Just a suggestion Cody. If you write “I hate Florida and love Colorado” as a signature you won’t have to repeat it so many times. Keeps you from getting writer’s cramp.
Naw, like writing it this way. Don't care about "writers cramp", but do want to get my feelings out there. By now, I know everyone on this forum knows this, but it makes me feel good saying it.
But if I may be so bold as to agree with some of the global warming alarmists, repetition leads to a greater carbon footprint by forcing more bandwidth thereby creating more hurricanes. Hurricanes create weather spikes around the country and your beloved Colorado will be buried butt deep snow in August causing you to move south.
No, Bobby! First, we love snow...…..only kidding, but. Wherever a person lives, they have to put up with the weather or move. Chrissy hates the heat Fresno has in the summer (ok, not "hate", dislikes). Look at how hot it gets in Phoenix and/or Las Vegas during the summers, yet how many people live in both. Seems as if Buffalo, NY is a real "dumping grounds" for snow in the winter, but still, many, many people live there. Same goes for winters in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Anyway, we lived in Colorado, south of Denver, for 5 2/3 years and a blizzard isn't nearly as destructive as a hurricane and we went thru some pretty big snow storms and blizzards.
If I wrote my opinion of why people live where they do, I would reap a considerable amount of disdain no matter the truth involved with the submitting of it. For the most part, people abide where it is the most familiar and it conforms to a certain comfort zone. Those majorities, will rarely venture from that zone which to me, is more than a simple psychological problem but bordering on masochism. No matter the freaky whether nor the economy or of family familiarity, people do what they do not because they necessarily like it but do not know any better than the lot that life has given them.
Funny, that folks who live here and went thru the outer bands of Mathew in 2016, the eye some 50 miles off the coast of Jacksonville, simply rebuilt and stayed. Jacksonville Beach as well as St Augustine were so flooded and local news showed that. Then, last year came Irma that really wrecked havoc all around Jacksonville, but, again, people rebuilt and stayed. And, even with these two hurricanes and the tropical storms we get, there are so many people moving to the Jacksonville area, it's unbelievable. There was a story on local news about how St Johns County is booming. Guess people don't care about summer storms that happen here. The salaries and unemployment rate must be great here. My brother keeps telling me "you move, you'll come back". I keep telling him "no way". Well, basically none of my wife's family, or her friends, thought we'd ever leave So California...…...but we did. I had already visited the Colorado Springs and liked it, but financially couldn't move there. My wife jumped at the idea of moving to Colorado, in part to get away from her family and because I liked what I had seen. BTW, we aren't in a Hurricane Evacuation Zone, because we are in a higher area of Jacksonville. There are those that love So California and those that love Denver (despite the winters) and get upset when there are those that "bad-mouth" those areas. We sort of "bad-mouth" Jacksonville and have to listen to criticism about doing that.
If you didn't have central heat and air conditioning, peoples' choices on where they live would be different. Look at the populations of the South and Southwest, and the far North at the turn of the 20th century. Population patterns were much different. As I have said before, every location has advantages and disadvantages, and folks should decide what fits them best.
I keep forgetting that you’re in Jacksonville. I once lived there and worked at the LeChateau on the beach next to David Eisenhower’s house. It might be touted as the largest city in the U.S. (or world) and also included in the fine state of Florida but to me it should be part of Georgia, a state I dearly tried to like, but couldn’t. The rest of Florida is pretty nice, or at least to me it is.
I grew up with snow, spent my productive years in California and Texas, where there wasn't any, then moved back to snow country. Although I don't love having to clear the snow from the sidewalks and driveway, and I am very uneasy when it gets to be hard to be able to afford to heat the house in the winter, otherwise I like the winters here. I love sitting in the house while there is snow outside and going out in the snow, knowing that I can come back in again.
Online says that Jacksonville is the most populous city in Florida and the largest city by area in the contiguous United States. Here there are many license plates from all the southern states as well as all the east coast states. There is a Navy presents here, but not nearly as big as 32nd St. in San Diego and the Naval Air Station isn't that big either, compared to Miramar NAS in San Diego or Pensacola NAS in the Florida panhandle. We don't know what the crime rate was like before we moved here, probably something we definitely should have checked out first, but the crime rate now is pretty high. Thing is, most people, out of the "high crime" areas, don't even pay attention to the amount of crime here. Basically they say "just let them kill each other". Jacksonville definitely has it's drug and gang problems. Even getting a new Sheriff and Mayor didn't help. For us, we have found out just how much we miss "Western" stuff, like rodeo's and Vacation shows like were in Colorado. We love boating, but the brackish water here can really hurt a boat engine and outdrive. We have spent a pretty penny of repairs/replacing of both on our boat. We really miss the mountains of Colorado and Wyoming. Well, that's it. Guess, Bobby, it's pretty obvious that we shouldn't have left Colorado and that Florida simply isn't our "cup of tea", like we originally thought it would be.
Please do not get me wrong Ken. I love snow......as long as it is in a picture and not on my driveway. Seriously though, many like you left the nest to make your fortune but many have never tried to find out what is really out there. When I view the larger cities, it's all about money or the lack of it. Ghetto's are filled with people who say they are trying to get out but alas, most do not, nor do they actually stick out their thumb and actually try. People who cannot afford heat will live in cold climates and some folks when they are subjected to a hurricane or tornado will stay where they are and refuse to evacuate when safe shelter is elsewhere. Southern California folks just love where they are even though they are constantly being warned of earthquakes. As @Cody Fousnaugh wrote, there are some who get their homes flooded or torn down by a tornado or hurricane but they constantly rebuild instead of going elsewhere to start anew. My goodness, southern Florida folks cannot even get flood insurance unless they buy it from the government. Personally, I hate cities and would love to live in the country complete with whatever weather abounds but for the want of good medical care, I too fall into the category of being a slave to where I live. But then, unless I do something different there is no need to complain for I have made my own bed and I will just have to sleep in it.
Well, the way I look at it, we all have our reasons, and some of those reasons many folks simply don't agree with, for living where we do or wanting to move to where we will be happy. We've already lived in Colorado and gone thru the "below zero" weather, snowstorms, a few blizzards, some mighty t-storms and days of "absolute beauty". Sitting in our bowrider boat, in the No Wake area of Chatfield Reservoir, we totally enjoyed Rainbow Trout fishing at 10AM on beautiful summer weekends. Beaching the bowrider and relaxing on the beach at the same Reservoir was so nice as well. Going out and looking at outside Christmas décor while snow was falling was gorgeous. Heck, don't know if I even mentioned this, but we still have our winter parkas that we bought in Colorado. Wife still has her snow boots. Still have all of our Western clothes that we've only wore twice since living here. Have gone to one rodeo and that one wasn't much of a rodeo. Like I say, many Seniors want to live close to their adult kids and grandkids and that's fine, while others simply chose to live far away from family and in an area they truly like for different reasons. We all want medical to be close and for us, it will be. A VA Hospital will be a short distance away, if needed.
The storm has now been named , and it is called Alberto. It has gone up to a 70% chance of becoming a hurricane, since it is now a tropical storm, and still has to cross the Gulf, which is all warm water right now. I just looked at our weather channel app, and we are in the brown cone of where it shows the storm coming almost straight north. Of course, we won’t get much of anything except some rain , since we are this far north.
Well, just now watched our local weather, as well as the Weather Channel and both stated there won’t be enough wind to declare a hurricane. Both said it could go from a subtropical to tropical storm, but that’s it. Bottom Line is, lots of rain starting for us early Sunday into Monday. As of right now, no predictions of hurricane forming from local weather and Weather Channel.
http://www.noaa.gov/media-release/f...r-above-normal-2018-atlantic-hurricane-season With Sub Tropical Alberto already headed to the US and Hurricane season not even officially here...I'm not to sure if I'm going to put my faith in what the National Hurricane Center is saying right now. Although the article above claims that they have some new equipment that helps predict what will happen...I have seen to many times even with their latest equipment that those Hurricanes, etc. seem to have a mind of their own these days. Here's praying that none of us have to experience any devastating Hurricanes during the 2018 Hurricane season.