Lawyer, editor, guitar player, father of three, caretaker of many cats. He/him.
See, the thing is, we live in a swamp, basically. Or maybe "marsh" is a better term, since "swamp" suggests oppressive heat and humidity, which we only have about half of the year. The Lake County (Illinois) Forest Preserve District prefers more gentile terms, like wetlands
I suppose "Letters from an Exurban Hellscape" is a bit dramatic. It's not always a hellscape. It just feels that way from time to time. In reality, we live in a nice town about 50 miles from downtown Chicago. It's technically in the Chicago