling 55 m.p.h. down the road, I’ll just steal this picture here, which pretty accurately captures what I saw:


Wait a sec — those aren’t Canada geese! What are those?

So I went home and consulted my handy-dandy Peterson’s Field Guide…


…and discovered that they’re actually snow geese. Here’s a close up picture (which I again stole from someone else…):

So I read a bit more about snow geese and that was all well and good. Yep, there are a lot of them. Yep, they migrate up the Missouri and Mississippi Valleys in the late winter/early spring towards their summer breeding grounds in extreme northern Canada. Yep, the state of Nebraska has a special extension to their hunting season from February 6 – April 18 of this year expressly to help with the populations of these geese as they continue to grow.

Last week I noticed something strange. I saw more and more “V” formations NOT flying north. I saw some moving west south of our neighborhood. I’m guessing that movement is related to their following the Platte River. We live about 1 1/2 miles north of the Platte River, just before it dumps into the Missouri. I was okay with that explanation.

But what about a couple of “V” formations flying in huge circles? Big circles…like 1/2 mile radius circles. I was driving Timmy to preschool when we saw that happening, so I mentioned it to Mrs. Brown, Timmy’s preschool teacher. She said that snow goose flocks were very territorial and the circling flocks were probably looking for a place to put down near a water source, and were being chased off by other flocks already in place. At the time, the snow hadn’t completely melted, so many food sources were still under snow pack, particularly in the corn and soybean fields.

I do wish I was more a Johnny-on-the-spot with getting pictures of video of these formations. I just got a new iPhone 3GS last week and it has a video capability, so maybe I’ll get lucky that way.

Nebraska Discoveries 9**: Skiing at Mount Crescent, Iowa

29. December 2009 · 2 comments · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , , ,

**Yes, I know this is in Iowa, but it’s easily something that someone in Nebraska could do.

Today the family took a day trip to Mount Crescent Ski Area in Crescent, Iowa. Dave and I can now proudly add this small mountain to our “I didn’t realize there was skiing there!” locations that includes Mad River Mountain, Ohio, Mountain Creek (formerly Vernon Valley), New Jersey, and several resorts in South Korea.

From 2009 12 28 Mount Crescent Ski Area

First off, realize that this is the first time Dave and I have skied since we’d had kids. We skied almost annually every year we were dating/were married from 1994-2002. I was about 12 weeks along with Jacob when Dave and I took our AFIT graduation trip to Lake Tahoe in March 2002. Dave and I like to think we’re decent-enough skiers.

So combine the fact we hadn’t skied since 2002 with our never having to pay for more than just a pair of lift tickets for Dave and me.

That being said, we were met with the shell shock of the price tag for a family of 4 to ski, rent equipment for the kids, and get 90 minutes of semi-private lessons for the boys — with one of the kids skiing for free at age 4: over $200! Phew. Plus lunch at the slopes, and dinner on the way home. Our checkbooks were still in shock from Disneyworld!

What’s really sad is that Mount Crescent is probably one of the least expensive ski opportunities there is! I looked at all the other ski mountains Dave and I had been to that might have cost the same, and they cost more! So if we’re going to make this a routine family outing, I’d better up my AF Reserve work!

Dave had to wait about 45 minutes just to get our lift tickets, and we got quite annoyed. I was imagining the minutes ticking away from our day. It turned out the computer system was down and the attendants were having to manually calculate our bills. Thankfully the credit card machine was working!

From 2009 12 28 Mount Crescent Ski Area

The boys didn’t have their lesson till about 2 hours after we started skiing, so Dave and I worked with the boys some on little fundamentals. The boys seemed cooperative, and after about 45 minutes of letting the boys ski down to us, then pushing or pulling them back up the hill, we convinced them to take the lift up to the top of a green run. Timmy had a blast — he just pointed his skis down and went. Stopping was an issue (which the lessons helped with immensely), but he was having a ton of fun. Jacob, on the other hand…not so good. He took his first spill about 20 feet from the end of the lift and was in tears after that.

Uh oh.

We had to explain very carefully to Jacob that the only way down the hill was for him to simply go, and that we had arranged a lesson for him later on and we REALLY hoped he’d be cooperative for the lesson. It was slow going, but he made it with a lot of help! He calmed down with a snack and a chance to warm up in the lodge before his lesson.

From 2009 12 28 Mount Crescent Ski Area

Both boys had a fabulous time with their lesson and their confidence was well-boosted, and we spent another 2 hours skiing and had so much fun. Dave and I would take turns with each of the boys…with Timmy, we could ski at speed and still not keep up with Speedy Gonzales, but with Jacob, while he’s a champ at the snowplow, he’s VERY CAREFUL. I would just snowplow with him, giving more pain to my already-anguished thighs from last night’s plyo workout.

From 2009 12 28 Mount Crescent Ski Area
From 2009 12 28 Mount Crescent Ski Area

NOTE: The boys didn’t keep the poles for long. After about an hour both boys relinquished them for the rest of the day.

From 2009 12 28 Mount Crescent Ski Area

In summary, we had a great time and both boys would enjoy more ski trips. This is a tiny little ski area, but definitely a great place for the boys to establish confidence. The ski conditions were exceptional, since it was about 10-15 degrees F most of our time there, with snow flurries most of the afternoon. None of that softened snow freezing into ice sheets at sunset like Dave and I typically experience in the northeast!

In other news, as I’d mentioned before, Dave and I hadn’t skied since March 2002, meaning our equipment hadn’t been used since March 2002. While our skis, bindings and poles — albeit out-of-ski-fashion — worked well, my boots each developed visible cracks in the plastic when I put them on. They didn’t seem mission-terminating, so I used them today, but I’ll definitely need to start looking for new boots soon.

I’d also like to keep an eye out for second-hand equipment for the boys. If anyone knows of any good sources, let me know!

Nebraska Discoveries 8: Spring….FINALLY! Eastern Nebraska Birding 101

03. May 2009 · Comments Off on Nebraska Discoveries 8: Spring….FINALLY! Eastern Nebraska Birding 101 · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , ,

Today was a gloriously beautiful day!  I can’t believe I was able to enjoy just about all day outside…I mowed the lawn for the first time this season, worked more on my garden, and planted a couple of containers with annual flowers purchased yesterday from Timmy’s child care center’s fund raiser.  I enlisted Timmy and a couple of neighbor children this evening to “dig for earthworms” in our future-hop-plant plot, thereby loosening the soil for me.  They found some 30 earthworms that I had them deposit in my compost pile…which needs a lot of help this early in the season….

…and I’m still outside and it’s so wonderful I’m going to take a picture with my uber-cool built-in-webcam:
From 2009 04 29 BirdOnFeeder

Ta Da!

Can you see the bird feeders in tbe background? Maybe you can, then again, maybe not…

When we moved into the house in early August of last year, one of my first acts was to hang a birdfeeder on the tree in the backyard.

No action. Nada. Nothing. Zilch. The only birds around seemed to be giant blackbirds and they didn’t eat the black sunflower seeds I offered…

The week I came back from the desert, I saw some small brown birds around in the neighborhood…and that reminded me to re-invigorate my birding efforts.  I went nuts installing feeders all over my yard.  Can you count 6 of them here?  Look REAL closely:

From 2009 04 29 BirdOnFeeder

I remember from North Carolina that inspiring birds to come to your feeder as opposed to someone else’s takes some time and effort.  I had a perfect backyard in North Carolina, with a hedge of wax myrtle about 20 feet behind my house to provide nesting and hiding spots.  It wasn’t until the spring following our arrival — I hung our first feeder right away there, too — that I saw anything worth talking about.

Same as this time…we moved about the same time of year (latter half of July), so it’s now spring and my bird feeders are coming alive with activity.

Of course, being in a new part of the United States means a new group of birds to learn about. In North Carolina I was greeted with house finches, goldfinches, Carolina chickadees, Carolina wren, tufted titmice, myrtle warblers, cardinals and eventually, hummingbirds.

I’ve been once again sleuthing to learn about eastern Nebraska suburban birds. In mid-April all I was seeing were grackles, European starlings, and robins. Since robins don’t really partake of bird seed (they’re mainly carnivores, eating worms instead), and the grackles and starlings were too big, my feeders remained quiet.

Until this week.  I started to see some brown birds feeding routinely, and I saw a downy woodpecker off and on.  I stood inside at my kitchen window with my Canon Digital Elph camera set on 12x zoom and attempted to photograph the bird action so far as best I could….

From 2009 04 16 BirdsInYard
From 2009 04 16 BirdsInYard
From 2009 04 29 BirdOnFeeder
From 2009 04 29 BirdOnFeeder
From 2009 04 29 BirdOnFeeder
From 2009 04 29 BirdOnFeeder

The birds are as follows: downy woodpecker, robin, house sparrow, American pipit or female house sparrow, another house sparrow and common grackle.  Thanks to Maryann for helping me identify the sparrows — definitely a new species for me to identify!

I think I also am seeing a black-and-white warbler hanging out along the tree trunks, especially the rotted out trunk that’s been infested with termites.

The sparrows are definitely telling their friends about this place…there are more and more every day…

This morning I saw my first goldfinch, but didn’t get a chance to photograph any yet.  Maybe in the morning.  I’ve also seen a couple of cardinals, they sit VERY high up in my backyard trees…but when they sing they’re LOUD!

For now, I’m listening to the songs of a pair of robins who sit perched in my tall trees…a regular thing here now and I’ve loving it!

Nebraska Discoveries 7: Nebraska Popcorn & A Bright Spot in a Gray Day

22. October 2008 · 2 comments · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , , ,

Today has been gray and rainy all day. Ugh.

Dave is in Michigan for a Google Earth conference. I’m jealous. I love Google Earth and would LOVE to learn how to write code for overlaying data!

So it’s just the boys and me tonight, so we had a laid-back afternoon/evening. We built Legos, ate macaroni and cheese for dinner, popped some popcorn, watched some Return of the Jedi, and had a video teleconference with FotoMom and her son Joey!

I have to share the popcorn experience with you. I picked up an ear of popcorn at the Arbor Day Farm.

From 2008 10 21 BigRedPopcorn

So this is it. About $2 from the souvenir shop.

From 2008 10 21 BigRedPopcorn

I like these instructions! So you can’t sue the company if your microwave explodes?

From 2008 10 21 BigRedPopcorn

So here’s the popping bag.

From 2008 10 21 BigRedPopcorn

And here’s the popping bag with the ear of corn it in, per the instructions.

From 2008 10 21 BigRedPopcorn

The instructions say to fold down the bag THREE TIMES, which is what I do here.

From 2008 10 21 BigRedPopcorn

The shots of the corn in the microwave popping didn’t come out, but this is the product when it’s done. For starters, I popped this about a minute longer than your standard Pop Secret or Orville Redenbacher’s and it DIDN’T BURN! The first kernels popping sends the cob bouncing in the bag in the oven, which the boys thought was really funny.

From 2008 10 21 BigRedPopcorn

A closeup of the cob — several kernels popped and remained on the cob. Cool!

From 2008 10 21 BigRedPopcorn

The finished product. The one cob gave us about 1 1/2 commercial bags worth of popped corn. Since this is about as pure as it gets, we had to season it ourselves. All I did in this case was drizzle 2 Tbsp. of melted salted butter on top. Perfection!

So the boys and I sat down and devoured this popcorn while watching the first part of Return of the Jedi. Then Maryann chimed in on AIM and we chatted for a few minutes. After all this time, I never got around to installing our web cam on our desktop computer…it’s a laptop webcam and Dave took the laptop with the software with him to Michigan. So we discussed letting our boys see each other and talk on the AIM webcam:

From 2008 10 21 VideoTeleconWithMaryannJoey

Joey and Timmy are showing each other their toy lightsabers. Joey’s is green (on the main screen) and Timmy’s is blue (on the inset screen). The laptop camera is on the left side of the picture, clipped to the left hand of my running trophy, which you can read about me winning here.

The boys had a blast with this — I put the camera far enough away on the desk that both boys could easily be in Joey’s field of view and they had the best time exchanging stories and telling each other how much they miss each other (awwwww….).

In a rare moment, I was able to get the webcam working in about 10 minutes…that’s the time it took to install the software and configure the video/audio on the webcam. Usually something goes awry when I’m installing new hardware, but tonight we were lucky — I figured I’d be jinxed for sure with 3 little boys’ happiness riding on whether the software installed correctly!

Nebraska Discoveries 6: Our Weekend in North Platte

23. September 2008 · Comments Off on Nebraska Discoveries 6: Our Weekend in North Platte · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , , ,

This past weekend we rented a camper from the Air Force base and drove it 280 miles west of here to the town of North Platte, Nebraska. They were holding their annual “Railfest”, this big Union Pacific Railroad/Town of North Platte celebration weekend. The UP sponsors everything, lots of fun for everyone. There’s a festival at the town park, plus lots of train-related activites throughout the rest of the town.

From 2008 09 20 Camping_RailFest_BaileyYard_NorthPlatteNE

We visited several historic UP locomotives, visited the 8 story Golden Spike observation tower, and got to ride in a little mini-train.

From 2008 09 20 Camping_RailFest_BaileyYard_NorthPlatteNE

 

From 2008 09 20 Camping_RailFest_BaileyYard_NorthPlatteNE

 

From 2008 09 20 Camping_RailFest_BaileyYard_NorthPlatteNE

For Sunday morning, I made arrangements for tickets for a bus tour of Bailey Yard, the UP’s classification yard. That was one of the most incredible experiences for any railfan, and even *I* found it impressive. Dave writes more about it here.

We drove home right after the tour, taking our times by driving east on U.S. 30 from North Platte to Grand Island (about 115 miles). This way we could parallel the UP tracks and saw at least 20 trains!

As for the camping, once Dave and I got over the initial shock of (a) requiring about 40 gallons of gas to get the camper from Omaha to North Platte and (b) everything you have to do to set up the camper at the RV campsite (water, power, leveling, starting up the fridge), we figured we’d have a relaxing weekend on our hands. I made a nice chicken and rice dinner with our dutch oven, then we toasted marshmallows and made Smores with the campfire.

From 2008 09 20 Camping_RailFest_BaileyYard_NorthPlatteNE

 

From 2008 09 20 Camping_RailFest_BaileyYard_NorthPlatteNE

 

From 2008 09 20 Camping_RailFest_BaileyYard_NorthPlatteNE

But at 1am Friday night, we were awakened by an alarm bell: the propane detector was telling us “no more propane”, although we hadn’t used any since dinnertime. Actually, a circuit board went bad in the 3-way power converter unit (which is what seamlessly transfers power from battery to AC for the onboard fridge, water pump and lighting)…so overnight the power switched from AC to battery and the battery died.

Dave and I did about an hour’s worth of troubleshooting, between 1-2 am Friday night…and gave up and went back to sleep angry. By Saturday, we just told ourselves we have a big hardened tent. Then we went on and enjoyed the rest of our weekend.

Nebraska Discoveries 5: Wild Sunflowers

05. September 2008 · Comments Off on Nebraska Discoveries 5: Wild Sunflowers · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , ,

Wild sunflowers are in bloom in E. Nebraska and W. Iowa. They’re just popped up all over the place, like how Queen Anne’s Lace pops up in PA and WV, and how wild thistle grows on the sides of the highways in NC.

So I pulled a Maryann and pulled over on the side of this country road while driving back from Toys R Us in Iowa and took some pictures.

This is what a single plant looks like…

And here’s a group of them.

There’s a HUGE field near Timmy’s preschool, I should get over there and take some pics soon before they’re over with.

Nebraska Discoveries 4: The Nebraska State Fair

02. September 2008 · Comments Off on Nebraska Discoveries 4: The Nebraska State Fair · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , ,

Today we paid a visit to the last day of the Nebraska State Fair in Lincoln. Unlike the North Carolina State Fair, this is somewhat smaller, mainly because most of the competitions are for youth, through their 4-H organizations.

The highlight for me was the demolition derby. We never made it to any of the NC State Fair ones, but I’ve enjoyed one at the Ohio State Fair, and Dave had seen both Ohio’s and Delaware’s. It won’t be long before we can make the circuit!It was in the low 90s, but we still enjoyed just enough animals, food, a tractor parade, demolition derby, games, and rides to call it a day at about 4pm.


We took our times driving back to Bellevue, taking U.S. Route 6 instead of I-80, and hoping to run into some BNSF Trains. We only saw this one on the trip back.

Nebraska Discoveries 3: The Pros and Cons

28. August 2008 · Comments Off on Nebraska Discoveries 3: The Pros and Cons · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , ,

“So, Major Mom, how would you sum up Nebraska so far?”

I’ve gotten that question a lot this week. From neighbors and friends who have been calling to check up Dave’s surgery recovery.

So here are the pros and cons of Nebraska, and our new lives near an Air Force base.

Pros:

1.) Nice People. The people are SO NICE! Our neighbors wasted no time bringing us cookies and greeting cards, and offers to watch the boys when the movers were here delivering our stuff. In fact, today Dave received a card from his nurses at the post-surgery recovery ward at the hospital. Awwww…
2.) Cheap! The cost of living is much lower than what we were experiencing in the Raleigh/Durham area.
3.) Not as many SuperMoms here. There aren’t waiting lists for every activity/preschool/sports club that I’m interested in for my kids (yes, there was one for Jake’s soccer, but he still made it into the program and he was LAST on the waiting list!)
4.) No traffic to speak of. I don’t count the gate lines to get onto Offutt AFB in the mornings. And they aren’t that bad…not at all like Patrick AFB in 2002.
5.) Folks here drive the speed limit. I’m not sure if this is a pro or a con, since I tend to be an aggressive driver, this area has calmed me down quite a bit.
6.) Cheap gas. About $0.35 cents less per gallon than in NC (see CON re: gas below)
7.) We’re Near Our Local AF Base! The base gas station, commissary, exchange, post office and fitness center are all 10 minutes away. We’re renting a camper in mid-September from the AF base Outdoor Recreation center for cheap.

Cons:

1.) The endless corn and soy fields. While you might think, “Isn’t agriculture a good thing?”, I envision many of these fields are being grown for biodiesel and corn-ethanol. While I support our getting off of foreign oil reliance, I think other agricultural priorities (i.e., feeding people) are now taking a back-seat to it. That discussion is for another blog posting. You can read this for now.
2.) The cheapest gas here is the ethanol blend. This is why gas is so cheap here. The ethanol blend is a higher octane, so it sells as “Plus Unleaded”, but it’s $0.10 less than regular unleaded. A mindset shift.
3.) Odors. The STENCH in our neighborhood when the winds are coming in from certain directions. If the winds are from the south but light, we get the stench of the pig farm just south of here. If the winds are from the ENE and coming in at a good clip — 10 knots or more, we get the smell of some sort of rendering plant. I was checking my trash can on Monday when I was smelling what seemed like garbage — but really it was throughout the neighborhood (trust me, I walked around the corner and still smelled it).

Tangent: I remember living in Deridder, Louisiana in 1995-1996, I had a 20 mile drive northward to work every morning. I could forecast whether there would be fog at the Fort Polk base weather station when I arrived at work in the morning based on the smell I experienced when I walked out of my apartment. There was a paper mill to the west of where I lived — the stronger the stench when I walked out of my apartment, the worse the fog would be as I drove north in the morning.

I wonder if I will be able to predict the weather based on the smells here. Fun.
4.) Lines on the Road. The large intersections here don’t have lines painted on the road to tell you where to stop…and NO, this isn’t why I got into a traffic accident earlier this month! But no, no lines painted. I guess we’re on our honor to stop such that we don’t get hit by the cross traffic.
5.) The “N” is for “kNowledge”. There are NO major-league sports teams in a 3 hour radius of this area. So people have no choice but to root for University of Nebraska sports…sigh…and it’s fanatical here — almost as fanatical as Penn Staters!!! Many of the houses have block “N”s somewhere on it — sometimes it’s subtle, like a small block N on the front door. Sometimes it’s gaudy as hell, with a giant red-track-light-outlined “N” emblazoned on the fence.

This week is the Nebraska State Fair. While North Carolina’s is TOTALLY AWESOME, I’m sure Nebraska’s will be fun, too. Hopefully Dave is feeling well enough that we can go this weekend. Maybe we can see Styx in concert on Monday?

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