When we first started meeting people around our neighborhood, one of the most frequent lines of questioning was, “are there things you miss?” In a word, yes there are things that we miss; family, friends, different events, but when I sit down and think about it, there are other, simple things that I miss. In the spirit of the Digital Escape Podcast, I want to share the “Top Five” things I miss that aren’t tied to family and friends, per se.
5. Time Zone: Living in Wisconsin, we were in the same time zone as our family and friends, so gaming online or chatting with one another was much easier because we were all within a few seconds of one another time-wise. Now that I live in the Atlantic Time zone, on the easternmost edge of Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, we are two hours later than where I used to live. We make it work, but someone is losing sleep (the author said with a grimace whilst pointing two thumbs at himself).
4. Lake Superior (and the North Shore): Growing up where I did, I spent a fair amount of time on and around Lake Superior and the lake’s North Shore. Camping, canoeing, fishing, hiking, or swimming – I tried to get up to the lake at least a couple times each year. Ashland, Bayfield, Superior, and Duluth all hold a special place in my heart. My parent’s ashes were scattered off of Washburn, and some day, I want a portion of my ashes scattered at the mouth of the Brule River (probably my favorite spot on the whole planet).
3. Summer Sausage: This one is kind of a big one for me, more now that we are closing in on the holiday season. Every Thanksgiving and Christmas, we would have a good supply of summer sausage on hand for get-togethers and birthdays. No offense to my new home, but what passes for sausage up here doesn’t compare to the different cured sausages back in the Midwest. Most of the year I don’t miss it, but the holidays are tough because so many of my fondest memories are tied to food and getting together with family and friends over the holidays, snacking on summer sausage, good cheese, a variety of crackers, and playing games.
2. Pizza: In the year I have been here I have been searching high and low for a good pizza joint. I don’t mean to hurt anyone’s feelings, or start an international incident, but the “Cape Breton Style” pizza just doesn’t do it for me. There’s no “one thing” I can point to other than being a bland, flavorless affair. The sauce doesn’t pop, the meats are flat, and the crusts are either too dry or too wet, too rigid or too limp. I like pizza crusts that are crispy, flaky, and have a good mouth feel. The sauce needs to have some flavor, you should be able to taste the herbs and seasoning, and have a zest to it. And the cheese needs to be gooey, not just flopped on top and lightly melted.
1. Cheese Curds (cheese in general): This is the one I miss the most. I’m from Wisconsin, the Ðairy State”, and where I lived we were within 15 minutes of two cheese factories where we could get any number of fresh cheeses. My son and I would hit Cady Cheese every week and buy a couple bags of cheese curds fresh from the dairy, still squeaky and warm from the dairy. We haven’t found anything comparable here on the island that is within a reasonable driving distance from my house.
There will always be things I miss living abroad: Dungeons & Dragons with my oldest friends, hunting in the Blue Hills, and Vintage Game Crawls to the Twin Cities for retro video games, but in the grand scheme of the Universe, if there is such a thing as a “grand scheme”, I know we made the right decision to move to Canada.
Regards,
John
