Now that I’ve been in Nashville for a full 1/3 of a year, I think it’s time for an update on what I think of the city.

It’s really not that hard once you try it

The pitiful lack of use of the turn signal still appalls me. There have now been countless close encounters with ditsy blondes who talk on their cell phone and drive with one hand, and raging, but unheard, diatribes to the idiots who make me wait 10 whole extra seconds at a stop sign because they don’t use the signal. I’ve even yelled at people when their windows are down and they look at me with wide-eyed innocence as if I were a lunatic for expecting them to take their left wrist and flip a plastic bar by 25 degrees.

It’s not the humidity, it’s the heat

The heat has been ungodly, and for every person that has told me that this is unusual weather, there’s been another telling me that people have been saying that for 5 years straight. Only time will tell on that one. Never in my life did I expect to sit on my veranda on a sticky, humid night when it’s 88 degrees and think it was the most pleasant weather I’d ever encountered. That was a nightmare evening in Pittsburgh.

Thank you kindly for asking

People are nicer here, and I’ve now discovered that people are nicer TO YOU if they know you are from Nashville. It’s as if they expect you to become Rhett Butler and speak like a southern gentleman. They smile and ask all kinds of innocuous and polite questions expecting to hear some smooth, southern answer. I’ve received some crestfallen looks when I answer with my Pittsburgh accent.

“Yeah I’m in Nashville now an’ it’s cool n’at. Yinz sould come dahn and check it aht. By da way, yinz like Donnie Iris?”

O beautiful for spacious skies

I was afraid that I would miss the natural beauty of the southwestern PA area. In the heart of the Allegheny Mountain range, the mountains, plentiful forests, and rivers will always hold a special place in my heart. However, I am quickly becoming fond of the beauty of Tennessee. Though there is only 1 river going through Nashville and very few bridges, the suburban sprawl hasn’t removed all of the beautiful forests and gently rolling hills.

One thing that I am taken with is the number of quaint horse ranches that I see on a regular basis. I have to admit, as a Yankee, I imagined everyone in Tennessee and Kentucky owned a horse and that Nashville would have an abundance of charming horse ranches within a stone’s throw of wherever I might live. While the reality certainly doesn’t match the fantasy, I do love the scenery.