Day 12 - Picture of where you live

Deviating from the list I originally chose again today because it's a pretty boring topic...who really cares how I found out about blogger and why I have one? That should be obvious - cause I wanted to blog. There ya go. Short, boring post right?

Instead, I will post up a picture of where I live - or a close reasonable proximity. You want to see my house? Then be my friend on facebook...

The place where I feel most at home though is the beach. Miles and miles of ocean surround me and I'm in heaven. As much as I wish I could be someplace else at times, I feel like I need to be around the water. Yes, I burn. Yes, it's hot and sandy and I make a mess in my car on the way home but while I am there, I just don't care.

I live in what is technically a city - albeit a really, really small one that is pretty much dying before my eyes. We are super dependent on the space program and our current administration doesn't feel it's a priority so we are losing jobs and our community is suffering greatly. The space shuttle is an amazing sight. As much as I don't love the traffic it brings to us during really inconvenient times (like right at the same time people are trying to get their kids to school), it's an amazing sight. One of those things that you have to experience first hand to be really awed by it. Pictures of it don't do it justice. The feeling as the earth shakes during blast off and the sight of the shuttle flying away in the sky and into orbit is incredible. I'm lucky in that my career and job isn't dependent on the local economy only, or else I would have greater fears - however it does effect many of my family members. I bought a house here, intending to raise my son in my hometown. Despite its faults, it's a good place to raise kids...but with the way things are going, I worry that I may have to give that up and move somewhere else. But that brings new fears of trying to sell my house in a dead market. My city has changed so much in the years since I graduated from good old THS. It's disconcerting to think about the times I spent at Carousel, which is now a sad burned out shell, or how my favorite store in the world was Lerner's and how that space in Miracle City Mall (motto is, it's a miracle it's still there) lies empty alongside so many others.

I don't want to sound so down about my hometown. I live in close proximity to my immediate family. I'm minutes away from the beaches. Hopping on over to Orlando is a breeze...I just wish there was a way to save us from turning into a ghost town too soon...