Country living, it's not for the faint of heart
Mood:  not sure

15 years ago this new adventure started.  Of course, I didn't know it was going to be an adventure at that time. 

I thought it was just a job offer in the midwest.  A chance to leave Waveland MI, where we had spent 3 months.  It was 3 months too long.  We showed up at the height of lovebug season.  It was hot and humid and you couldn't wear light colors outside without getting covered in f%&king bugs!  And I mean that, both ways, literally. 

At that time it was still legal to drink and drive in MI.  You couldn't be drunk and drive.  But you could stop in at a drive thru bar and get a dacari in a styrofoam cup and drink it on your way home. 

The area we where in was prone to flooding.  To the point where the land would become so muddy you couldn't walk across in without losing a shoe in the mud.  So I was kind of surprised when our neighbor, who was born and raised in that area, drove his truck behind our building after a week of rain.  He didn't get it pulled out again til the day we left. 

Only took him 20 minutes to pull it around back and get it stuck again. 

The building itself was in curious shape.  The back was visiably lower than the front.  Not that there was a planned level downward, but the floor and ceiling sloped downward.  Because the ground under the foundation was mud.  There was a double sevice door on the west side of the building, and another on the south side and when it rained water would flow into the west door, run about 12 feet across the floor, make a 45 degree turn and run out the sout door. 

And then there where the lizards.  I'm not afraid of lizards, I don't mind them at all, but when you're seated in the bathroom and one dashed out from behind the stool and runs across your feet it's a tad unnerving. 

So while at a convention when we where invited to come to Springfield MO for a job, we jumped at it.  Small town living within 45 minutes of a city big enough to find plenty of work and everything you need for a comfortable life, sounds great. 

Little did we know, the simple life comes with it's own complications.