What DON'T you like about Huntsville/Decater areas? (Hoover: movies, tornado)

[amsa526]

Originally Posted by HB2HSV

Yes the roads here are counter intuitive. Often they do not provide the minimum turn radius or grading as we were used to in California, so you must slow down approaching curves and freeway exits. On the freeway (I-565) and parkway (231) there are 2 groups of drivers, one drive very fast and the other group drives very slow, almost nothing in between.

To answer your earlier question, we love asian food. There're no equivalent of asian 'supermarket' here, such as the 99 ranch market, only the mom & pop type of grocery stores. We've found 3, one a vietnamese owned in Madison (madison blvd just east of wall triana - in spencer square), one a korean owned on Jordan Lane in west Huntsville, and a chinese owned (Far East) on Memorial Parkway (231). All of them carry various common asian food. Just about the only asian food that is hard to get is fresh, e.g., live, fish. You'll find the prices are 30% higher than what you're used to (supply & demand curve).

For some reason, Thai restaurants & food are very popular here. I've found better Thai restaurants here than in So. Cal., but the chinese restaurants here are nothing to brag about. I also like the vietnamese restaurant in Madison (on Madison blvd in the same plaza as the grocery store), the quality is comparable to Little Saigon, but the prices are again 30% higher.

I officially accepted the offer today to work at the Research Park ...

On my earlier post, I was referring to 565 not I-72 (the confusing freeway on and off ramps). I was only there overnight last November. Was lost a couple of times even with a GPS...

I will miss supermarkets like Ranch 99 but smaller stores will do... but am excited to see a long list of Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai and Korean restaurants ---- in my GPS' POI database for HSV/Madison! These are my favorites!

Nothing beats authentic Asian cuisine ---- back in Asia .... but I'll settle for the next best thing.

OK --- going back to the topic ... let me add to the things I may not like ...

- 'loose pit bulls' (... from Charles' comment)

I should have a can a pepper spray at all times for my wife and I.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by amsa526

- 'loose pit bulls' (... from Charles' comment)

I should have a can a pepper spray at all times for my wife and I.

I only half hearted made that comment, only because I've cycled in some of those rural, outskirts towns like Triana and Swancott. I don't have a feel for those towns, maybe loose dogs are normal. I'm always a little nervous around there.

[Southlander]

Originally Posted by amsa526

I was only there overnight last November. Was lost a couple of times even with a GPS...

Welcome, amsa!
Don't tell me you rely ONLY on a GPS! LOL! I had a truck driver argue with me that our business was not in the right place since it wasn't where his GPS said it ought to be!

[Charles]

Probably not just a Huntsville thing but a southeastern US thing: Bermuda Lawns. Why does most everyone have these? They are all yellow all winter. A couple of my neighbors have green blade grass (fescue? rye? bluegrass?) and those lawns look great, healthy, thick and green now in January. I've heard the reason is the heat so I'll have to check out the blade grass this summer, but if it looks good then too, then I see no reason to use bermuda, maybe it saves water or something. I overseeded my bermuda with fescue and it looks OK but I think I should have used more seed.

[mm42]

Bermuda and Zoysia are very hardy and well-suited to the climate here. They are drought-tolerant and choke out weeds with frequent close cutting in growing season.

Fescue has to be watered constantly to stay healthy and green in the heat of summer, and has to be aerated and overseeded every season to stay lush.

A lot of people also favor Bermuda and Zoysia for the "golf green" uniform look a really well-kept lawn has. They are ugly in the winter though, no 2 ways about it.

If you want a green lawn in winter, it's better to overseed bermuda with annual rye grass. This will die out and not infest the bermuda in its thriving season. Mixing perennial fescue with bermuda is not something I would recommend.

[Southlander]

Bermuda crawls EVERYWHERE. Think you can stop it with an edging? It'll send out shoots over and under the edging and and pop up in the middle of your flower or shrub bed. A lot of times it's not a choice - it just takes over!

We had a centipede lawn when we built our house. Thanks to some stupid lawn care people, the centipede got killed out and Bermuda has taken over.

It's winter. grass is brown and dormant. Thank goodness! I needed a break from cutting.

[mm42]

We had centipede at our last house. It is much more fragile and harder to maintain compared to bermuda. It does not choke out weeds like bermuda and has to be overseeded annually, and centipede seed is very expensive.

Centipede and bermuda both creep, it's just that the bermuda naturally thrives and the centipede has to be babied.

[ala-bubba-ama]

Originally Posted by jcm1986

I wouldn't think that North Alabama with its fairly equal split of natives and transplants is so rude and unaccepting. I don't know, though, I haven't been to Huntsville in 15 years and that was just to visit the Space Center. (I have, however, met some rude and condescending people from the Birmingham area, but that's more central AL.)

Anyhow, take a look at this thread in the Louisville Forum. http://www.city-data.com/forum/louis...-new-post.html. Louisville, like (apparently) Seattle, Portland (OR) and Minneapolis, has that "freeze" thing going on. Or, look at Lexington: http://www.city-data.com/forum/kentu...ington-ky.html

See, you'll find people everywhere voicing complaints about where they live, myself included.

Thank you, I enjoyed the article on "The Freeze". I lived in Seattle during the 90's. I read the newspapers. People were upset with the CA's. It was ugly. Me I didn't care. I worked at the Consumer Protection Agency. I loved my life. Love the city. I have moved a couple of other places since. I get your point and i agree. But this place seems to have amplified "The Freeze", with the cross between the inep social skills of hillbillies and the evangelical terrorist. I think I will take my chances with "text geeks"

[A&M Bulldawg]

As a lover of Alabama and its aspects, of course, I'm going to say that I like everything about Huntsville and its suburbs! Huntsville is different from the rest of Alabama, which kind of give it such a sophisticated look when out of staters move here! Well, I'm from a small Black-dominant city called Eutaw, and I have family members that live in Huntsville.....so I go there often. When I go there, I just fall in love with the area!

[Charles]

Originally Posted by blondandfun

A lot of people don't realize that there are literally ten to twenty times more engineers employed with the military than with NASA. Also, I am very proud that I am completely in the private work force. No government contracts or any of that nonsense. I have to follow the market, and its ups and downs, and I don't have to have a war in order to survive and pay my bills like all of these war mongers in Huntsville, holding their heads up high while they use their brilliant heads to mastermind weapons of war.

(Something seems odd about the percentages in this Ask Us feature; Is it 30% or 21%?)

"Total government employment is 44,400, or 20.7 percent of the total nonfarm labor force."

from

More than 30 percent of Huntsville metro area workforce employed by government - Ask Us - al.com