We moved from Burlington, VT, to Charleston, SC, 13 years ago, and never looked back. It took about six months to realize we were spending $1000 LESS per month . House payment (a real HOUSE, not a condo), gas, electricity (we bought an all-electric house and I feared the worst, and was VERY pleasantly surprised). I did a little research and found SC power is around 12.9 cents/kWh, while Vermont is 21.5 Mapped: The Average Cost of Electricity by U.S. State
Groceries, pet supplies, home repairs, etc. were all lower. the Charleston cultural life is as vivid and varied as Boston or NY. And perhaps more culturally balanced. Museums, sport arenas, the Galliard Playhouse, North Charleston Performing Arts Center, are always booked with everything from rock concerts to Broadway plays, The Sound of Music just opened for an 8-day run, and Jeff Dunham will be turning Walter and Achmed loose just before Thanksgiving. The SC Aquarium will be kicking off its annual Christmas program with light shows, music, and yours truly —among others —as SCUBA Santa!
And not a bottle of hot sauce in sight!
We’ve had snow twice since we moved down here, the first time literally a year to the day we moved in. We played it smart and stayed home until it melted off. The way you drive in snow in Carolina is YOU DON’T! We Damnyankees may know how, but the locals have not got a clue!
Overall, I will take Southern Living over Vermont. We don’t get Leaf Peeper Season here on the coast, but a short drive up towards Clemson gets you into some nice color. And I definitely do not miss having to dig my car out of a snowdrift at 5AM in double-digit-below-zero temperatures. I saw it as a sure sign of civilization when I drove past Lowes and Home Depot in November, and there was not a single snow-blower or even shovel on display!
Today I heard an hilarious argument as to why it is cheaper to live in New England than in the South. The main points of the thesis are that the infrastructure and services available here more than make up for the exorbitant cost of living. So, for instance, whereas the cost of owning a car in New England (insurance, mechanic’s charges, taxes) are much higher, because the roads are so much better your car will last much longer. When I heard this, I was thinking about what road salt does to the frame of a car in New England every winter. And then I thought about my recent drive on I-95 and the craters there that I drove over.
Next up was the world class medical care available in this region of the country and nowhere else. Now, it is without a doubt true that some very fine doctors and hospitals exist in places like Boston. But it is also true that there are plenty of really mediocre medical centers and even terrible ones up here. And I have experienced both so I’m not sure I believe that this is a slam dunk. I guess if your health is extremely poor this might carry some weight but I have heard of good hospitals sprinkled around the country and in addition if someone is in desperate need of specialized care like a knee replacement or something I’m guessing you could travel for the procedure. So, let’s call this a 50/50.
But the final point was the best. The overarching reason to live in New England is “the culture.” That one I think made me snort out loud. Apparently going into Boston or New York City to see “Hamilton” or some other masterpiece of middle-brow pomposity is supposed to make up for ridiculous real estate prices, outrageous utility and fuel bills, failing schools and colleges and an, in general, overregulated existence. And once you add the prevalence of increasing violence and squalor in the urban centers to the equation what exactly is there to extol about this region of the country?
But the participants in this New England pep rally nodded their heads and agreed that no sane individual would even think of packing it in, selling off the family home and buying a bigger house for half the price in a place where you can walk around in February in a light jacket and snow is an oddity that you hear about in stories about Santa Claus.
Well, I guess heaven (or hell) is where you make it. I will admit that we’ve had a beautiful fall with balmy weather extending almost all the way to Halloween. But eventually you have to pay the piper and the wind has been blowing pretty hard and the leaves have been stripped from a lot of the trees (except the oaks). So even these people making believe they live in a wonderland know the awful truth. After Christmas is over, the really awful stuff will begin. Even with the milder winters we’ve been having, there are four months of bleak, cold weather waiting for us; January, February, March and April. That’s a bitter pill.
Good luck with the snow. I grew up on the MA North Shore and then 40 years on the Northern Tier with the Air Force and Army. Heartily agree about freezing rain. We lost power for 27 days in Plattsburgh NY due to an ice storm back in ’98 (Thank Ghu for wood stoves and oil lamps), and saw a lot of VERY slick road and dead-stopped traffic due to iced pavement. Major reason for moving to South Carolina in 2014. And what happens in 2015? The first snow in 40 years, followed by more of the cussed stuff 10 years later! I tell ya I don’t get no respect!
Ah, Groundhog Day. When northern America as one embraces a Bill Murray movie and tries to figure out a way to survive until winter gives up. After a remarkably mild 2023/2024 winter, cold weather has reasserted itself and I have embraced the reality that I don’t live in a rational climate. The pattern is one day of freezing rain and the next night, zero degrees Fahrenheit. This is an extremely unhelpful arrangement. Almost any depth of snow can be removed. 0-4 inches is handled with a snow shovel. 2-22 inches yields, for the most part to a snowblower or plow. After that it get trickier, but it can still be done. And the resulting cleared surface is generally very usable for walking and driving your car on.
A quarter to a half inch of ice is a disaster. If the ground was very cold when the rain fell and then the air temperature dropped quickly and even worse if the wind really picked up, you end up with a layer that is almost impossible to remove unless you put road salt on it. Unfortunately, I use well water so I don’t salt my driveway. That’s very unfortunate. Instead, I take a garden rake or a roofer’s shovel and I abrade the surface of the ice and then I sand it and then scrape it again to lodge the sand in the surface. This works but it is extremely labor intensive. So, I hate rain in the winter. And lately it has become a very frequent occurrence.
Alright, enough whining.
So, what’s new? Well, tariffs. Trump has tariffs for Canada, Mexico, China and I assume a lot of other places. And I hear he’s suspending all aid to South Africa while an investigation of anti-white land seizures and other worse actions is performed. Wow. Trump is going full steam ahead. Every day I ask myself, “What’s left to do? Nothing.” But then he does three more things. One of the things I’m very happy about is that Trump is cutting off the money supply to the NGO’s. These organizations are funded by the US government but work directly against the interests and sometimes against the very laws of this country. Here we are spending billions of dollars to eject illegal aliens while charities are spending billions of tax-payer dollars to feed, house and hide these very same illegal aliens. Cutting off their funds is the most effective and fastest method of combatting the problem. I’ll give him credit; Trump is proving to be a force to be reckoned with. I don’t want to get my hopes up too high but it seems to me that there is a very good chance that he’s going to “fundamentally change the United States,” but for the better. Sort of an anti-Obama.
Kennedy, Gabbard and Patel are up for votes in the Senate this week. If I were to guess I’d say all three will need Vance as the tie-breaking vote. And that’s actually me being optimistic. There are some truly terrible Republicans in the Senate. McConnel voted against Hegseth because he gets money from defense contractors and they’re worried Hegseth and Trump will end the gravy train. I think it’s possible he’ll vote to confirm Patel because he doesn’t get paid by any lobby associated with the FBI. Now there are plenty of Senators that get paid by the pharma lobby. This might cause Kenedy to be rejected.
Update: Hat Tip to Tom D for the data
top-medical-indust-receip
As for Gabbard, I think she’ll get through but I think Vance will break the tie. So, I guess I’m cautiously optimistic. Hopefully that’s more accurate than Democrats being nauseously optimistic on Kamala’s election prospects.
We’re getting 2-4 inches of snow tonight (they say). I’ll be up very early to clear that before going to work tomorrow. This will be a hectic week with some travel toward the end. But I’ll be dutifully following the news coming from the Trump White House (the Greatest Show on Earth). I keep waiting to hear that he’s declassified the Area 51 files and that he’s going to give a tour of the flying saucer and the pickled bodies of the space aliens. Now that’s showmanship.
In New England choosing a snow removal method is kind of like choosing a religion. There’s the mainstream snowblower sect. Then there are those plow guys both the ones that mount it to their family truck and the ones who buy those ATV looking vehicles that zip around after major snowstorms cleaning off people’s driveways. They’re probably pagans or something. Then there are the hardliners who own a tractor to which they can attach plows, blowers, even trailers in which the snow can be collected. These guys are ready for the apocalypse. And finally, there are the fundamentalists; the shovel guys. To them moving the snow is the punishment we all deserve.
A week ago, I was walking in the haunted forests and swamps of Dunwich and observing the first little buds and leaves opening up on all the thorn bushes, briars and poison ivy vines. But now there’s eight inches of snow out there again!
And so, I spent Tuesday and today on snow removal. I skipped Wednesday because, dammit I’m an American. My weapons were the snowblower, the snow shovel and the ice scraping shovel (technically it’s a roofing shovel used to scrape the shingles off a roof, but it’s really good for smashing and scraping ice off a driveway). And I got all of the top driveway done and the lower driveway so-so.
And that’s just in time for tonight’s predicted one to four inches of new snow. Now what kind of prediction is 1-4 inches? When the maximum is 400% of the minimum it shouldn’t be called a prediction. Clueless guess is probably closer to the truth. But the last five hours of snow removal has brought me back to the zen-like state that eventually sets in near the end of a New England winter. And this is even true during extremely mild winters as we’ve had the last three or four years. Because an inch of ice can cause more grief and work than two feet of dry snow. In the zen state you abandon the idea of gritting your teeth and pushing through until spring. It’s too long. There are still seven weeks until snow is unlikely. So, you must embrace the crappy weather and become one with it.
And so there I was, lavishing loving attention on asphalt that needed the snow coaxed off of it with a light, almost delicate touch to the shovel at just the perfect angle to get it to peel off the pavement. I experienced ineffable contentment as I worked down the driveway six inches at a time. I had become a snow clearing zombie. And I loved Big Brother.
As you can tell I’m suffering from the last stages of cabin fever and I’m contemplating warning Camera Girl to abandon the Compound until spring when hopefully I’ll regain my sanity. She knows my weaknesses and it’s just too reminiscent of Jack Nicholson’s portrayal of Jack Torrance in the movie version of “The Shining.” If I do go berserk, I won’t use the weapons that Jack Torrance took up (a fire axe in the movie and a roque mallet in the book). I will instead embrace my most formidable weapon, bad puns. The poor woman.
Anyway, I’m enjoying the posting of my novel fragment. It’s cathartic to put it out in the real world and get feedback. I’ve been trying to figure out a strategy to get it in the public eye. I’m thinking about putting it on a crowd-funding site to see how much visibility that would give it. If anyone knows which sites are best for our side of the political spectrum, please chime in.
Before we escaped the Peoples’ Republic of Vermont, I would stretch a poly tarp over my car. This covered the windshield, side windows and the door locks. A couple of bungie cords kept it tight. Come out in the morning, or night, and pop it off and the ice/snow/frost came with it. No scraping, and especially no fumbling trying to get keys into frozen locks. (Yes, this was back in the Ice Age when I was a specialist in stone knives and bearskins.)
Not real snow, just a sloppy mess that has to be pushed off the driveways before it turns to ice tonight. But a reminder that there still is such a thing as winter here.
We got about six inches of wet snow last night and we’ll probably get another coupla-three-inches over the course of the day today. So, for the first time this winter I took the snow blower out and ran it around the upper driveway. It was repaired before the winter and the foot of the housing was adjusted higher. So now it leaves about a half inch of snow on the ground. With dry snow this isn’t an issue but the wet stuff we got last night can gum up the works and you end up with snow compacting into slushy ice and the blower riding on top of the ice and before you know it there’s a four-inch frozen layer that you have to remove by shovel.
But honestly, I think it was enjoyable to go out and do some work. All of this will be gone in less than a week. All I’ve got to do is make sure I can get the cars in and out of the driveway and the rest of it will melt more or less on its own. So I spent a couple of hours today with about half the time being shovel work on very heavy wet snow. And I’m feeling energized because of it.
Winter is rearing its ugly head for sure. Eight or nine inches of wet show is nothing to scorn but knowing that it won’t be lying around for three months is a big deal. It’s three weeks to celestial spring. Sure, we can have three feet of snow on April Fool’s Day. It’s already been proven. But winter has run out of time to break our backs or our spirits.
Right now, I’m looking out the balcony door at the snow sifting down through the still winter air. It’s kind of beautiful. I can hear the red winged black birds squawking around Camera Girl’s bird feeders. This week hundreds of them have appeared and swarmed the area. Maybe it’s their mating season or something. But all the noise tells me something about the imminence of Spring. The daffodils that appeared last week are buried in the wet snow. But they’ve got some kind of anti-freeze in their cells that will keep them from dying. The mallards have been wading around the pond and their ducklings will be sure to appear soon.
Around Dunwich there’s all kinds of excitement. The budget is a shambles and we have no money. The peasants have broken out the torches and pitchforks. They’ll be marching to First Selectman Cthulhu’s lair soon just in time to be his first Black Sabbath feast. In my new role as his “Least Lackey” I will be in charge of manning the barbecue sauce pumping station. It will be my responsibility to hose down the marchers so that His Honor can swallow them quickly and enjoyably. I hope he notes that I’ve selected the roasted garlic and lemon-flavored sauce this season. It adds just the right touch of piquance to the flavor of what the First Selectman likes to call “Dunwich sushi.” Oh, he’s so droll. Who says Great Old Ones have no sense of humor? Well, gotta go. The snow, it calls me.
Winter Solstice. The first day of winter, the day when the sun spends the least amount of time above the horizon. The longest night of the year. Well, while some neo-pseudo-druids will be cavorting around the Stonehenge site I’ll spend today reveling in the joys of the season. I’ll watch some more of my favorite seasonal movies, eat some more Christmas cookies and try to work off the calories with some exercise. Camera Girl is devilishly busy with her preparations for the Christmas feast and I am more or less nothing but a hindrance to her at this point. I ask if I can help and just get scowls of contempt for what she considers hollow offers. Maybe I can carry some heavy pots of soup or sides of meat downstairs. But other than those few things I’m essentially of no use to her. Well, what can I say? God has divided us, quite wisely, into men and women and along those same lines he has provided or withheld various talents to the members of the human race. And like the fabulous ant and grasshopper of Aesop some of us toil and are productive and others of us feast and sing. I am cursed to be among this latter group. And Camera Girl is solidly in the former category. Such is life.
It’s bright daylight today. I intend to walk around in the woods and snap a photo or two of whatever strikes my eye. If tonight is as clear I must take a walkaround in the starlight and enjoy a sight of the winter constellations on this longest night. In fact, the moon is on the next to last night before New Moon so viewing the sky will be almost optimal. Orion will be about 45 degrees above the horizon at about 11 pm and that’s when I’ll take a wander outside. The forecast is for mostly clear skies and 25 degrees Fahrenheit. Sounds pretty good for late December in New England.
The world diverges into two contrasting pictures. When I hear what is going on in the wide world it is a ghastly disaster. Evil men run just about everything there is to control. Joe Biden is a symbol for a world collapsing into decay. But when I look at my personal world, I see good things all around me. Good people are working hard to improve the lives of their families and displaying wonderful qualities of self-sacrifice and industriousness. I see youngsters working hard at their studies and displaying intelligence and good will. So, it’s a paradox. How can so much good exist in a world that has embraced nihilism and irrational goals? And I must say I haven’t an answer. But I will celebrate the good and hope for the future no matter how bleak the big picture seems to be.
So, I’ll go out today and take the optimistic approach. From here on in the hours of daylight will be increasing and the New Year comes with the ever-renewed hope that the world will come to its senses. That’s good enough for today.
As forecast we got a couple inches of snow last night and after breakfast I set to work clearing the driveway. Since it was a small total I decided to forego the snowblower and just use the old snow shovel from last year. Well two and a half hours later it was done.
So much for that COVID from last week and as far as I know this makes myocarditis or endocarditis from the vaccines I took last year much less likely. After all a few hours of vigorous cardio-exercise should have induced heart failure if those conditions were present so, take that Fauci and company.
After my morning chore the rest of today was a day for relaxation and enjoyment. I watched the 1951 British version of “A Christmas Carol” with Alistair Sim and later the 1938 Hollywood version with Reginald Owen. They were very enheartening. And I had the Monday zoom call. The boys were in high spirits and we discussed Christmas menus and the coming gatherings. We also discussed Elon Musk’s recent releases of transcripts of the plots to shadow ban conservatives. They felt some good would come from these revelations. I was less hopeful. We all agreed that the Democrats would use every minute until the end of the congressional session spending every last penny they could before their loss of the House majority.
So the week begins well. Christmas approaches and the nonsense in Washington becomes less and less interesting to me. But of course I’ll follow the news just to see if they can shock an already jaded world. After all thermonuclear war is still a rabbit to be pulled out of their hat.
