Coffee 2-19-11

73, ahhhhh, my favorite temp!

19° here with gusty winds, it's nasty outside! I still expect to lose power at any moment. The EFM usually stays around 175°, it's been running so much that the boiler water is currently at 195°.

12* windy as a bastard--snowin & blowin--I've got 4-5 ft. drifts all up & down my rd.--Oh yea,the county will get right on that --according to the weather morons--this should of ended an hr ago---welcome to my hill--I suspect tomorrow will be an all morning plow day--we'll see just how good my NOW 2 wheel drive w/ chains on, plow truck handles all this--she's a rugged old lady, but, we'll see--Damn,I should not have sold my old Allis WD--nor snapped the axle yoke on my 4X4--if worse comes to worse--I'll just wait for spring run-off--that should really PO the horses

Oh well, 150 lbs of coal sure beats 15 gallons of fuel.

Indeed!

Right on Chris! Glad to hear it's sold! Wait until you get your first tax bill in NC -- Your going to belly-laugh with extreme giddyness!

As I've mentioned in a couple posts before, my parents have decided to pull up their roots & get the hell out of MA as fast as possible. I think this winter was the last straw .... well, that & the ever increasing property taxes, thanks to all the yuppies from Boston that have overtaken the town - demanding a Taj-Mahal police station, fire station & high school .... amongst other things they don't need.

I've spent many hours this week looking at Google Earth, town demographics, realty sites, & tax info for them. I think I've finally convinced mom that SC is the way to go. We have no relatives down there, so they can go pretty much wherever they want - cash being the limiting factor. SC seems to have the cheapest property taxes I have ever seen in my life!! Houses are very cheap (relatively) as well! They'll be able to live closer to the ocean than we ever dreamed possible. One town that stood out to me was Huger. Seems very rural, & there's a huge lake within a short drive, plenty of rivers to fish in ... or just take the boat clear to the ocean on! Then there's that huge national forest there that you can actually ride ATV's in, plus hunt in legally!! (can't recall the names of any of these places ...) Was in the upper 70's there the other day. Sounds like heaven!! I think I'm more excited than they are. Just knowing I'll have a place in paradise for vacationing ... and possibly a place to register all my vehicles for a tenth of the cost ... Plus I now have a base from which to shop for old, B.S. exempt vehicles from. Dad can keep an eye out for beaters, then I can go down & bring them back to this hellhole to die! No more eBay!

We got up to 59° here Friday. Melted about 2 feet of snow away, thankfully .... but there's still just about 2 feet on the ground STILL! Had enough of this crap! Now that grandma's apartment is empty, I have no reason to venture out on these hellacious roads. My father had an incident with a plow guy the other day. Guy wouldn't move over far enough .. and my ol' man was already off the road & in the snowbank as far as he could go. Then the ass end slid & cranked the plow truck. Luckily no body damage - just a busted tail light. Could've been alot worse ... like my bashed in step rail. Accidents all over the place. Saw a guy get T-boned at 35 mph. He pulled right out in front of this guy - guess the snowbank blocked his view. 2 little econo-boxes totalled. What a EFFING winter!!

SMITTY wrote:Right on Chris! Glad to hear it's sold! Wait until you get your first tax bill in NC -- Your going to belly-laugh with extreme giddyness! As I've mentioned in a couple posts before, my parents have decided to pull up their roots & get the hell out of MA as fast as possible.!

Thanks guys, but we just have a signed contract. Closing date is April 15th, if all the BS inspections go good. Then we will make a bid on several houses in NC, at 1/10th the cost of this place. Yes, taxes will be a SMALL fraction of what we pay in NJ. If things go as planned, I may be calling for my TT load of Rice in the June timeframe our first purchase in our new house.

Good deal!

I think you'll be all set with the inspections. I know how those can be ... if they're anything like this state .. but from the pix I've seen, your house looks to be in good order. I think you'll be fine.

This place on the other hand ..... I'll probably be stuck here. Laundry that drains outside, 2 appliances in one flue, .....

Chris, congradulations, I know you have been trying to escape stalag NJ for a long time. Pittstown is a beautiful place, but I know how expensive it is.

Smitty, sounds like you have picked out a great place for you ,,,, I mean your parents to live

The only thing it would take for me to leave hell jersey is a readily available u-haul box truck and guts.

They're petitioning to build a huge mosque the next town over. The first town meeting was cancelled due to the huge oppositional turnout. They have rescheduled at an auditorium that will hold all the local citizens.

hahaha Smitty you're excused with the laundry because you're not a liberal. My libby brother and his weenie wife let their laundry water shoot out into the woods for a couple decades, while they were making sure everybody knew they were giving money to Greenpeace

Greenpeace cancels that out I guess!

Yeah, my mom said the same thing: "hey! who's living here anyway? It's gonna be OUR house!"

I'm living vicariously through my parents. I want out of here SOOOOO BAAAD!!!!!!!

What's the plan for work down there?
You still gonna drive truck?
My wife wants to know if she can go too. She's a great cook!

One wife is enough for me!

If & when I do ever get down there, it will be for retirement. You can retire from unemployment ... right?

SMITTY wrote: I've spent many hours this week looking at Google Earth, town demographics, realty sites, & tax info for them. I think I've finally convinced mom that SC is the way to go. We have no relatives down there, so they can go pretty much wherever they want - cash being the limiting factor. SC seems to have the cheapest property taxes I have ever seen in my life!! Houses are very cheap (relatively) as well! They'll be able to live closer to the ocean than we ever dreamed possible. One town that stood out to me was Huger. Seems very rural, & there's a huge lake within a short drive, plenty of rivers to fish in ... or just take the boat clear to the ocean on! Then there's that huge national forest there that you can actually ride ATV's in, plus hunt in legally!! (can't recall the names of any of these places ...) Was in the upper 70's there the other day. Sounds like heaven!! I think I'm more excited than they are. Just knowing I'll have a place in paradise for vacationing ... and possibly a place to register all my vehicles for a tenth of the cost ... Plus I now have a base from which to shop for old, B.S. exempt vehicles from. Dad can keep an eye out for beaters, then I can go down & bring them back to this hellhole to die! No more eBay!

Hi Smitty, I came across this website while I was surfing. It shows the migration patterns of the United States - how many are moving from there to where. It will open your eyes. The northeast/mid-Atlantic states are losing a lot of folks as is certain areas of CA. Lisa

http://www.forbes.com/2010/06/04/migration-moving ... s-map.html

Thanks Lisa! Great link!!

The wife and I were just rolling around laughing at MA!! We clicked on Worcester county & the whole map turned RED! Looks like more people agree with me up here than I thought!

I clicked on Maricopa county, where I used to live in AZ .. and it was almost 100% opposite - all black! Lots moving in, & a few moving out ... but more moving in than out. Worcester was 100% moving out!

Can't say I blame them at all.