If my memory serves, Sandy and I left Uruguay for the United States on April 19 2019. We spent a few days "decompressing" with our good friend Dale, in the Miami area. I wrote about this experience in the poem "Return to the Old Country," at that time. While we were there, we bought a car. We then drove to the place where we had decided to live: Hudson, Pasco County, FL. We (Sandy) had done a lot of research, but what originally brought this area to my attention was the large number of nudist resorts and clothing-optional communities in the area. Pasco, in fact, bills itself as the "Naturist Capital of the USA."
We don't happen to live in one of those fortunate communities, but we have a very nice house, with our own woods in back for a privacy screen, a fenced back yard for Betty, and the tile floors that Sandy wanted. All amenities, including a great medical center, are close by. Everything worked out for the best.
Anyway, for the first six weeks we lived in a rental home, and were able to move into our new house at the beginning of June of that year.
One of the things we wanted to do in moving to Florida was to get away from winter. At our age, and with my aversion to clothes, it just wasn't something we wanted to deal with.
Summer in Florida is pretty hot (mostly in the nineties Fahrenheit) and most of the year is extremely humid (80-90% most of the time). The humidity had an effect on me that I had not anticipated: painful groin rashes. The only solution to this that I have found is to not wear clothes, but rather let the air circulate freely around my body. This strikes me as nature's way of dealing with it, and it has become my way, too, unless I am out shopping or walking the dog.
Another thing that one has to think about is the possibility of hurricanes from June through December. Both last year and this year there have been several of them. This area is relatively well protected, though, and we have not really been threatened.
As I write this, California is still on fire (as are many other areas in the western states). North-Central and Northeastern areas are experiencing November-like cold. Much of the South has had serious flooding. Here, we have been much more fortunate, though nothing is guaranteed.
Today is the fourth of October. When I got up this morning, I felt the need of my winter bathrobe (see picture below, taken this morning), which I hadn't worn for so long that I couldn't find the belt to it. Lately the high temps have been in the low eighties, but the high today was just 77° F. The seasons are changing. Right now I rely on passive solar (the sun shining on the tiles of the living room floor) plus breakfast-cooking to bring the house up to the 77 or 78F that we find most comfortable, but in December and January, we will actually need to turn on the heat. Fortunately, we get our electricity from a co-op, and it is quite reasonable. Outside, long pants and a light jacket will suffice.
Except for the humidity, this is pretty much what we signed up for. Florida is, indeed, a different world.
Text and image Copyright © 2020 by Donald C. Traxler aka Donald Jacobson Traxler.
