Merger Mania in My Workplace

[Sporadicus]

The corporation I work for just 'merged' with a consortium of other companies, although the split is 65/35 in my company's favor - which in theory makes us the 'winner.' Anyway, this merger may open up the possibility of transferring within this merged corporation - and some of the places are in blue states: Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois & Michigan.

I'm not willing to jump at the first opportunity that comes along, however. I've been working in R&D for several years, and I'm really not too keen on returning to some operations department in a factory - especially some of the factories we acquired: foundries are generally filthy places.

The chance to move to Washington really interests me, though. I lived in Portland for three years, and I truly love the Pacific Northwest. It's in the Chehalis / Centralia area, but I don't know a lot about that particular area (although I've driven through several times). Are any DUers from that locale or have specific knowledge of that region?

[rwenos]

1. Centralia is Southwestern Washington

More like Oregon than Washington, in my book. Lived in Portland 1980-1984, Seattle 1985. Puget Sound area is happenin' for a city kid like me. Big league sports, big league business, generally Seattle is a big league city.

Centralia/Chehalis -- it rains almost as hard as on the Oregon Coast (the Coast Range is too low to stop the storms). Lots of sawmill type industry, moribund now. You're close enough to drive to Tacoma or Seattle for fun/music etc., but the traffic on the east side of the Sound is pretty bad now.

If you want country life, you'll get it. Centralia has one main street. Replace your windshield wiper blades every six months.

[The empressof all]

2. Middle of no-where but very pretty

I have stopped in Centralia a number of times when I've made the drive from Seattle to Portland. Not much there except a new outlet mall. I don't think the weather there is any worse than Seattle. You can probably expect typical weather --warm dry summers and wet winters. It's close to a lot of wilderness areas and Mt St Helen. It's also not that far to visit the ocean for a day trip. It's certainly not a hot bed of culture and entertainment but if you are outdoorsy and like a small town atmosphere it could be pleasant. It's not that far of a drive to go and spend time in Portland or Seattle. Your housing costs will be lower than Seattle--So maybe you'll be able to afford fun week-ends in the city.