Doubly dark

Sorry for the long spell between postings. Rest assured, this will be insanely long. See, it's not that I haven't been thinking about blogging, it's just that I haven't been blogging.

I had forgotten how much difference a few hundred miles can make. At 4:30, it's so dark here I can't read a book in my sunroom without extra light, and my sunroom still needs a lamp in it. In fact, it's pretty much pitch black. In fact, even with the glow from my screen, I can't really see to type. Time to go buy some more lamps, clearly. My neighbors, whose house I can see out the sunroom windows, have the Christmas lights up, and they are very pretty. But they are not giving me a lot of light.

People told me, when they heard I was coming up here, that it would be a lot cheaper. I thought it would be cheaper to buy a house, that kind of thing, but I did not expect other things to be a lot cheaper. I mean, aren't some prices just fixed, no matter where you are?
Here's what's cheaper:

• Practically everything, because there's no sales tax here.

And also:

• Food. I know, I should get in the habit of bringing my lunch, but I have not yet. So I buy lunch close by. In the student center, a sandwich, pickle, and side of chips or potato salad or an apple costs $3.25. If I feel like going to the dining commons, it's all I can eat for $5.95.
• Beer. Yeah, you have to shop the specials, but my local bar has a lot of them. A pint of whatever I drink is 50¢ from 8-8:30 on Tuesday nights, with prices going up 25¢ every half-hour from then on. Since I am both old and boring, that means I am generally getting about two pints for about $1.50 or less.
• Liquor. Maybe. Just like in Virginia, you can only buy liquor here from state-run liquor stores. But up here, they have, over years, developed a reputation for being much cheaper than the commercial liquor stores in other states, often with better selection. I don't buy enough liquor to know how much I'm saving, but maybe it's a lot. Or maybe it's an excellent long-term marketing strategy, with little basis in fact.
• Entertainment. There are political candidates, and pseudo-candidates, of course. They're pretty thick on the ground and also free. But there is also Monday night contra dancing, which, I'm told, is super-fun. And people drop by all the time, especially if by "people" you mean my parents, and by "drop by" you mean come over to tell me I need curtains. That is also free, and sometimes comes with dinner or firewood. People who are not my parents also sometimes drop by with no mention of curtains. But they rarely give me food or firewood.

In other news, my city-based sister is getting married in May, which is very, very soon. Her own little city-mouse-country moment seems to be the observation that everything about a wedding is easier to accomplish up here than in her city, so this is where she's getting married, and if she also has to drive two hours each way to find a ring and a dress and so forth, that's just what she'll do.

I saw a hawk this morning. It's been hanging around campus, eating squirrels, apparently, but I hadn't seen it until this morning, when it perched on the roof across from my office window. Cool. My old apartment complex should get some hawks to eat all the squirrels.