NEW FLORIDA RESIDENT BLOG

Welcome to Florida. When I was younger, I remember the sound of cheering fans at Fenway Park making it impossible to study in the Fall.  Warm nights were the worst since we didn't have air conditioning and had to keep the windows open for ventilation.  People always ask, since I'm from Boston, if I'm a Red Sox fan and the truth is none of us are.  Games interfered with sleep, parking and circumventing our neighborhood - and only people that have never lived there think it's cool that I lived by Fenway. But now, I finally live in the suburbs..... It's almost too quiet to sleep and parking is never a problem.  So, I'm looking forward to taking my family to the various sports venues in South West Florida and by, far my favorite team to watch is The Lightning.  My wife and I would go before our son was born to watch the Chicago Blackhawks play Tampa Bay.  It was always fun and we'd cheer for Chicago and drive back to our gated neighborhood.  That's a...

Welcome to Florida. Most new residents get concerned about alligators when first settling in to life in FL, but as I have written many times, alligators are afraid of us and usually stay away.  Note: "usually", I have of course, taught my son to run in a zig zag and trip anyone that is in arm's reach if an alligator approaches. Snakes seem safer, we will probably be welcoming a corn snake to our family shortly because, if you let a 2 year old hold a corn snake they spend the next four months asking for one.  That said our family does "wild snake drills" in the field by our house [side note: WSD is a fun family activity, one person yells "SNAKE!  RUN!" and everyone sprints 100 yards]. Seriously, this is Florida and there are water moccasins everywhere.  And if you haven't done the "wild snake drill" with your house painter you end up with terrify exchange in the street in front of your house......

If you’re the child of married parents, it’s a near certainty that a parent will become widowed during your lifetime. And while the death of a parent is a difficult time for everyone, the loss of a long-term spouse is a profound and life-altering experience. While not always easy, it’s important to support your widowed parent through the grieving process. By age 85, most married people are widowed . For many seniors, this loss comes at a time of life that’s rife with other stressors. Mobility wanes, social networks dwindle, and illness becomes more frequent and more debilitating as people age. Often, a supportive husband or wife is the key that keeps older adults independent and empowered. When that spouse dies, the entire landscape of life is fundamentally altered. Not only has a decades-long source of love and companionship disappeared, but the surviving parent has lost her greatest source of support as well. A senior man suffering vision loss no longer has a partner to ...