Finally, I'm coming home.

[LWolf]

After a decade and a half of running back and forth between OR and CA, the time never being right for a permanent move, I have 2 houses in escrow, a good job offer, and am permanently moving at the end of this month to central Oregon.

I don't regret leaving Arnold behind, although I do regret the direction he's moving California. What do I have to look forward to, politically and culturally, in my new digs?

[whistle]

1. Congratulations, I hope you find Oregon essentially the same

...or better than you left it 10 years ago.

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[PDX Bara]

2. Congratulations!

And welcome home! After 15 years in the San Francisco Bay Area, I too "came home" in January. I had a chance at a good job in San Francisco in 1990 so I took the plunge and earned myself a good pension on which I can live on (and do) in a retirement community just outside of Portland. Of course some things have changed but I had family and good friends of many decades standing to come home to. I will always be glad for the experiences I had because of "taking the leap," more likely made by recent college graduates, which I made at the ripe old age of 45.5 years. May you have a long and happy life where your heart and body reside.

[Caoimhe]

3. Welcome home!

We need all the good progressive minds we can get!

And as an aside, we need to see more progressives moving into rural communities, being lone rangers so to speak. Most small communities have no alternate voice to the good old boys network of Repugnicans! I know it's hard not being able to hang with lots of folks you identify with, but amazingly enough, if you live in a smaller community, and do something progressive...write a letter to the editor, wear an anti bush tshirt or put a bumper sticker on your car... people come out of the woodwork. It's like an underground. We can tap that and bring them out! Republicans need to stop thinking they own the world, they don't. People are just too frightened to speak out against their idiocy!

[DesEtoiles]

4. Join our Rapid Response Team!

Very effective citizen activism...

www.rapidresponsenetwork.org


Sign up for the Oregon daily e-mails!

[LWolf]

12. Will check it out as soon as I get moved in and hooked up,

thanks!

:hi:

[HuckleB]

5. Congrats!

Welcome back.

:hi:

[sandnsea]

6. Transplanted Californians

Ha! That's what I've got in Florence anyway. Where ya' moving to?

[LWolf]

7. Redmond.

My mom lived in Florence for about 5 years. She had a shop in Old Town. I guided her to the other side of the mountains when she wasn't tolerating the rain. She's been in LaPine 5 years now. I have some ex-inlaws in Sutherland, and another group that lived in Bend 15 years ago. I've been making the 1800 mile round trip 2 or 3 times a year for 15 years now. I'm down to two more trips; one to move all my "stuff," and another after I get settled in to move my 2 horses.

Redmond because that's where the job offer is. I'm closing up shop down here this and next week, and should be there by the end of this month.

:hi:

[classof56]

8. Hey, welcome to Redmond!

I love it here! Lots of road construction going on right about now (a bypass just to the east, for one) so getting around will soon be much more tolerable. Weather's much better here, too, IMHO, than Bend and south. Lots less snow, I've noticed. Anyway, Central Oregon is hard to beat--those mountain views seem to make life worthwhile!

Have a safe trip to paradise!

[LWolf]

9. Thank you.

I saw that the 126 was closed to the east while they work on it. I don't know Redmond as well as Bend, but I've spent quite a bit of time there the last couple of months and am catching up quickly. I don't know about the difference from Bend, but it sure has better weather than my mom's place in LaPine!

[sandnsea]

10. Cool!

It's grown, from what I hear. But I bet you knew that. Did you catch the Dem web site for Bend? I posted it somewhere in the Oregon forum.

We had this conversation before, didn't we? Redmond, Bend, LaPIne... it's all vaguely familiar.

What was your mom's shop? Does she like LaPine better? I always think I'll like the rain better than snow and heat. We had always thought we might move when the kids left home. But now there's a grandbaby on the way, so, nope. I think we're here for the duration.

[LWolf]

11. It has grown a great deal.

Bend's population has tripled since I was first introduced 16 years ago. I've been priced out of the market there. Redmond is also growing quickly, but is still just on the edge of affordable for me.

My mom had a used book store. She still has a massive inventory of books left over from when she closed the store down; when we get settled, the son I'm taking with me is going to sell them online for her. She's been planning to do that all along, but is terrified of her computer. Now that we're going to be close by, her grandson will come to the rescue and manage her "bookstore" for her.

Mom loves LaPine. Redmond gets quite a bit less snow than LaPine, which is good for me, my garden, and my horses. I'm not worried about heat; central Oregon's heat is relatively mild in comparison to the Mojave Desert I've spent the last 25 years in! I will not miss summers down here.

[oneold1-4u]

13. Back to the best!

Been here long enough to have pioneer license so have a bit of insight. Have lived in Southern, Central, and Coastal OR, and the La Pine, Bend area has about the best there is! The Coastal towns (cities?) have the poorest medical facilities and Dr. access, at least in Coos Bay and that is a large town!
The small local clinics in most central OR towns, like La Pine, are really great and the hospital and medical clinics in Bend are the best in the state. The emergency services throughout the area are fantastic and affordable to all.
I moved to coast to get away from snow and 12 months of freezing temps. It is warmer, but have to put up with rodents, slugs and snails, weeds and grass growing year round, too wet to mow, and worst of all, bugs and spiders, mold, milldew, moss, musty, rusty, and every fungus imaginable. Take it from me, it's either a small community in the Cascades not too far from town, or the central plateau near Bend for the best of living and loving Oregon.

[LWolf]

14. That's been my family's experience;

I love the Oregon coast, too, but would rather visit it. I prefer the high desert climate. Oregon has, in my experience, a far superior health care system than CA; that has become increasingly obvious with the health crises that some family members have experienced this year. I'm making the trip tomorrow; I have another 4 rooms to pack before I take off.

I am thrilled.

[classof56]

15. If you get this before you go offline and pack your computer...

Have a safe trip and again, welcome to Redmond. Hwy 126 east is open again, but the paving project between Redmond and the Alfalfa cutoff starts tomorrow, so may be some slowdown there for awhile. And the east-west couplet project on Highland/126 through town is still underway--will be for another 18 months, according to the paper. But so far it's not been too disruptive--I live west of town and take that route on an almost daily basis, but there are other ways to get from here to there if need be. It'll all be worth it when it's done! BTW, it's been raining like crazy off and on for the last few days. Not unwelcome, IMHO.

Be safe!

[0rganism]

16. I can't speak directly for central Oregon, but in general...

...please keep in mind that our state has been a "Proof of Concept" petrie dish for Grover Norquist's K-street anti-tax thuggery. Right now, we have a funding crisis that defies rational description. On the one hand, Oregon's corporate leadership excoriates the legislature for our impoverished, overcrowded, underperforming schools. On the other, it gleefully lobbies for tax cuts above and beyond the graces they already experience.

Living in Oregon, you will see things that initially defy rational description, but make some sense after applying principles of cheap labor, NIMBY, and Vengeful Jesus.