Land of Lawns
I've been in Oklahoma City now for less than a week, the rest of the O'Dangs for a but more than a week. However, we're in some kind of crazy acceleration zone with a lot happening. Part of that is deliberate--hoping to acclimate to the new hometown as quickly as possible. Here's random bits and pieces of life so far.
I got window seats for my flights Tucsonš”Dallasš”OKC. Since the place landed here around 4:30pm the view of the city was good and also a shock: Holey Moley, it's FLAT. Quite a shock compared to the mountains around Tucson.
The kids have described the city as one big flat lawn. There are a lot of lawns here, lawn-care trucks driving around and the local pawnshop displays an array of lawnmowers out front. I don't know for lawns but we have a lot of lawn, the house is a rental, and there's an HOA so we have to take care of it. In the short run, that meant hiring a couple guys to mow Thrusday, which might continue. Watering also seems like it will be essential--I'm finding that intimidating, but getting started, we'll see how it goes.
G started school on Wednesday August 1 at Cleveland Elementary. (For some reason it didn't occur to me that it was Grover Cleveland until I saw the engraved stone name above some side doors today.) We're a 15-minute walk from school, which was the main factor in selecting the house we did. The only big street to cross is 23rd, just south of school, and there's a crossing guard there. There's also a pedestrian underpass, which is very appealing and dark and adventurous, but there are also telltale signs of trolls there. We're guessing this is why there's also a crossing guard, but there were some workers down there yesterday morning so I'm hoping the trolls are seasonal and the tunnel is cleaned up for the school year. Even so, the tunnel stairs will be annoying for bikes, and G will likely want to bike to school soon.
Two of us (G and I) have working bikes. (Thien left her clunker of a bike behind, and K has a flat at the moment.) The two of us managed a bike ride around the neighborhood Thursday evening, and it seems very nice. There's not a park in the immediate area, but just biking around was fun and seemed safe. On the other hand, the streets are on the narrow side and mostly don't have sidewalks so that makes me wonder.
K is most likely going to a smallish charter school that starts classes on August 15. "Smallish" is around 500 students, so still a good bit bigger than City High School. It's likely to be a shock compared to CHS in a number of ways. "Harding Charter Preparatory High School" seems like it will be much more traditional. All the schools in OKC have uniforms. HCP's uniform is not just particular colors, but polos with the school logo.
A bit of uniformity I do like at G's school is that school lunch is available to everyone free. The affordability isn't an issue for us, but my understanding is making it simply free rather than full price/reduced price/free tiers is helpful to a lot of the kids--no paperwork or embarrassment. Similarly, each kid in G's class gets a binder with school supplies, so kids come in equally equipped. (We are asked to contribute to buying the supplies.)
I've been to three restaurants, all of which made me pretty happy.
I got window seats for my flights Tucsonš”Dallasš”OKC. Since the place landed here around 4:30pm the view of the city was good and also a shock: Holey Moley, it's FLAT. Quite a shock compared to the mountains around Tucson.
The kids have described the city as one big flat lawn. There are a lot of lawns here, lawn-care trucks driving around and the local pawnshop displays an array of lawnmowers out front. I don't know for lawns but we have a lot of lawn, the house is a rental, and there's an HOA so we have to take care of it. In the short run, that meant hiring a couple guys to mow Thrusday, which might continue. Watering also seems like it will be essential--I'm finding that intimidating, but getting started, we'll see how it goes.
G started school on Wednesday August 1 at Cleveland Elementary. (For some reason it didn't occur to me that it was Grover Cleveland until I saw the engraved stone name above some side doors today.) We're a 15-minute walk from school, which was the main factor in selecting the house we did. The only big street to cross is 23rd, just south of school, and there's a crossing guard there. There's also a pedestrian underpass, which is very appealing and dark and adventurous, but there are also telltale signs of trolls there. We're guessing this is why there's also a crossing guard, but there were some workers down there yesterday morning so I'm hoping the trolls are seasonal and the tunnel is cleaned up for the school year. Even so, the tunnel stairs will be annoying for bikes, and G will likely want to bike to school soon.
Two of us (G and I) have working bikes. (Thien left her clunker of a bike behind, and K has a flat at the moment.) The two of us managed a bike ride around the neighborhood Thursday evening, and it seems very nice. There's not a park in the immediate area, but just biking around was fun and seemed safe. On the other hand, the streets are on the narrow side and mostly don't have sidewalks so that makes me wonder.
K is most likely going to a smallish charter school that starts classes on August 15. "Smallish" is around 500 students, so still a good bit bigger than City High School. It's likely to be a shock compared to CHS in a number of ways. "Harding Charter Preparatory High School" seems like it will be much more traditional. All the schools in OKC have uniforms. HCP's uniform is not just particular colors, but polos with the school logo.
A bit of uniformity I do like at G's school is that school lunch is available to everyone free. The affordability isn't an issue for us, but my understanding is making it simply free rather than full price/reduced price/free tiers is helpful to a lot of the kids--no paperwork or embarrassment. Similarly, each kid in G's class gets a binder with school supplies, so kids come in equally equipped. (We are asked to contribute to buying the supplies.)
I've been to three restaurants, all of which made me pretty happy.
- Busy-crowded (even on a Monday evening) Empire Slice House, which would have made me even happier if we hadn't been seated by the TV's. One of them was showing Kingsmen, and I had to be vigilant that G didn't get his eyes/brain caught by one of the ultaviolence scenes.
- Gia Gia Vietnamese Family Restaurant. G wanted to determine whether or not we qualify as a Vietnamese family and therefore would be allowed to eat there. It was very, very empty (but someone came in for an enormous take-out order), quite cheap, and quite good. They also gave us complimentary spring rolls and made a special vegetarian one for Thien's sister. There was an enormous TV showing Trump talking, but fortunately with the volume turned down, and we mostly were able to sit with our backs to it.
- El Rey Taqueria was straightforward. I think it's a local chain. Slightly more expensive than the fast-food atmosphere would indicate but not for the quantity and quality of food. They had a TV doing some Spanish-language competitive obstacle-course show. I managed to sit with my back to it while Kien tried to read the subtitles.
WTF is it with restaurants and TV's?
Plenty of worries and stresses but I won't document those.
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