Things I don't miss about America

At this point in our sojourn in Honduras (5 months and counting) you might be expecting a reasoned analysis of aspects of life "back home" for which we long wistfully. I might be able to write that post; I haven't given it much thought. I have thought about a few things that I don't miss about "home."

• Politics. Being at a distance helps me control just how much of the political wrangling (all the more pronounced in an election year) I am exposed to. When you're in the states avoiding political talk is a bit like avoiding air. Through TV and the web I get as much as I want and no political TV ads at all!
• Football fans. I don't care about NFL or college football. But I have lived the last 15 years in Wisconsin and then Nebraska, two of the most football crazy places in the country. The problem with football season as opposed to, say, baseball season is that there is far more talk about football than there is actual football. Wisconsin radio stations spend the entire 165 hours between Packer games reviewing, analyzing, anticipating, complaining, and whining. Since we spend a fair bit of our time with North Americans we do have contact with some football fans but not too many. I have never heard a Honduran talk about American Football.
• Car Commercials. There are car commercials on TV here but they seem to be far fewer than in the states. I don't know what it is about car commercials that bothers me but I have long disliked them. Of course, the trade off here seems to be that we have more perfume commercials which I can't say I'm fond of either. That and they seem to cycle the same commercials more often.
• Telemarketers. My Honduran phone line just never rings. Ever. Praise be.
• Junk Mail. For all intents and purposes there is no mail system here. Bills are delivered by hand by an employee of the company sending them. Accordingly, we get no unwanted mail at all. No credit card offers, no insurance offers, no contest entries. Nothing.

There are probably more, but this is what comes to mind today.