In the springtime, I find myself swerving to not ride my motorcycle beneath live oak trees that overhang the road. Army worm caterpillars hang from these trees on small silk threads and I really don’t need my bike, riding jacket, and helmet splattered with their guts.
The nice thing about a late spring freeze is that it kills them, not good for people who have peach orchards but great for controlling the army worm population.
The parking lot at your condo is likely under the building to protect the residents from storm surge. That’s a common thing in construction near the ocean.
That is true, too. Even the parking garage is elevated high above street level and we are in a high elevation (for Manatee county, ha, ha) and not in a risky flood zone area.
However, my sister-in-law and brother-in-law live a few miles from us on Sarasota Bay and their beautiful home (all houses in the neighbor hood exceed a million bucks) looks like a conventional house, but the main living quarters are on the second floor. The garage and bottom floor are in an area where “stilts” support the upper level. You’d never know this by looking at the house though. It appears normal with regular looking walls. It is code for that area to use this type construction. They are closer to the ocean and in a riskier flood zone and evacuation area than we are. That’s the risk and price one pays, but folks happily accept it.
State Farm says we are in a good location and good structure to be out of harm’s way and with a good wind mitigation report our premiums reflect that. Our building was not requested to evacuate for hurricane Irma, sustained no damage, but folks lost electricity for close to a week I understand. Cars were all fine.
I think a risk to cars for us, bigger than snakes, floods, and hurricanes, etcetera would be stray golf balls, ha, ha… but the parking garage has “golf ball screens” on the course side.
CSA 
Roy Orbison glasses. I thought about cleaning up my own trees, but changed my mind considering the sheer volume of material from just the 4 large blue spruce trees alone. They went over in unison as the wind up-rooted them. Then you should have seen 5 strong guys with chainsaws, harnesses, chains, and a BIG front-end-loader work to get the tree off the chimney so that it wouldn’t damage the roof on either side of the chimney!
I would have been working on it for weeks/months and I have better things to do. They bid just 11-hundred bucks to do everything, all eleven trees, way below all competition and I gladly paid them. Down here I don’t need a saw. We have all sorts of people cutting and cleaning everything very regularly. That’s what I’m after.
Bringing it back to cars… I’ll have to take a picture of the “mermaid car” that is an advertising gimmick that I went by on my bike ride to Long Boat Key this morning. There are some unbelievable vehicles here, anything one can imagine.
CSA
Here in California, some of the most expensive and most sought after real estate is built on slopes, overlooking the town(s)
Anyways, when there’s mudslides, those are the homes which often get damaged and/or condemned
Presumably, those guys are insured up the wazoo, but it’s undoubtedly still a major hassle
As you said there’s always a price to pay, regardless of which end of the income spectrum you’re on
Here it is! I found it online! It’s parked in the same spot everyday on a busy road.
CSA
Clearly, the owner wants to sell or trade it. You simply MUST trade your Pontiac for it. Once you own the mermaid art car, you will truly be a Floridian. 
1 Like
SW Portland OR similar but made more challenging as some of the folks on the street have put cement in the holes, winter rains wash out the asphalt around them so we have deeper holes and “spikes” of cement. Really only fit for a half track. City won’t go near the area as it was adopted by the city as unincorporated and so it isn’t their responsibility. Funny as Seattle, in my opinion has similar winter weather, possibly not as much freeze, and their roads in unincorporated areas were excellent with sidewalks. So much for priorities and unions who elect “officials” with different priorities than the rest of us.
I think it depends on what part of Florida you live in.
“Flar-duh” is essentially an extension of Alabama and Georgia both scenery wise and culturally. After experiencing Tampa’s traffic, I’ll never complain about Houston or Dallas traffic again. It’s also an all day drive from Pensacola to Tampa.
2 Likes