I am so concerned

110` today in some places here.


that my air conditioner will crap out.Every year it does when it is this hot. I HATE this so much.    

I feel for you, Barb. Last year our AC went out 2 or 3 times in the middle of a Phx summer. They kept sending idiots to repair it. This year we've been ok.

I'd tired of this summer already. I usually love it, but with the excessive heat and so many floods....I'm done. I'm sure you feel the same way already.

I do. I have been looking & looking for a place to move. No luck yet.


Maybe snow isn't that hard to deal with lol.IDK.Come end of Oct I turn off the air & my electric bill drops down to $50.a month.Well it is not that bad right now $135ish.It is that dang unit that worries me.

I am captive in my house most of the summer ..  

Barbara101 wrote:

I am captive in my house most of the summer ..  

Keep in mind that if you move to somewhere cold, you will be captive in your house most of the winter. For me, it's a trade off.

JanaAZ wrote:

Barbara101 wrote:

I am captive in my house most of the summer ..  

Keep in mind that if you move to somewhere cold, you will be captive in your house most of the winter.  For me, it's a trade off.

I know. That is why I have not made up my mind on a new place yet.When I lived in Western NC,Realtor said oh we get no snow here.Biggest line of crap. It snowed & snowed & snowed some more. I was stuck in the house for 2 weeks at a time.Hated it..

Move to the tropics. No hot or cold weather, just rain and hurricanes. Or the west coast. No bad weather, just earthquakes, fires and mud slides. Here in the midwest we have both really hot and cold weather but neither lasts long and we get good variety, including tordados.  Right now it's 83 and cloudy.

I know you don't like where I live, but even when it's hot, it's not as hot as we experienced in Ohio. We've had temps in the 90's for the last week but I've still been able to get out and about. Yesterday I took the golf cart to one of the Towne Centers to go to lunch & the movies with friends. And if I wanted to go cool off in a pool, I have my choice of dozens (all within an easy golf cart ride).

What I really love is fall through spring - great weather the majority of the time.....and plenty of things to see and do. We're within a 2 hr. drive of either the ocean or gulf. As a matter of fact, we're going to go on Saturday morning just north of Palatka and Dane's sister's to go out on the river to try shrimping on the St. Johns River. Dane loves the fact he can go fishing anyplace in the state and is not required to purchase a fishing license (neither fresh water or salt water) since he is a resident and is over 65 yrs. old. I just hope the shrimp are running and are a decent size....we'll see.

I was just reading an article in the paper about what $100.00 will buy. In SC, where you live, you will get $110.25 worth of goods. Out here in California, we get $88.57. The biggest bang for your buck is Mississippi where you get $115.74. Must be all those double and triple coupons I see on Extreme Couponing LOL. So what this means is that even though we have a higher median income, we are actually worse off than most people in the U.S.. If you do move, you might want to take that into consideration. Other bad spots are New Jersey, New York, Hawaii, Mass., Conn., D.C., MD., Del., N.H., AK.

Oh Barb,
Wherever you go it is a trade-off.
I live right outside of Boston. The snow is incredible. Do not forget the "blizzards' we get. Even NYC is getting a ton of snow.
What you are paying for your AC will go for your heat, that is if you move to a cooler climate.
Granted, you will have the 4 seasons, but they can be mighty short.
Right now, it is too cool for me. We are having temps in the low 70's with very low humidity and a sea breeze which is making it feel a loo cooler.
I prefer a warmer breeze and a few degrees warmer.
In the 70's with a nice warm breeze.

It seems we are not happy were we are living; and it seems the rent is really outrageous now...
If you are ready to shovel, scrape the frost and snow off your car, go out to warm up your car before leaving, buying a winter coat, buying, ice melt so you do not slip and fall on ice, buy winter gloves, hat, a scraper for the frozen windshield, pay for heat, and possibly a humidifier because it is so dry in the house...then moving north is for you...
As I said in the beginning, it is a trade-off.......either AC or heat and snow...
Believe me--the cold is not something to deal with; especially if you are getting older.. Right now, I am cold...the windows are open with a very cold sea breeze....
take it for what it is...

If you don't live on a fixed income and earn 88 dollars a week and 100 dollar is worth 110 but if you live somewhere else and your take home is 110 but 100 is going to buy 88 dollars, it kind of evens out. If you earn 3500 a month in Missisippi and the same amount in California, then it would make a difference, I think.

That is what they were essentially saying. They also said that people who are low income and receive aid in places like Miss. are not motivated to work because their standard of living is so much higher than in places like CA. Rent is considerably cheaper and so is food.
I also was reading about rent controlled and low income apartments in NYC. They were saying that the L.I. and R.C. apartment dwellers are not allowed to go into the building through the front. They must enter through side or back doors that they call "poor doors". They are not allowed to use any of the amenities either. I suppose that makes sense because they are not paying for them. But the doors, I don't know. Maybe they have a doorman or concierge that they don't pay for either.

I don't buy their statement that people aren't motivated to work because they get "free stuff"  Nobody who can get a good paying job will turn it down because they can get by with less money.

They are building an apartment in New York that has split rent levels and the high priced ones have their own door and the low rent ones have to use an alley door so they won't see each other.  I think I'd rather not live in such a place whether I was rich or not.

Yes, it makes you feel like dirt.

NormM wrote:I don't buy their statement that people aren't motivated to work because they get "free stuff"  Nobody who can get a good paying job will turn it down because they can get by with less money.

They are building an apartment in New York that has split rent levels and the high priced ones have their own door and the low rent ones have to use an alley door so they won't see each other.  I think I'd rather not live in such a place whether I was rich or not.

I think they meant that these people can't get good paying jobs and that the help they receive actually allows them to live better than if they had a low paying job. Why work?

If that's so, all the more reason to raise minimum wage. Make working worth it.

No one can live on minimum wage.

NormM wrote:I don't buy their statement that people aren't motivated to work because they get "free stuff"  Nobody who can get a good paying job will turn it down because they can get by with less money.

They are building an apartment in New York that has split rent levels and the high priced ones have their own door and the low rent ones have to use an alley door so they won't see each other.  I think I'd rather not live in such a place whether I was rich or not.

I agree wholeheartedly, Norm, with both of your statements.

Bugster2 wrote:No one can live on minimum wage.

New Orleans is a city with a lot of people living in poverty. Lots of working people here make minimum wage and many of those same people work two and three jobs. It always makes me crazy when people say "these people" or "those people" don't work as hard as the rest of us as many of them work ten times harder than I've EVER worked. It's so hard to get ahead when you're struggling to simply keep your head above water all the time.

Just my point. They have to work 3 jobs just to eat. I don't think Norm understood what I was trying to say. What the article was saying is that in some states the system is such that people are actually better off taking aid than minimum wage job. That hardly motivates people to work. In many areas women just have children and more children and stay on welfare. I once worked with a woman who had 4 children. She left an abusive husband. Fortunately she had skills. She also got all kinds of state aid such as food stamps, medi-cal, housing subsidies. That helped her save her money and pay cash for a brand new car.
Out here people are quite resourceful. Many people know how to steal from the system.
Some of the immigrants have an interesting way of making a great deal of money. Many generations of the same family live in one house. They have managed to buy a business where the whole family works together. They pool their assets and buy another business etc. They end up being very well off.
Hispanics have another way of making a buck. The rent out sleeping space, 8 hours at a time. You get enough renters to more than pay your rent and more. Plus they still get state aid. No bank accounts for them. Got to keep the money hidden from the gov't.