What's life like for you in your location?

[Gordon]

Moon, There are a number of web pages that can help you decide on where to live that compare housing costs, job pay, crime rate, cost of living etc.

http://www.bestplaces.net/cost-of-living/

https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/comparison.jsp

http://www.moving.com/real-estate/compare-cities/

Here is a government web site that lists a lot of others.
https://www.state.gov/m/fsi/tc/79700.htm

Also Google "where to live" and "city comparison". There is a lot out there.

I've often thought about moving somewhere warmer and dryer. I was born near Los Angeles and lived there til I was 14. My dad changed jobs to work as an engineer for Boeing. He helped design the very first 747. The day after day of gloomy grey days during the winter months really get me down. It's better now than when I first moved here however. I married a local lady and she's happy here. So I'm kinda stuck here with her. Plus we have grown children in the area and all of her family.

[moonshadow]

I feel groceries are pretty much the same everywhere. I've been just looking at craigslist and seeing what rentals are going for. The area I'm in is VERY low all things considered.

Using google earth and street view you can actually view neighborhoods from "the drivers seat" virtually anywhere the google car has been. It's very handy.

The math to figure what additional COL increase would be needed to maintain my current standard of living is pretty basic. Just take the additional rent, multiply it by 12, divide that answer by 52 and then that answer by 40.

In Chattanooga I was finding comparable rentals similar to what I enjoyed in Damascus at a cost of around $1,000 per month. Working out the difference meant I'd have to have a $3.46 increase in hourly wages to break even.

Granted, my trailer in Marion is $150 cheaper than the Damascus house, and it's in the "ghetto" side of Marion, but the ghetto in Marion, having a population of 6,000 is a little different than the ghetto of Chattanooga with a population of 173,000 people.

In Marion's "ghetto", you can literally walk 1 mile and you're in farmland again. It really is a pretty cool region, and not as bigoted as I let on when you get right down to it.

[Sylvain]

I live in Montreal. Minimum wage is around 11$/hr (Canadian dollars), and the mean wage is about 700-800$ per week. A decent apartment is well under 1000$ per month, and you will never pay more than 150$/mo for electricity (including hot water and heating). Water is free. Healthcare is free. I give away 30-40% of my paycheck for taxes, plus unemployment insurance, government pension plan and medication insurance for my children (my employer pays mine).

Alcohol and gas is more costly than in the US.

[FranTastic444]

I'm an immigrant to New England, having previously lived in the West Midlands of England.

My adopted state isn't known as Taxachusetts without good reason 50% of my net salary goes on mortgage, property tax and HOA. Boston seems to me to be more expensive than living somewhere like Bermondsey in London and is waaaay more expensive than living in the Midlands.

Living costs aside, I think this is a great place to live. After many a year of enduring wet summers and miserable winters in England, I love the fact that outside work I spend virtually all my time in shorts from April - November and for the first time in my life my legs aren't a pasty shade of white. The winters are 'proper' winters where you can go skiing, snow shoeing and the place doesn't come to a complete standstill (a couple of inches of snow in England will bring the country to a grinding halt).

Would love to live and work in old town Alexandria, VA but nothing in my line of work down in that direction.

[moonshadow]

Would love to live and work in old town Alexandria, VA but nothing in my line of work down in that direction.

What line of work is that (if you don't mind my asking)?

As for Alexandria. If you want to experience real Virginia you'll have to head a little further south. NOVA (Northern Virginia) is more or less a subsidiary of "New England".

...and I don't know why this is, but if memory serves, hoborob lives there, and yet I seem to recall he was apprehensive about going out skirted... I'm not sure why that was. I always figured NOVA to be a socially tolerant area. Perhaps if he's not still upset with me, he can chime in and enlighten us..

[FranTastic444]

What line of work is that (if you don't mind my asking)?

As for Alexandria. If you want to experience real Virginia you'll have to head a little further south. NOVA (Northern Virginia) is more or less a subsidiary of "New England".

Quite a specialised (niche rather than being being anything particularly clever) IT role. In a previous life I was a MUMPS / Cache programmer. Code was put together on DEC Vax machines, but was still being run on PDP-11's in the late 90's.

Alexandria is the closest I've ever been to a Dixieland town / city (hoping that this phrase isn't thought of as derogatory - I'm not meaning it to be). The wife has often expressed a desire to get out into the deep south for a holiday.

[moonshadow]

In a previous life I was a MUMPS / Cache programmer. Code was put together on DEC Vax machines, but was still being run on PDP-11's in the late 90's.

Welp... that's Greek to me! Here we have coal mines, the occasional plant, and the usual assortment of part-time retail gigs...

Alexandria is the closest I've ever been to a Dixieland town / city (hoping that this phrase isn't thought of as derogatory - I'm not meaning it to be).

You won't offend anyone down here by referring to Alexandria as a "Dixieland town", though they might find it comical, and may be followed by a slack jawed... "bioy... you-ain't from 'round here-are-ya"

For the first 35 years or so of my life, I seldom left central/southwest Virginia, and during the last several years I have expanded that territory to include the eastern half of Tennessee, western North Carolina, eastern Kentucky, and southern West Virginia. The cultures in all areas are similar and represent what I call "Appalachia".

Every so often I venture out of this area, Ive been to Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, skirted, and on the southern end, I spent a weekend in South Carolina/eastern Georgia with Fred (fredinskirts), and a little run in Alabama last year.

The only thing I've noticed, is in the more northern areas, people will politely make conversation with me about my outfits, whereas in my home region, most people just leave me alone and treat me as though I wasn't wearing anything unusual at all.

I guess what I'm saying is, when/if you decide to make the trip, feel free to pack some skirts. Nobody will bother you. Peel off in Abingdon if you head down the I81 and shout out! I live only about 30 minutes from there...

[FranTastic444]

The only thing I've noticed, is in the more northern areas, people will politely make conversation with me about my outfits, whereas in my home region, most people just leave me alone and treat me as though I wasn't wearing anything unusual at all.

I guess what I'm saying is, when/if you decide to make the trip, feel free to pack some skirts. Nobody will bother you. Peel off in Abingdon if you head down the I81 and shout out! I live only about 30 minutes from there...

Shall bear that in mind - thanks

[crfriend]

In a previous life I was a MUMPS / Cache programmer. Code was put together on DEC Vax machines, but was still being run on PDP-11's in the late 90's.

Welp... that's Greek to me! Here we have coal mines, the occasional plant, and the usual assortment of part-time retail gigs...

MUMPS was originally, if I am not mistaken, conceived on the PDP-7 and later ported to the pdp11 for the medical profession. That it ran on early VAXen doesn't surprise me, especially as the early VAXen all had pdp11 compatibility mode built into them. (Fran, a beer or two might be interesting at some point; I'm not all that far west of Beantown.)

My last serious tangle with "Southern Culture" dates to 1983 when I spent seven weeks (months?) in Huntsville, Alabama in July and August. Huntsville proper wasn't all that bad (with parts of it resembling Dusseldorf (or Pennemunde)) if one read the names on mailboxes in parts of it -- it was when one got outside City Limits that it got dicey for a northern wiseguy like myself. At the time, when Dixie got played ONE STOOD UP. PERIOD. NO EXCEPTIONS. (I was hanging with a collection of northern-Virginians at the time as they were closest to me temperamentally, and when I suggested playing The Battle Hymn of the Republic on the jukebox got quickly hustled out of the place.) I've passed through some of the deep south since then, mainly on the way to/from Florida, and I did a couple of weeks in Atlanta in the '90s, but other than that it's been Northern-tier.

I'm working on hatching a trip to Denver and thence out to the Pacific Northwest again this autumn. It'll be the first big trip I've done since the loss of my partner three years ago. But that's mostly northern-tier save for Colorado which has a distinct south-west flavour.

[moonshadow]

MUMPS was originally, if I am not mistaken, conceived on the PDP-7 and later ported to the pdp11 for the medical profession. That it ran on early VAXen doesn't surprise me, especially as the early VAXen all had pdp11 compatibility mode built into them. (Fran, a beer or two might be interesting at some point; I'm not all that far west of Beantown.)

Okay... Greek with some Latin, Hebrew, and a dash of Enochian just for added flavor...

[Freedomforall]

Hey Moon,

I totally get it. My spirit has been feeling very restless lately. We contemplated living out of a motorhome and also a sailboat. Chattanooga is what Nashville was 10 years ago. Rents and housing are rising fast, as it was voted one of the top cities to live in. I have been skirted there many times and nothing really negative occurred. I heard one guy say, "really dude?" Another man and his wife just stared but that was all. It seems to be progressive so to speak for a city located in the south. There is a very nice bed and breakfast you should visit. https://stayatchanticleer.com/ The pay where I live has not kept up with the price of housing. Average pay here is 12 to 17 an hour. It is frightening to see how much housing costs here versus what people make. Most hospitality workers have to commute into Nashville or get a roommate. We live 35 miles from Nashville. It seems Nashville affects the housing market for all of Middle Tennessee.

[Freedomforall]

What in tarnation does this have to do with men wearing skirts? LOLOLOL Sorry, I could not resist!

[Sinned]

FFA, tangentially something. But as I pointed out in another thread, if we were all physically seated around the potted palms enjoying a brew then conversations would naturally deviate from the skirted topics. That would be natural as if would be boring if all we talked about was skirts [0]. I, for one, wouldn't stick around long. I enjoy conversations where I learn something and meet viewpoints that aren't the same as mine. Sometimes we become entrenched and have to agree to disagree and that's ok as long as we separate as friends still. Anyway it provides the impetus to go away and do some research. Threads have titles and if you don't have an interest in the topic then don't read it. Anyway what starts of as the content of the thread title mostly isn't the same by the time you get to page 3, which adds to the interest and amazes me in the convolutions that can provide. I appreciate that the humour was there but just putting in my 0.02p's worth.

[0] .... and dresses, and tights and tops, you get the picture.

[moonshadow]

"There's always one at every party..."
*looks towards Dennis...*

[Freedomforall]

Dennis you are the life of the party! I tried to find a clown wearing a skirt but could not. We make a good team.