Last week I listed some of the things we like about living out here in the country. I’ve since thought of more things, but I’ll save that list for another day. As promised last week, today I’ll list some of the things that we don’t enjoy about living out here in the country – SO FAR from town……..
1. THE LONG DRIVE TO TOWN.
2. People don’t just stop by to visit when they are out and about and sometimes we don’t get invited to things in town because friends don’t want us to feel obligated to drive to town or they think we won’t want to come in, etc….. So, sometimes they just don’t invite us or sometimes they will do something spur of the moment and we need at least 1.5 hours notice to do something “spur of the moment.” – A few minutes to get ready and 40 minutes or so to get there.
3. Small library – too small to have many of the books we might want. However, there is a book mobile that comes out every other week, but then I’d have to maintain some sort of “set” schedule. It’s just easier to purchase the books we need and have them delivered right to our door. They are here waiting to be read when we’re ready for them.
4. No homeschooling friends or activities out here.
5. Having to plan an ENTIRE day’s worth of activities when we head to town. We can’t just go do an hour’s worth of errands here and there throughout the week. When we go to town it’s a day’s worth of errands, shopping, appts, etc. usually after a full morning at 2 church services, after 3+ hours of go-carts (or other kids’ activity), all day of co-op, etc. IOW, we’re all pretty exhausted by the time we usually START to do any of the errands on the list.
6. Caller I.D. & Call Waiting features which don’t function at the same time – small phone company. On the plus side, we did get DSL this year!
7. No health clubs or gyms to get in a workout and no outdoor (nor indoor for that matter) public swimming pools.
8. Mosquitoes – they are EVERYWHERE this time of the year. However, when we keep up on the spraying it’s not too bad.
9. THE LONG DRIVE TO TOWN.
10. Pizza delivery (LOL). There are a few places that offer limited delivery in our direction, but we have to meet them 3/4 0f the way to town!!
11. The SMELL! Ok. Most of the time we LOVE the smell of the fresh country air – except when you’re driving by one of the feedlots after a rainfall…. NASTY! We don’t live close to one so it’s not too much of an issue.
12. 24 hour grocery stores… …or at least ones that are open until sundown. Our *one and only* grocery store is only open from 8:00 – 8:00 daily and closes at 6:00 on Sundays. So, they aren’t open quite early enough for us to grab something on our way to co-op since we leave so early and they aren’t open late enough for us to have last minute thoughts about dinner in the summer time. I’m usually just starting to think about supper about that time in the summer. And, if you need fever medicine in the middle of the night it would be a LONG drive to town and back to get some. So, I stay pretty well stocked up on almost everything because I wouldn’t want to have to drive to town for one necessary item we may run out of (tp, laundry soap, etc). You should also note that last week I listed our grocery store as one of the things we like about living out here.
13. Did I mention the long drive to town? Everything we do is in town – church, homeschool support groups and co-ops, doctors/dentists/orthodontists, most of our friends, etc.