Robb + Jessie Married & in the Badger State
The Best Place to Live (?)
I have now lived in Madison for about seven months now, and probably the strangest thing about it so far is that there really doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with it. The people of Madison don’t have any real needs that I can see. Crime is low. There isn’t a large homeless population here.
I feel somewhat like I’ve stumbled upon the village of Sandford from the film Hot Fuzz, where everyone and everything is absolutely perfect. (At least it seems that way.)
The example of Jesus is to rebuke religious hypocrisy and embrace the outcasts of society, which in his day were prostitutes, drunks, and the tax collectors who betrayed their people to make a profit.
Who are the outcasts and downtrodden of Madison? Where are the people who are hurting? Where are the real needs in a place where everyone and everything seems to be just fine? I will have to dig deeper to find out.
Starbucks
As a Seattleite, it is only fair that I compare Starbucks per capita.
Seattle versus Madison
To compare, I needed to obtain data:
- Populations of the city based on 2006 United States Census:
- Number of Starbucks located in a five mile radius of the city center (based on zip codes) using the Starbucks Store Locater:
- Starbucks Store per person:
- Additionally, for comparison sake, there are 15 times more Starbucks in Seattle than in Madison!
- Seattle 582,174 people in the greater Seattle area
- Madison 223,389 people in the greater Madison area
- Seattle (98109) 104 Starbucks Stores
- Madison (53726) 7 Starbucks Stores
- Seattle 1:5,597
- Madison 1:31,912
In conclusion, Starbucks stores are much more frequent in Seattle than in Madison. I could do this same type of analysis again and compare all coffee shops between cities per capita and the ratio might still look like that. The joke that there is a coffee shop on every street corner in Seattle is, yes, very true. But we Seattlites are proud of this! We need to have our streets densely populated with coffee shops in order to keep up our energy for the day… fueling our addictions! Actually, that being said, I am a tea drinker opposed to a coffee monger.
Now I shall leave you with two final questions:
What kind of business is on every street corner in Madison?
Does it outnumber Seattle?
Make your suggestions and I’ll research it for you.
Elevation
Another thing I have learned about living in the Midwest (again) is that clouds often deceive folks from the West coast as being snow covered mountains looming in the distance. To humor myself, I decided to figure out the highest point in Wisconsin and compare it to Washington’s standard of The Mountain.
Drum roll please… Wisconsin’s highest point is Timms Hill coming in at a remarkable 1,951 feet above sea level.
I was going to present you with a photo of Timms Hill, but I couldn’t find anything remarkable about it. Actually, when I went to their website, I thought the photo was showing you where you began to start the hike. Not the hill. Alas.
OK. Second drum roll… Washington’s prized possession is none other than Mount Rainier coming in at a spectacular 14,410 feet above sea level. And you may now be rewarded with a beautiful image of the summit. Hoorah!
Lessons Learned
I have decided to compile a list of lessons (or just random bits of information) that I have learned since moving across the Continental Divide. While two months does not give one a fully detailed and accurate dipiction of a new city/climate/culture my eyes have been indeed opened to many new things:
- Toilet seat covers in the women’s restroom are never present. I am used to finding them in every single public restroom all over the West coast. I have seen them only once since moving.
- Be aware of the location of your street’s fire hydrant before the snow plows plow your street and build a six foot bank of snow on top of the hydrant. This is essential information if you are ever asked by a fireman. (More on this in another post).
- 10ºF weather is warm after you have spent a week in sub-zero weather. 20ºF calls for t-shirts and shorts! (OK, maybe only for runs, but still. People get by in with sweatshirts once the extreme cold spell has passed.)
- Midwesterners are really nice. Not just a nice-act, but truly, genuinly nice.
- The Madison Capital building is the tallest building in the city. And within the city limits, nothing can be taller.
- Woodman’s is the cheapest store to find groceries. And everyone shops there.
- Never shop at Woodman’s on Superbowl Sunday. Especially one to two hours before it begins.
- Add an extra 10-15 minutes to your estimated drive time if it snowed the night before. This factors in the time it takes to scrape down the car and drive 5-10 MPH under the speed limit.
- If there is what appears to be a puddle on the sidewalk and it is below 32ºF, chances are it is some nasty black ice. Whatever you do, avoid it at all costs.
- Madison’s mayor is known simply as Mayor Dave.
- Cars do not stop for you. Even when you have the right of way.
- It is very difficult to get a driver’s license.
- You can actually walk (and run) on water. But only in the dead of winter when the lakes are totally frozen over.
- Taking a road trip to Chicago is wonderful. Just do it when you won’t have windchills of -20ºF!
- Our car can hold a lot of stuff from Ikea. And even though we looked like idiots trying to cram everything we bought for our new home into our CR-V, we did it. Mostly because we are hard core.
- Mad-towners, or Madisonians, are very passionate about food, music, museums, movies, politics, sports… you name it!
- Madison expects everyone to go to the polls. The only people who can do absentee ballots are senior citizens or disabled folks.
As I keep learning more things, perhaps I shall update this list. But for now. Hope you have enjoyed some of my newfound lessons.