Thinking of moving to Florida

[buzzycrumbhunger]

13. Holy cow...

I grew up in Eastern Iowa and am not sure I could embrace the tundra again, but I’m kicking myself for not looking for a nice, burly Canadian guy to whisk me away from here when I was still young enough to swing it.

Florida is FULL. The insurance companies have almost all withdrawn from insuring homes because climate change is worsening. You’d find rents here astronomical and if you buy a house, you need to be prepared to self-insure (as in YOU pay to replace it when a hurricane wipes you out or accept the loss and keep moving on). Roads, traffic, and overdevelopment are AWFUL, even through the summer months now. We’ve had monstrous Repuke government since Lawton Chiles died in the late 1980s—Rick Scott, Ron fucking Desantis, Marco Rubio, ad nauseam. They’ve decimated what made Florida great—especially bad in Sarasota, which used to have outstanding schools like New College, which have been gutted in the image of the fascist right.

I did acute care transcription for over 15 years and my favourite hospital was in Toronto. I can’t imagine that anyone would want to give up Canadian healthcare for the horrendous for-profit mess and slap-dash treatments here.

Even Key West is not what it used to be, and with the sea level rising, it might not even be here. All our coastline is in peril.

Honestly, I’m flabbergasted that people still view Florida as the ultimate retirement oasis. It’s not. Many of us would do anything to get the hell out of Florida, but the cost of living is so high and wages are so low, who can afford to?

Shaking my head that this is still a retirement dream for anyone.