What's it like to live on Long Island?

It's the beaches, so many beaches and so close, with their soft sand and ocean breezes and seafood shacks, and all the water all around us for swimming and sailing and fishing and kayaking and just quietly contemplating the wonder of it all.

It's dangerous drivers who speed and weave and tailgate, the general disrespect for the rules of the road such that stop signs and red lights and lane markings are merely suggestions to be disregarded when inconvenient, and the guy who cuts you off and forces you to slam on your brakes and then gives you the finger when you hit your horn in defense.

It's the restaurants on seemingly every corner and every block of every burg offering every cuisine known to humans at an amazing variety of price points, so much so that you can surely eat your way to heaven.

It's the sky-high price of housing and the gnawing reality that you can pay more for rent for a much smaller place........

© Newsday