You should have talked to me, I like Florida. I like water and here we have it all, fresh, salt and brackish. I could do without the bug's but they seem to be everywhere. And this year tics are worse than I ever seen them.
You ring? Mama use to say I was a gut spiller. She'd tell me 'not to talk about her business. I did change some though now I just spill the unimportant part.
Sometimes I like a post just to let the person know somebody is paying attention to them and others same reasons as you mentioned. Basically, we come to these forums for company.
We were in Jacksonville for 10 1/2 years and should've NEVER left Colorado in the first place! In the beginning, it was pretty neat living in Jacksonville, but, as time went on, we started missing mountains, Elk, rodeo action and lake boating. Took one trip back in 2018 and decided "enough is enough" and moved. Yes, we have the winters, but Florida gets some mighty bad t-storms, tropical storms and hurricanes. Mathew was right off of the coast of Jax Beach and we got some outer-band action from it and Irma pretty much came right over us. The St. Johns River, going thru Jacksonville, was a total junkyard from Irma. Broken docks, boats broke away from docks and crashed into bridges and all other sort of stuff floating in the river. Plus, large algae patches and, from "who knows where" lots of foam. There are those that absolutely love Florida, but turned out that we weren't those. When living in Florida, we only went on the beach three or four times............and that's in 10 1/2 years of living there. We are a "lake" couple and will always be. And, btw, salt and brackish isn't the best water for marine motors. Freshwater doesn't hurt them at all. My wife's brother absolutely loves living in Baca Ratan.
Its getting bad everywhere but if all that was taken from us I think I'd have to move if at all possible.
Cody its true that most of the reasons we like Florida are gone now due to pollution and urban sprawl but the whole nation is on life support so we deal with it. I understand some places are not that bad yet. And if we were younger we may think of relocating but we're not.
Urban sprawl was really hitting Jacksonville when we left, but it has really hit where we live now. The Seniors here don't like the "sprawl" at all, but can do absolutely nothing about it. Can't do anything about all of the Millennials moving in either. The apt. building we live in is darn near like living in a dorm at a college. We are old enough to be the grandparents of the residents that live in our building.
I would think they would sell their residences and get a small condo or assisted living place in Virginia or wherever. We have and assisted living place that is like a small town, here. Swimming pool, restaurant, beauty parlor... We all have to think about things when we get there. Sell properties, go to assisted living or with the kids, jump on an ice flow. One of my businesses was doing estate sales and auctions. Then you/they take the gleanings and do what needs doing. People who don't have the wear-with-all used to be cared for by the state. Not sure how they can do that now. But the contract with assisted living here takes your home's value and insurance and...
We live in a rural area and most here now are new to the n-hood and younger. Thery don't seem to care about the area much. Nobody helps with the dirt roads yet they drive over our well maintained [ through very hard work on our part ] frontage almost up to our fence. They see us working mostly me [since hubby is always working boat, vehicles etc.. If I wanted to live where there are no restrictions I would not move into a place where there are restrictions, then ignore them. Restriction's protect property values and keep neighborhood safer. We can shoot our gun's ,target practice, raise animals, grow food and use the private owned roads for regress and egress, but not for ATM races, spinning donuts and tearing up roads. 3 kids have been killed on atm's since we lived here that we know of. Plus kids on bikes ride on the roads too and their patents speed.so much dirt dust can't even see their car. Everybody is in a rush now. But so far it still beats the city.
I was talking to a friend yesterday (gave her a ride from the eye doctor) and she works for a non-governmental agency. This group provides mental health services and counseling to folks in a 5 county area. They get 90%+ of their income from billable Medicaid work, and the rest comes from governments and private donors. When COVID hit, they could not engage in billable Medicaid work (no face-to-face counseling allowed) and it took a while for the rules to get changed. She knew people who got laid off when they were only 14 days away from qualify for retirement (they are on the state's pension system.) There were no conversations, there was no opportunity to find them busy work for the next 2 weeks. Decades on the job, thinking they are insulated from that heartless private sector, and there they are in their 60s, unemployed in a destroyed economy and no private retirement savings. My friend dodged the bullet because she got demoted a couple of years beforehand. She had been running the place, and they put her in a Worker Bee job where she was taken out of pure administration and put back to engaging in billable work. Had she not been a revenue generator, she would have also been out on the street after nearly 30 years with the place.
Where we live, and it seems like a ton of Millennials also, the Millennials can get fairly pi**ed off at the older Senior's (our age, almost mid 70's and older) that drive the speed limit or five mph over. The young folks want to go 10-15 even 20 mph over the speed limit and will tailgate those Seniors going slower. Seems like the only Millennials here that are "any kind of friendly" are the ones that are paid to be that way, as in cashiers and waitresses.
If you think about it, the market could collapse tomorrow. If all your money was in your mattress, there could be a fire, or the treasury could go to crypto. Your insurance company could go belly up, basement could flood ruining all your preps.... I was glad covid surprised me so I could see what I needed to do in that sort of emergency but you can't be safe from everything. Watch out for that bus! You can sit in a hole (my preference), help some people who need it, watch tv, make a beautiful garden or any number of things to pass time. Sometimes I get down and think things are not going well. Then spring comes and I find out that the whole yard needs work as well as my house!
We have nice young people here also, it only takes a few to take down a N-hood. I was just posting in frustration of the few not the majority. No way would I drive over someone's frontage almost up to their fence to avoid a washout on a dirt road. But far as speed limit, it is 15 MPH set by community, not me. The road is maybe a mile long. Driving fast only makes it worse and more washouts. They were going to set it at 25mph but figured some would do 35 or 40,so they made it 15mph maybe most would do 25 or 30. No big deal really because they will be the ones raising their children and living in the rural ghetto not us, we are old. I'm sure once the new road they are making on my property would be fine for some .I just hope we don't have to move our house as the road gets bigger and bigger,after all they need a 8 lane road so they don't have to slow down for rutts in the road,right?