Oops, sorry. If it's any consolation, I do the same thing with MA, and I'm from there. "What, not on the coast? Must be all the way on the other side!"

Heh. No no, that's fine--I don't expect you to remember the fine points of northwestern geography. (I was in my twenties before I realized that yes, SF and LA really were quite a ways apart...)

Oh dear. That's something I'm hoping to get further away from, not closer to. Oh, well. It's very good to know. Thanks!

Yeah, then Spokane isn't gonna be your thing--you want to be on the west side of the Cascades.

you want to be on the west side of the Cascades.

Fair 'nuff. The climate would suit me better, too, I expect. We'll see if the Tacoma opening comes to anything.

OTOH, you can find bastions of likemindedness even in places with a rep for not. You just have to hold your nose at the fed your place elects. See- Chapel Hill or my friend's home in Boise. I was chagrined to discover a thriving like-me-political community there, one she is very active in.Or hey, where my aunt used to live in CA if you are not of that bent.

Honestly, that's one of the things I like about tiny NM. You go from commune living hippies to die-hard conservative ranchers to yuppies. And sometimes really weird things happen. Like the rancher team up with the environmentalists (can't quite recall where this was a big deal. Montana? Wyoming?)

Yes, I wish everyone around me was right-thinking like me, but...dialog and creative solutions are also good.

Susan W. - ~Ma to your Dad. And punctuation to you.

OTOH, you can find bastions of likemindedness even in places with a rep for not. You just have to hold your nose at the fed your place elects. See- Chapel Hill or my friend's home in Boise.

Yeah, I've been doing just that in Chapel Hill and Durham -- places that are tiny blue dots in a sea of NC red -- for (counts on fingers. continues to toes and beyond) 22 years now. It can be done. But I'm tired of it. And I figure, since I have to look elsewhere to find the job I want, I might as well find the larger community I want as well. Since I'm gonna be paying for a moving van either way.

I get that. I'm just in a good mood so am all optimistic and shit.

Go Canada, choose Canada!

But not Calgary.

I'm just in a good mood so am all optimistic and shit.

Wait, what? Where'd our cranky sarapants go??

I just saw the weirdest custom car. It was a mid-'80s Cutlass (the rear-drive one, not the front-drive Cutlass Ciera). It had a TV screen in the dash, and another one where the front passenger visor would be. There was a third LCD TV screen hanging from the ceiling for the rear passengers. And where you might expect to see rear-passenger headrests, there were two more TV screens, facing out the back window.

I mean, WTF? Is this some ride-pimpage trend I'm not familiar with?