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So, we agreed to stay until they finish high school. The day the youngest graduates will be the last night I sleep here.
I tried to be friendly, tried volunteering. The older folks (60+) are very friendly but the people my age are horrid people (35-50). I've found them all to be know-it-alls that frankly, know nothing. I got so tired of hearing them all whine all the time.
Now, I just keep to myself and our family, and I'm much happier for it. I wave to my neighbors. Smile when appropriate but avoid others here as much as possible and spend almost all my free time out of town, as well as my money.
I grew up in San Antonio and have lived in Dallas, Miami, Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York City. I now live about 2 hours NW of New York City in the mountains of rural NE Pennsylvania. I love the beauty of the area and the quiet laid back atmosphere here and I rarely miss the large cities which dominated most of my life. I only wish I had done this some years earlier.
I moved from a large urban area to REALLY ISOLATED AREAS in the west....like no people around. Those were for only months at a time rather than years.
I then moved for good to smaller towns in the late 70's.
My advice.....it is much easier these days than in the 70's. The biggest issue is remaining connected to the rest of the world. In the early 70's that meant a shortwave radio and nighttime AM radio. Much easier these days.
I got Compuserve in the early 1980's and was using it on a party line phone system. I had to show my neighbors how to kick me off-line so they could make phone calls!! These days I would look for a area with decent internet connection.
I got a C-Band satellite dish for TV, music, and all sorts of other stuff that nobody talks about as available on a C-Band dish!!
So I would do Dish or something similar.
Last, but most important is a good library system. We almost moved across a county line when we realized we would go from a one room library to a library system like NetFlix DVD service. This is the early 1980's the library system would let you sign on with your modem and request books that they would mail to you with return postage and bag provided. A great system!! We did end up moving about two hundred miles, but that was were that library system had its headquarters. It was/is great to cruise the "card catalog" in your living room and request books that come in the mail. Nowadays, they also have ebooks but that selection is limited. I would look at getting a library card in a big city like Seattle for their ebooks.
We also scheduled trips to the big city every couple of months. We would get a nice room with indoor pool and go to concerts and do shopping at Costco and other big box stores. It was a great break and I did lots more city things than when I lived in the city.
You do need a large freezer at home!!! AND probably one of those food vacumn sealers.
The transition was actually pretty easy with those "changes".
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