My first day in Syracuse

Obviously this is from yesterday. I wrote it once the dust settled last night. Thanks for posting for me Jim!

I got in about 9:45 this morning. I found my apartment and started moving in. It is nice and clean, and it is actually bigger than I thought it would be. I met some of the neighbors, and they seem nice. I had a visit from a sparrow while I was moving in and had the door open. We went in circles in the living room a couple of times before I got him out.

After moving most in everything I headed out to find my office. It was easy to find, and the drive down there was gorgeous. The hills were rolling, and the trees on the ridge were in full fall color. The buildings were massive. They have quite a compound.

I then went on into Skaneateles. Wow! It is so cute. The downtown is right on the lake, and it is breathtaking. The leaves were blowing around like crazy, and there were tons of people milling about. The downtown is a couple of streets of these really cute shops.

I headed to Auburn, which is the next town to the west (all these places are roughly 5-7 miles apart). It is bigger than both Camillus and Skaneateles. Once again it is beautiful. There are so many cool old houses and wonderful tree-lined streets.

I took the long way back to Camillus, passed through, and went straight into Syracuse proper. Downtown is incredible. I did not know what to expect, but there are no tall buildings. I guess it is due to the town doing most of its growing very early on. The architecture is so interesting. Everything is old, but very clean.

The whole time I was driving around I kept wondering what it all would look like under a couple of feet of snow!

We had a pretty wicked storm here tonight. Lots of wind thunder and lightening, horizontal rain, and a tornado watch. Jim said it was the same front that caused a bad tornado in Evansville, Indiana that killed 20 people today. Yikes.

I ran some errands this evening and checked out the walmart and the grocery store. All I can say is, this place is much nicer than Franklin. I saw 2 mullets, but otherwise par for the course.

I’ve been noticing the difference in some little things. There are no right turns on red. There are fewer chain stores. The stoplights are right over where you are supposed to stop. The speed limit is much higher than it really should be on some of the roads – it seems to be either 65 or 35. People drive politely. People are just polite, and they make eye contact. They are serious about this recycling thing. The grocery stores have manned stations that refund your deposits. Restaurants have recycling bins next to the trash cans. Gas is pretty darn high.