How Here is Different Than There

Moving to the other side of the country is obviously a big adjustment. But, some changes weren't really anticipated and we have to live around here awhile to get a hang of them. Mostly they are things you'd never think of that are suprising! Such as...

Traffic Lights



On the eastern side of the country, we have three lights at traffic stops: red, yellow, green. Occasionally we see a green arrow. And that's it.
Here, however, there are no "green lights" for turn lanes--there are only arrows. So you either get a green arrow (not that I've seen this), a flashing yellow arrow (which means proceed with caution), a regular yellow arrow (which means you better book it before the light turns red) or a red arrow. This seems particularly unintelligent since the flashing yellow and the regular yellow are in the same "circle" so you have to really be paying attention so see the change if you are waiting to turn.

Communication



Such as one area code for the entire state.
One news broadcast and, yes, it covers the entire state.
The news broadcast is horrible, too. It's so bad. We had a high school news produced by high school students and it was better than this. You can literally hear people in the background saying "ok...go" when they switch the cameras.
There are a large amount of radio stations, though. That was a GOOD surprise.
And I'm going to go ahead and throw "highways closed for high wind" into this one. Because the highway is pretty much the only way to get to any other city from here. And it's at least an hour away. The highways close way too often.

Lawns



The only lawns in this state that aren't brown are in our neighborhood. And that's only because we are required to water it three times a week.
However, we are not required to have the following in our yard, but can't seem to get rid of them: Prairie Dogs AND their lovely holes (Cleo likes to stick her head in them so..that's always fun) and antelope AND their lovely crap. Thankfully, Cleo is a pansy and after about 20 seconds of staring at the antelope that are consistently in our yard (eating my mums), she runs back to me or the house. Yea, she's a great herding dog ;)