Quote:
Originally Posted by yellowperil
(Post 8539661)
btw why did you escape from Kali to a place that eats cars alive? Where?
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Haha, moved here in 2009 after being out of work for nearly a year - there just weren't any jobs in CA at all then - it was surreal how bad it got hit by the recession / depression. Wasn't all bad - I have family back in this area which helped me to land a really good job back here. Living in the Granite State and working in the Bay State now which has some plusses and some minuses vs. the People's Republic of Kalifornia. I certainly like the way of life here better - I'm not constantly surrounded by 5,000,000 of my closest friends, I rather like the feeling of not being crushed by governmental stupidity in every aspect of my life, car insurance, electricity, groceries, etc. are pretty inexpensive here (in fact car insurance isn't even required although I still opt to), the schools are pretty good here (WAY better than CA - particularly LA Unified, which I'd never, ever, ever send my kids to under any circumstance), housing is reasonably inexpensive, there aren't too many illegals here, people are generally decent if a tad boorish, there's a limitless fresh water supply, there actually are some good jobs to be had here, etc. The little things like that are rather nice changes to the grind of living in southern CA. I can actually see stars in the sky at night here, I don't have to ever worry about parking, there's only one traffic light in town and basically no crime. In summer it's pretty nice here but the winter absolutely sucks donkey balls. I'm not a cold weather person at all - I utterly hate being shut in half the year and I do NOT handle cold well. Having to deal with constantly running to Boston during these crap months for work has really been grating on me, and no - I'd never consider moving to or living in Boston proper for ANY sum of money - this is as close as I get, about 50 miles out and on this side of the MA / NH line. I couldn't live in MA at all - think all the government heavy-handedness and congestion (with worse corruption and surlier attitudes) as CA just without the beaches, palm trees and nice weather. No thanks. Pass. At least in NH I can more or less do what I want and nobody bothers me. I can work on cars, own / shoot guns, cut down trees / fix up my property how I want, etc. and nobody says boo about it.
Some of the downsides are the roads here suck ass (way worse in / around Boston so I generally don't ever drive there unless I have a work rental) , I feel like I can never drive anywhere in my "nice" cars for fear of being run off the road by some testosterone-laden jackass, hit by a drunk driver, having the car rust out right from under me (subject of this thread) or having the wheels get torn off of the chassis due to the terrible roads and even worse "maintenance" / hack-job patches popping out everywhere. The alternative is to rely on the MBTA which is pretty much an institution straight out of Cold War Russia...
So there are plusses and minuses. I'm overall glad I got out of LA. God what a schitehole that place was. If I were to ever go back to CA I certainly wouldn't go there - I'd consider San Diego, San Fran (maybe), SLO, Santa Barbara, maybe up near Ventura and thereabouts... I'm looking at a few opportunities in FL, HI and TX right now. Seriously considering packing up and moving to Oahu in a few months - particularly after this past winter - it's just frightfully difficult to get a bona fide job offer while still living on the mainland so I'd likely be quitting my job, moving out there and worrying about landing something once there. It's about the only way to get seriously considered and I can't really blame employers there for not taking mainlander applicants too seriously - they get a lot of starry-eyed dreamers who think living there will be just like their last vacation and then don't follow through, flake at the last minute or leave after a year when they get disillusioned that they actually have to do real work and deal with real world issues living there just like anyplace else and it's not an endless vacation. I've done a helluva lot of research into this and have been in touch with a few outfits there already but it's a big scary move - particularly when I'd be leaving a pretty stable job, health insurance, a good retirement program, homeownership, etc.
But the winter sucks ass and you only live once, so I'm outta here once I can sell the house and cars this spring and put a few extra K in the bank. Assuming I don't get an offer I can't refuse in FL or TX or the Carolinas first (and I've already had a few offers that have been tempting but not quite good enough...)
So that's it in a nutshell. It's been real, it's been fun but it hasn't been real fun. Im outta' here soon. I'm getting older and the thought of dealing with winter and its associated BS for the rest of my life just has no appeal to me at all. You don't have to shovel sunshine. I've already made a solemn pledge to bring my snow shovel to the island with me and ritualistically sacrifice it to the volcano on the Big Island when I do. Kind of a "never looking back" kind of ceremonial thing. :)
Anyway - all the best. I'm saying too much already but I don't care anymore - I'm looking forward, not back and I figure I have a lot I still have still left to do while I'm stuck on this rock - being stuck someplace I'm not particularly happy ain't gonna get me there and losing 6-7 months a year to crappy weather doesn't help either.
Cheers! Back to my late-night side projects!
