I just read an article online that a Delray Beach, Florida man was arrested for calling 911 twice, saying he was hungry. He was arrested and put in jail. Now he has his three squares, so how does this add up? The police could have taken him to a soup kitchen and that would be the end of it. Now the taxpayers of Palm Beach County are paying for the man’s meals. It sort of makes sense, in Florida life.
I moved to Florida from NJ after a very long, cold and snowy winter in 1994. I loved it, at first. I had a crappy job, making less as an RN with ten years of experience and certifications out the wazoo, than I made as a graduate RN in NJ. Ok, I said to myself, but I don’t have a wage tax, and the rent on my two bedroom house was $415 a month. But I did have to scrimp and save just to make my bills, until I found a better job, in a much better hospital, in West Palm Beach. It was a fifty-four minute commute each way, but I only worked three days a week so it didn’t seem to matter. I conveniently forgot that I had a car lease and the miles were building fast. I gave up that job to be a Home Health RN in Port St.Lucie, where I lived, but based down in West Palm Beach. Still, my office was only eight minutes away and I was still making enough of a salary to live on.
After I met my husband at my third job, this one in a community hospital one town down, things got a bit complicated. We had our son in 1998, and in 1999, I filed for Social Security Disability because, after my son was born, my Lupus and Fibromyalgia spiraled out of control. It was then that I found out one of the negatives of living in Florida: it’s one of the hardest states in which to gain Disability benefits in the nation. It took me three long years to gain disability benefits. Our SUV was re-possessed, and we were barely making the rent. We looked at houses to buy, but even with the cost of housing being low back in the 1990’s, there was no way we could afford one on my husband’s salary as a Respiratory Therapist and my disability pay. They not only underpay nurses in Florida, they underpay other health care professionals, like my husband. When we moved back to NJ in 2003, my husband’s salary tripled.
I do miss the beach, since it was only a ten minute drive away. We could go there in the early morning or in the evening, out of the hot mid-day sun. My husband proposed to me on the beach. My son had his first dip in the ocean when he was six weeks old. And that was in December. Up here, the water temperature doesn’t rise enough until September for my husband and son to take a dip. I miss swimming in our friend’s pool year ‘round and the truth is we still can’t afford a swimming pool in our backyard in NJ. And it’s an hour drive to the closest beach, which is the dreaded Atlantic City. Tack on another half hour to go to a kid-friendly beach in Ocean City.
I really miss being out on my ex-boyfriend’s boat, early in the morning as the sun rose on the horizon and we shared breakfast while anchored in the ocean. I fell in love with boating, a love my husband doesn’t share. If we ever win the lottery, I’ll be buying a boat- not a big one, just something to muddle through a lake or river in. My son loves boats, too, even though he’s never been on one. He watches “CSI: Miami” and his eyes glass over when someone is out on the ocean. He doesn’t get the maintenance involved, or the cost of gas. It’s nice to be a kid, sometimes.
What I don’t miss, and the reason that people are leaving Florida more than moving to Florida for the first time in decades, is that the cost of houses have doubled since the hurricanes of 2004 and 2005. Hurricane insurance is as much as my homeowner’s insurance, and where we lived, you’d be crazy not to have hurricane insurance if you owned a home. And taxes are on the rise- sales taxes that is.
