Living in the Country?

In my last post, Deb commented on how much light there was in my backyard at night. Even though we live outside the city limits, we are in the middle of area that's zoned "Commercial." Our property also runs right next to Highway 63 which is THE major north/south highway in and out of Rochester. We're also only about 1/2 mile from the Rochester International Airport. Since we built our house here in 1987, there has been a boom in commercial development all around us. Our subdivision hasn't been annexed into the city of Rochester yet, but the new subdivision built just north of us IS (with city water and sewer and cable TV). I believe it's only a matter of time before we become part of Rochester. The other development is that a frontage road is being planned so we will no longer be able to get directly on and off Highway 63 from our subdivision. And naturally, since our property runs right along the highway right-of-way, where do you think that frontage road is going to go?? Yup, right through my backyard wildlife habitat. We have heard that's going to happen around 2010 so I'm trying not to think about the devastating effects and whether I even want to be living here anymore to see that. Anyway that's another story for another day.

My original intent here was to show you what I see when I look out my living room window at night. This time of year everything's twice as bright outside because any available light reflects off the snow. The other night when I took the owl picture, there was also a low cloud ceiling and snow, so all of the lights on the ground were also reflecting off that.

Here's what's on the east side (my backyard) of Highway 63:

The new Sterling Truck Center....open 24 hours. Security lights around the entire building and tall parking lot perimeter security lights also. Lovely isn't it? When I was planting my trees, I never even thought to plant trees for obscuring the view this direction because there was a nice little hobby farm there with beautiful 100+ year old oak trees--all gone now for this! And if the lights aren't offensive enough, every time a semi truck pulls into the back for service (those are the service entrance doors on this side) they have to honk their horn and you guys all know how loud a semi horn is, don't you? Grrrr...... I hate this place! I fantasize about purchasing a shoulder-mounted rocket launcher from the internet and vaporizing them! (Hasta la Vista, Baby!)

Here's what I see on the other (west) side of the highway.

What's over here? Another semi-truck business, the city water tower (providing water for the airport, the commercial businesses and a residential subdivision to the north), and the thing that looks like flames is actually smoke coming from Mayo's medical waste incinerator that's catching the reflection from those ugly orangey-colored street lights in the parking lot of that facility. (Note to self: be sure to ask about a couple of bonus rockets with a pre-paid order.)

All of this is made more unbearable by the fact that traffic is almost non-stop on this highway. It used to be that when I put the dogs out in the middle of the night, I wouldn't see or hear a car, but that's a thing of the past. Amazingly enough, almost every day we have to wait for traffic before getting on the highway to go to work at 5:15 a.m!

I yearn for darkness and silence at night and this town's just getting way too big and too close for me. So, Deb, is there anything for sale in your neighborhood??