I doubt it was as fun as mine… Debi and I went to Spamalot last night. As an inveterate Monty Python fan, I felt very much at home. I knew most of the “ripped off” lines and could basically guess what was going to happen next, but it in no way spoiled the fun. If you get a chance and you enjoy Monty Python, I highly suggest you go.
(Okay, in all honesty all of Easter wasn’t that fun – our evicted neighbors were moving out, so we helped them move and spent most of our day doing that. They also, quite graciously, gave us their shed, which we transported to our yard. Moving it nearly killed us, but we now have a shed and are very grateful for their generosity.)
When we moved into our house almost 9 months ago, it didn’t take me too long to meet the neighbors. To the west live a tile layer (the husband) and a financial secretary at a construction company (the wife). To the east live a granite countertop installer (the husband) and a school counselor (the wife). Both have two kids, but the couple to the west are a bit older and their kids are grown (one is at the local community college the other is a senior in high school). The one’s to the east have two younger kids, one is 4, one is 10.
I wouldn’t say I’m the type of neighbor who goes out of his way to talk to his neighbors, but I have taken both of them cookies and other desserts and we’ve chatted quite a bit whenever I’m out in the yard mowing or raking leaves, etc.
As both of the husbands were living off the housing market, the sudden reversal hit them both very hard. My tile laying neighbor saw his business drop by almost 70%. Luckily, his wife, who also works in the construction industry, is fairly insulated from the downturn because she works for a solid company that makes a lot of its money from financing the homes (the division she works in). So, they have her steady income and their hoping to ride this out until things pick back up. Plus, they seem like the type of people who have a little bit saved up for a rainy day. Additionally, one of their daughters had leukemia several years back, but the wife’s very good health insurance minimized the cost for them and they pulled through it without any debt. Finally, they have lived in the same house for almost 30 years and will finally pay off the mortgage this coming November. So, they’ve been hit by the housing industry collapse, but they are surviving.
My neighbors to the east haven’t been so lucky. The husband lost his job installing granite countertops about 3 or 4 months after we moved in. At its peak, he was making almost $2,000 per week installing countertops. The wife’s job is pretty secure, but I doubt it brings in more than $35,000 a year, which is pretty tight if you are supporting a partner and two kids. Additionally, they aren’t the type of couple that had money tucked away. They pretty clearly live paycheck to paycheck and spend the excess on all sorts of things (they have an above ground pool outback that is neglected; they have a huge playset that is also neglected; they have a trampoline that I’ve never seen them use, etc.) They, too, had a son with leukemia (before they moved in to their current house, or I’d be freaking out about where I live). But their insurance wasn’t nearly as good at the time and they ended up with several thousand dollars debt (I think it was about $8,000 by the time it was over). The child recovered and seems fine, but that’s tough to pay for. Finally, these neighbors are both immigrants – she’s from Argentina and he’s from Cuba. They are both bi-lingual, which is probably an asset here (all of the bank tellers I’ve met have been bi-lingual), but maybe not.
About a month after my neighbor to the east lost his job, their cars were repossessed. She was driving a Jeep Grand Cherokee (about 3 or 4 years old) and he was driving a relatively nice truck. They got a loaner van for a few days from a friend, then bought a couple older vehicles – a mini-van and an older truck. The husband didn’t immediately go out to look for work and ended up hanging around the house for about a month before taking a temporary job (I’m not sure what exactly he was doing). It seemed to be a filler and didn’t pay much. He also mentioned in December that they were having marital difficulties and that she had kicked him out of the house a couple of times. He finally landed a job with Verizon, installing fiber optic internet connections in homes. The training took about a month. He spent about two weeks in the field, installing the connections, before he was laid off. I’m not sure if he wasn’t very good at it or if they just didn’t need as many installers, but that was the last straw for them. Two days ago they came over to tell us they were moving… They were five months behind on rent (though they paid two of those with their tax returns) and the landlord finally decided he had to evict them. She is using this to end the marriage. She’s moving to an apartment near the older boy’s school. He doesn’t know where he’s going yet. He’s going to be homeless for about a week, then he figures he’ll find something. As we talked to her, alone, she said she liked her husband but she felt obligated to do something to motivate him to get a job and keep it (I didn’t feel that the time was opportune to tell her that it probably isn’t entirely his fault). The financial burden of him not having a job just wasn’t acceptable.
I’m not writing this because I’m a busy-body, nosy neighbor. I’m writing this because this is my social stratification class playing out in front of my eyes. I make no bones about the fact that I live in a working class neighborhood (though there are some middle-class types too, like the dual-income professionals across the street – both Asian). There are a number of things that stand out about the lower social classes in this scenario. First, incomes are more volatile – when the economy gets hit, so do lower class incomes. Second, financial management isn’t a strong point. This isn’t because lower income individuals don’t want to save money; it’s mostly because they’ve never learned how. Third, couples in lower social classes are more likely to divorce. This is probably due to a combination of things, but one big one is the stress that results from financial problems, like losing one’s job. Fourth, healthcare costs hit lower-income couples substantially harder than higher-income couples – usually because the insurance pays less. And, fifth, immigrants often come to the USA believing this is the land of the “rags to riches” story. Well, we do like telling that story, but it’s more of a legend than anything else. The actual chance of someone growing up in the lowest tenth of income earners moving to the highest tenth of income earners is about 1%. Sure, it happens, but it happens so rarely that it’s more of a myth than even a dream.
There was an article the other day in the NYTimes talking about how the housing crisis was affecting the presidents of the banks that are now paying for it. It mentioned that many of them were not getting bonuses now. Some had even lost their jobs, but it’s not like they had to pay back the millions of dollars they made in the run up to the bust. Many had stock in their companies, and it was losing value (they’re now only worth $500 million instead of a billion). And some of them were losing the additional stock options they had. How many of them lost their homes and their marriages as a result? If they lost a home, they could probably afford to lose it (as they have extras).
I had one of my students the other day say in class that sociology is depressing. He’s right, to a degree. Sociology, itself, isn’t depressing – sociology is just the perspective that helps us understand what is happening in society. What’s depressing is what sociology discovers: inequality and stratification. I guess what we need to do better as sociologists is inspire our students to do something about the inequality and give them hope. Then, maybe, sociology won’t seem so depressing…
I’ve found since I started teaching Sociology that being up-to-date on local news can be useful (though it is less useful at my new school where many of the students are from other cities). This leads me to read the local paper, which is often relatively quotidian – thefts, car accidents, political debates, etc. Occasionally, however, I hear about stuff in the national media happening in my local area. There are two big stories (from the last couple of days) that have made national news. First up, the Cuban under 21 men’s soccer team came to Tampa to play for an Olympic qualifier and 7 of the players and an assistant coach defected. This isn’t all that uncommon and there isn’t anything particularly special about Tampa in this case, but it is big news and a commentary on Cuba. The second story didn’t make national headlines in the major papers, but it was picked up by a tech website that has a particular beef with Scientology: Slashdot noted the recent denial by a local judge of an injunction against protests at Scientology’s headquarters in Clearwater (which makes up part of the big three cities here: Tampa, St. Pete, and Clearwater). Again, this probably isn’t a “Clearwater/St. Pete/Tampa” news item so much as a Scientology news item, but I am always interested in things happening locally. (Also, there are supposed to be big protests this weekend at the headquarters… If I had time I’d go watch.)
On an interesting side note, how many of you, my faithful readers, have ever heard of the Dvorak keyboard? I’d heard about it quite a few times and had only ever heard that it was far more efficient and ergonomic than the traditional QWERTY keyboard. In my never-ending attempt to make typing easier on my hands (since I spend a large portion of my days in front of computers), I started practicing on a Dvorak keyboard (you can change your settings on your computer to get it working), only to get frustrated, think things through a bit, and begin to wonder how much of a difference Dvorak could really make. Turns out, not much, if at all. The Dvorak keyboard is often used to illustrate the idea that vested interests can overcome practicality and pragmatism when it comes to the adoption of inventions (in fact, Jared Diamond mentions Dvorak in this sense in Guns, Germs, and Steel). Having heard only that side of the argument dozens of times, I started repeating it (sorry to anyone who heard that from me; I was wrong and am now admitting it). But the frustration of trying to adopt the Dvorak keyboard eventually led me to search out criticisms and I ended up finding the one linked above in an economics journal (I know, it’s an economics journal…). Turns out, most of the “research” indicating Dvorak is (1) faster and (2) more ergonomic was done by… Guess who? August Dvorak, the person who developed it, patented it, and profited from it. Impartial studies indicate minor speed benefits (maybe 2% to 5%) and no difference in ergonomics. Additionally, the time required to retrain an accomplished typist (I type about 110 wpm on QWERTY) won’t ever be recouped in faster typing times – you’re better off spending more time training yourself on the QWERTY as you can actually get faster with additional training. So, if you’ve ever considered switching to Dvorak after already becoming proficient with QWERTY, don’t bother. If, however, you really think the 2%-5% speed advantage is worth it, I guess you could train your kids using Dvorak (though they’ll have a hell of time moving from keyboard to keyboard and changing settings on computers). One final note, I did buy a couple ergonomic keyboards (where the keys are split) and have noticed a substantial improvement in the pain I experience as a result of typing – the angles make a lot of sense and I highly recommend ergonomic keyboards.
As luck would have it, the latest space shuttle launch coincided with our spring break. The only thing I really, really wanted to do upon moving to Florida was see a shuttle launch in person. So, when I saw a chance for us to go observe a launch, we jumped at it. Given it is our spring break, we decided to turn our trip across peninsular Florida into a day-long excursion.
We left Tampa around 11:00 and drove to Lake Wales, FL to see the Bok Tower Sanctuary. Our neighbor lent us a book of one gas tank trips from Tampa and one of the attractions listed in it was Bok Sanctuary. It’s basically a really nice garden with a unique tower. The tower sits on the highest point in peninsular Florida (we’ve been to the highest point in Florida, Britton Hill). We weren’t sure what to expect, but were very pleasantly surprised.
On the way in to the Sanctuary you drive through miles of orange trees. Everyone knows Florida is famous for oranges. Now I know where they grow:
You can also see the tower in the distance:
It costs $10 per adult to enter the “sanctuary,” but it is worth it. You walk through the visitor’s center, which has a museum and video, then you can wander around the gardens, all the way up to the tower. It’s actually a carillon tower, which means it has bells and plays music. We arrived around 12:45; the first concert of the day starts at 1:00. We walked around in the gardens while the music played and snapped photos. It’s very picturesque, with all sorts of foliage and even some swans.
This is the tower from the far end of the reflection pool.
Here’s Ryan behind the tower.
Here’s Debi pretending this is a friendly swan (it kept inching closer and trying to take a piece out of our legs).
These last two are kind of cool. Calvin Coolidge dedicated the sanctuary in the 1920s. Apparently, while he was there, he and his wife planted palm trees. There was no mention of this in any of the information in the park, but as we walked around, I saw these plaques indicating which palm trees they had planted. I’m standing next to the one planted by President Coolidge; Debi is by the one planted by First Lady Coolidge (I apologize for the gendered titles, but they are what they are):
We spent a good couple hours at the sanctuary then headed out to find another local attraction – Spook Hill. That same guidebook suggests this attraction. As an inveterate fan of the obscure, I thought it might be cool to find some sort of local optical illusion – a road that is situated such that gravity seemingly pulls you uphill. I’m sure there are places like that around the U.S., but not this time.
It took us a good 30 minutes just to find this place as the signage around town is terrible. I was beginning to think that the mystique surrounding Spook Hill was actually that there is no Spook Hill – it’s just a myth and you drive around trying to find it, which makes it “spooky.”
(This actually gave me an idea that I thought would be kind of fun if you live in a small town – come up with some weird “attraction” that you think people would actually go out of their way to see. Then go out around your town and put up signs with arrows and names that send people in a very large circle around town but never actually send you to an attraction. Then build a web page talking about how amazing this attraction is. Once you start getting hits, go see if people start showing up and follow them around, laughing. Okay, that’s mean, but it would be funny.)
We eventually found the place and then busted up laughing. Remember, the whole idea is that your car is supposed to role in such a way that it is spooky. You might think that means rolling in the direction opposite of what you would think. You would be wrong. I was so disappointed I filmed the whole thing (well, Debi did while I ran through it).
After watching several other people fall for this ridiculous attraction, we decided we’d had enough and left. Final word: Spook Hill is the dumbest thing attraction I’ve ever visited. Don’t go!After wasting an hour at Spook Hill we headed toward Titusville to set up camp and watch the shuttle launch. We arrived around 5:00 pm and found there were already about 50 people camped out at Space View Park. Many of the front row spots were taken, but we found some that were not and set up camp. I had researched online the best places to view the launch. Without spending anything, Space View Park is the place to go. But it fills up fast. We got there at 5:00, almost 10 hours before the launch, and barely got a front row spot. By about 10:00 pm people were stacking up several rows deep. By the actual time of the launch there were probably 800 to 1,000 people in the park (and it’s tiny) and people were backed up quite far. We knew we had time to kill, so we brought Scrabble and Stratego to play while it was light then had books and games on our handhelds to keep us entertained. We also brought blankets and pillows and got in a couple hours of sleep.Amazingly, the launch went off without a hitch (a first in a long time) and I got this footage.
I actually filmed it in hi-def and am happy to share that footage with anyone interested (it’s still grainy until ignition because it is so dark, but once it lights up, the picture is amazing). It was a very cool launch, even though it was short-lived. The shuttle took off, lit up the sky, then disappeared into the low cloud cover. It was just a cool event.We waited a while for the traffic to clear out, but we still ended up getting stuck for about an hour. We got home around 6:00 am and crashed for a few hours before starting the day Tuesday.
Overall, I’d say Florida is pretty freaking cool! Bok Sanctuary is amazingly beautiful and the launch was awesome. Spook Hill should be nuked, but you can’t win them all.
I’ve been wanting to write this for a while but am just now getting around to it. When we moved to Cincinnati we bought a very modest condo in a working class condominium complex. We liked the area and even though we didn’t know most of our neighbors, we were mostly content. At least, that was true initially. Over time little things about the complex started to add up and turn into big things. One of the things that really got on our nerves over time was the fact that there was a manager of the complex who made a lot of money for basically doing nothing. I wouldn’t go so far as to describe my graduate school work experience as slave labor (20 to 25 hours per week at roughly $10k per year – though that doesn’t factor in my tuition), but I know I worked a lot more hours per week than the manager of our complex did and she made $18,000 per year. Here’s a scan of the yearly budget as evidence:
In addition to the purely gratuitous wages of the complex manager, there were a lot of other things that eventually really upset us. For instance, on the rare occasion that it snowed enough to be an issue with driving, the complex would plow the main parking areas, but not the back lots, which is where our assigned parking was. I shoveled most of our back lot twice while we lived there – spending almost the entire day each time. The complex also had the power to levy sudden, emergency fees whenever it felt like it and you had to pay them or else. This happened about three times while we were there, and we can only imagine the hardship it must have caused to some people in the complex who lived on fixed incomes. Finally, the complex had a pool and club house. The pool was a decent size, but a bit old and regularly needed repairs. Additionally, it was seldom used during the summer but cost thousands of dollars in upkeep. Given all of the financial problems of the complex, Debi suggested that they not open the pool one year to save money. This was met with a stunned silence and then an outcry, “How dare you suggest…” As for the club house, while it was supposed to be a common area, it was basically treated as an addition to the club manager’s condo. This was most evident in the fact that it was not smoke free (the complex manager smoked) and always smelled heavily of stale tobacco. To hold an event there you had to pay a fee, even if you lived in the complex. I never really understood that either.
Never having owned a condo before (nor really knowing many people who do), we were really disappointed with the whole experience. Maybe others have had better experiences living in condos, and I certainly hope that is true, but our experience soured us to owning a condo ever again… (Of course, with the housing market currently tanking, we’re beginning to wonder if we wouldn’t just be better off renting the rest of our lives.)
On a brighter note, we are now officially Floridians (okay, that’s probably only true in the technical sense – not sure when we’ll start feeling like we are “from” Florida): we have Florida Driver’s Licenses. We had to get them in order to get the strange “Homeowner’s Exemption” here in Florida (which is a tax break for people who actually live here year round). I was a little sad to see this beauty go:
Also, we received a copy of a photo taken at our University’s holiday party. One of the perks, I guess, of working at a smaller university (that probably also has a little more free cash than most public universities) is that there is a yearly holiday party. It’s a rather posh affair with chocolate fountains, decadent food, live music, and even an open bar (which we will, unfortunately, never really take advantage of). Anyway, we liked our picture from the event:
