About Indiana the Interesting

Believe or not (note to left- and right-Coasters) (also to Chicago dwellers) (and people from Texas) (also the rest of the world) the State of Indiana can be a darn interesting place to be.

To state the obvious, we've got weather. Lots of it. That's always changing. And what keeps human beings more interested than change? Oh, some like it (weather and change) (personal note: I like weather AND change) more than others (and that's never more true than in Indiana, about the State of Things in General), but one thing for sure: it's hard to be bored by the weather. (For example, one would think a 10-day string of frigid temperatures in January would be boring. But it's not! How can you be bored when you're hating it so much?)

Often, one has to fight the weather--when it's zero degrees out, for instance, and your car won't start. Or you need to shovel that six inches of snow. Or, when a raging thunderstorm with hail and high winds knocks the electricity out and your sump pump quits working, and your basement begins to fill with water, even before you get your generator going. Who's bored then? And I haven't even mentioned tornadoes!

Our tectonics have been interesting lately, too--what gets one's attention more quickly than an earthquake? (Unless you sleep through it; I'm still mad.) A 5.2 in southern Illinois got us all shook up in northern Indiana. And I'm blaming it for the funny sounds my frig made for a a couple of days. A few good aftershocks keeps the interest rolling like nothing else!

The economy is certainly interesting, albeit probably in a bad way. We watch the price of gasoline rise daily, from our office windows (there's a station across the street), and complain to each other that "It cost me $56 to fill my tank yesterday--the most ever!" We note the number of businesses leaving Huntington, one after another. We moan about the price of milk and eggs and groceries in general, and contemplate making Aldi's our grocery of choice. Yet, among my closest associates, everyone is still working and still living their lives pretty much as usual--taking vacations, shopping a little, having a Starbucks now and then. But with a weather eye.

But most of all, living in Indiana has gotten interesting politically. We are ON THE NEWS--and I mean, national. We have CANDIDATES VISITING. (Even their wives.) (And husbands.) We're polled, we get flyers in our mailboxes, we get phone calls. The Democrats suddenly care about us! (One person we've NOT seen: John McCain.)

Not to mention, our state races, particularly for governor, are heating up. But then, local politics is always interesting in Indiana, if often maddening to those moderates and independents among us.

Springtime in Indiana the Interesting: Even as we enjoy the newly leafed trees, the tulips and daffodils, the occasional warm week, we wait for the earth to shake, the speeches to commence, and the election to come.

How about you? What's so interesting?