So Blue So Sunny

It turns out there is a giant place that begins 174 miles south of GroveAtopia.  Even though there is no visible dividing line other than a sign, the minute you cross into it you know you are someplace else.

First there are the exit numbers.  Seven hundred and ninety-six of them.  My goodness that's a lot of exits.  Especially compared to our relatively humble three hundred and eight.   So right away you know you something has changed.

Then there is the weather with its unending blue sky and sun.  As you wend your way through the mountains and descend into the great valley, once again you realize you have brought the wrong clothes.   That's because even though it's mid-March, down here it's 75 degrees.  Your GroveAtopian wardrobe just won't do.

Silly you, you even brought along heavy sweater.   You only brought one short sleeve shirt and that was an afterthought.  Now you realize you could have brought your entire summer wardrobe and been just fine.  But now it's too late.

What is it like living with all this sun and sky?  Well it does whacky things to the flowers.  They bloom everywhere, all the time.  Nothing ever seems to die.  Nothing ever seems to have time to rest.  There is never that time when everything is dead, quiet or resting.   No anticipation of the first appearance of this or that little green thing poking its head through the soil you were convinced was dead.

You might think with all this sunny weather that the people who live here would always be sunny too, but that's not the case.  It's not their fault though.  They live in a place that's so vast that even the smallest towns are swallowed up by their bigger neighbors.  And because of their sheer numbers, by and large they live lives of anonymity.  And that can make people cranky.

Even so, it's nice that things are so nice here so that occasionally we GroveAtopians may visit and enjoy them.   Then, lucky us, we get to go back.  Back to who and what we know.  It's colder, nowhere near as sunny and nowhere near as blue, but we've been there long enough that we believe that's how things are and that's how they should be.

Others might not see it.  They might not agree.  But we love it and embrace it and we even defend it in the face of logic and evidence to the contrary.  

That's because when we are back, as we pass each other we smile, whether we know each other or not.   We don't depend on the weather for our sun.  We depend on each other, and because of that, it's always sunny in GroveAtopia.