tradesmen in Florida versus New York where qualified people in Florida could be hired for considerably less money.
A first priority was to investigate the schools in the area. The elementary school son would attend I believed to be aesthetically and academically sufficient. The middle school daughter would attend I was not impressed with due to two factors. The physical appearance of the school was a windowless building reminding me of a jail. Also, many school personnel were inattentive in acknowledging me as I waited for a considerable time at a counter in the school’s administrative office, before leaving. It was at this time that I thought about homeschooling but as I had no internet access, I was lost in understanding on how to proceed with this arrangement and time was of the essence as the beginning of school was just a few weeks away. Private schools in the area were for the most part were expensive and some of the curriculum shown to be taught at some of these schools, appeared odd to me. Finally, spouse and I decided to send daughter and son to a Catholic school where I transported our children back and forth on a weekday daily basis. Daughter and son liked this school and son became involved in school activities. Son joined the Boy Scouts and the school track team and received a commendation from a Florida congressional representative for academic excellence. Daughter continued with her previous interest in gymnastics.
Throughout childhood that began with the planting of flower seeds that were purchased through a PTA school fundraiser and enjoying the results of these plantings, I increasingly developed throughout my life an interest in plants and gardening. The house spouse and I purchased in South Florida was set on a property containing many unusual and interesting trees, shrubs, and plants. As a matter of fact, one reason for purchasing this house was that an old majestic ficus (banyon) tree was located on the front yard of the property. The yard contained other trees such as coconut palms, carambola (star fruit), papaya, guava, mango, sugar apple, jack fruit, longan ( bearing fruit similar to lychee in taste), tamarind (used to manufacture worcestershire sauce), meyer lemon (a green citrus fruit resembling a lime), wax jambu otherwise known as a rose apple and more. I learned that due to nematodes and other pests inhabiting the soil that it is required that citrus trees and some other varieties of trees in South Florida need to be grafted onto the roots of another tree that is immune to these pests, to insure healthy growth. One fruit tree that was especially prolific in fruit yield in our yard was the sugar apple. One stated to spouse that this fruit could easily compete with the sugar cane industry in quantity available related to price to offer people an alternative to cane sugar. In other words, I believe that the same amount or weight of sugar apple fructose sugar could be purchased for the same or similar price as sugar cane based on the prolific yield of this tree. Fructose as some people know is healthier and more easily metabolized by the body than sucrose and so is especially beneficial to the digestive systems of children and the elderly. The method to derive sugar from the sugar apple would also likely be simpler than the processes involved in deriving sugar from cane.
One day after shopping in a local supermarket, a horrific thunderstorm began just minutes before I was about to exit the supermarket. After waiting for sometime in the store, the rain unabatedly continued. A store employee offered and then gave me an umbrella someone else had lost, to shield me from this