The last couple of weeks may have been the proverbial straw. Between the freezing cold, the damned snow, the sleet, the flu, the (bad word!) heating bill, the flu and just being locked up indoors all day… we’ve about had it with our beloved Cincinnati-area homestead. Sometimes I can’t believe that we left the Seattle/Tacoma area in 1994 to come “home”. Bah!
I might have finally convinced my lovely wife, Dawn, that it’s time to move south. For years she has maintained that she doesn’t mind the cold. I think that’s because she’s never had to shovel the driveway or fix broken shit outside in sub-freezing weather. But recently she saw the light. She’s finally admitted that she can’t take the cold weather any longer and she’ll consider moving south. She doesn’t want to go too far south, though, … well, listen in on this conversation:
Her: “It might be awful humid there. I don’t want to live someplace where I can’t go outside.”
(editor’s note: she doesn’t go outside anytime between Memorial Day and Labor Day where we live now so what does it matter?!?!?)
Me: “It’s humid everywhere.”
Her: “Not in Las Vegas. It was like 112 when we were there and it wasn’t humid at all.”
Me: “If it was 112 you wouldn’t be going outside anyway.”
Our current criteria for choosing a new home city is:
Must be warmer than it is here during the winter months (wouldn’t take much for that - I think the North Pole might be warmer than here right now).
Occasional snow (like a light dusting) is okay
It can’t be BFE or someplace we’ve never heard of - we’d like to live somewhere near civilization though maybe not right in it.
It should be within a comfortable day’s drive of Cincinnati so that it will be easy enough to return home for visits or for family to visit us.
It should be a place with history, plenty of outdoor attractions, sight-seeing, etc. (In other words there should be a mall or two for her and hunting and fishing for me)
Cost of living should be equivalent to Cincinnati area or better. In other words, I’d love to trade in my shack and get a mansion!
She’s already said that Florida’s too hot and humid for her in the summer so anyplace on the gulf is out. Charleston, SC is way too hot in the summer for her, too, so that rules out most of the southeastern coast.
Currently we have discussed three destinations: Memphis, Raleigh-Durham, and Dallas. Dallas doesn’t fit the days driving distance criteria, but being the home of the Telligenti it gets bonus points. Her early favorite is Raleigh-Durham because she’s always been a Duke fan (PUKE!) and because she has some family in the area. I’m split on Dallas and Memphis.
As far as the weather goes, any of those three is fine by me. Let’s compare today’s weather:
Cincinnati: 31 deg, sleet/freezing rain all day long
Memphis: 57 deg, thunderstorms
Raleigh-Durham: 51 deg, partly cloudy
Dallas: 43 deg, cloudy
Verdict: Everyone else wins. Tomorrow - high of 16, low of 2. Thursday: high of 14, low of 0. Low of ZERO?!?! What is this, Alaska?
Any other cities/regions that meet our guidelines that you’d recommend we consider?