AZ to CO (pieces, advice)

[the3Ds]

Originally Posted by TurcoLoco

Hail and heavy T-storms're definitely a border-line dealbreaker for me but I am sure it is not too common overall?

Mother nature is unpredictable. I was in Florida during the terrible hurricane season that brought Katrina, Rita, Wilma, etc and for every year after, there have been no significant hurricanes. On Sunday, we got a tornado that went quite literally over our house and hit the mall no more than 5 minutes away, but those who have lived in my neighborhood for nearly 10 years have never seen anything like it. Earthquakes on the west coast, hurricanes on the east, extreme winters north, draughts in the south, forest fires in the mountains. Even if you live in a so-called safe area that has very mild weather year-round, your house could burn down because of a faulty wire.

Live your life. Be prepared for an emergency. If you find a great job in an area that has extreme weather, I'd still take the job. We had our car in the garage when the golfball sized hail hit. A guy across the street did not and has the damage to prove it. Hail can ruin your car but so can a texting teenager. There are risks that we take every day. You can stay in your basement or you can go out and live your life (albeit using some common sense).

[TurcoLoco]

Originally Posted by the3Ds

Live your life. Be prepared for an emergency. If you find a great job in an area that has extreme weather, I'd still take the job. We had our car in the garage when the golfball sized hail hit. A guy across the street did not and has the damage to prove it. Hail can ruin your car but so can a texting teenager. There are risks that we take every day. You can stay in your basement or you can go out and live your life (albeit using some common sense).

You are absolutely right and I am trying to do just that but my main concern in this economy and job market is the find a job that is solid and well-paying enough to make it worth relocating for.

Btw, how often do texting teenagers fall from the sky? On a more serious note, I think all cell phone chatting, texting, etc. should be banned during driving, period! Imho, they are no different than drunk drivers.

[the3Ds]

Originally Posted by TurcoLoco

Btw, how often do texting teenagers fall from the sky? On a more serious note, I think all cell phone chatting, texting, etc. should be banned during driving, period! Imho, they are no different than drunk drivers.

I'd much rather deal with something falling from the sky instead of a head on collision of someone texting her "BFF".

BTW, the odds of being killed by a tornado are 1 in 2 million. The odds of being killed in a traffic accident are 1 in 5,000.

Colorado lawmakers recently caved to the lobbyists from the cell phone industry and decided (unwisely) to continue to allow cell phone conversations in cars. They didn't even bother asking for them to be only on hands free devices.

[TurcoLoco]

Originally Posted by the3Ds

I'd much rather deal with something falling from the sky instead of a head on collision of someone texting her "BFF".

ditto.

Colorado lawmakers recently caved to the lobbyists from the cell phone industry and decided (unwisely) to continue to allow cell phone conversations in cars. They didn't even bother asking for them to be only on hands free devices.

That is really bad. At least in CA, they got that taken care of but I would still see a retarded teen texting while driving! Common symptoms of a texting driver: delayed reaction (they take another 2-3 seconds before moving, start hitting the brakes earlier and generally drive slower even on the left lane!
Pretty soon we will be getting killed due to someone wanting to twitter while driving!

[5280milehiguy]

3D's, nice post, who the heck wants to live their life in fear? I'm moving in new directions now because I've been afraid of change in the past. Now I see change as necessary, if not, the same status quo will drive me off a cliff.

[the3Ds]

Originally Posted by 5280milehiguy

3D's, nice post, who the heck wants to live their life in fear? I'm moving in new directions now because I've been afraid of change in the past. Now I see change as necessary, if not, the same status quo will drive me off a cliff.

Good for you. I packed up my things, left my family and friends and moved from Washington State to Arizona after college because I was so sick of the rain. It took a while to get my bearings and I went through one horrid job after another for about a year before I really found my place and loved it. I don't regret it for one moment and am very proud of myself. I learned a lot about myself in that year and discovered I was more capable of taking care of myself than I thought.

My 10 year high school reunion was a few years ago and I was shocked to see how many people not only still live in Washington but how many of them still live in the suburbs of north Seattle. Get a life people. It's a big world out there. Had I stayed in Washington, I would have been hanging out with the same people, probably married young and had kids way before I was ready and I would have been going to the same Godfather's Pizza that I went to with my friends from high school. Yuk.

I really enjoy my life now and I would not have had anything resembling it had I not decided to bite the bullet and go for it. Colorado is full of transplants and I think that's why we have a great quality of life. People chose to move here and taking control of your life (instead of letting it control you) usually leads to happy, more well-rounded people.

[xeric]

I'm not sure that you can really appreciate the extermes of Colorado Front Range weather until you've experienced a couple of late May snowstorms, a mid-September hard freeze, or a June hailstorm that sheers your flowers and vegetable plants to the ground. But heck, no place is perfect.

I'm a little baffled that anyone from Arizona would consider moving to Colorado for the vegetation. Irrigation makes the Front Range cities look like midwestern cities but the natural vegetation is shortgrass prairie. The mountains have confier forests but there's nothing here that you can't also find in Arizona. In contrast, however, Arizona has subtropical and warm temperate ecosystems that you definitely won't find in CO - such as arboreal cacti/succulent deserts, chaparral similar to that of California, and evergreen oak woodlands.

But (present year excepted) there is lot more sunshine then Seattle (where I moved here from).

[5280milehiguy]

3D'S well said, who wants the same ole status quo, especially if nothing seems to work out well enough, and you know you've given it lots of chances.

My family moved to Ft Collins from Tempe, AZ, they love it. I think the biggest change was slower pace of life, great schools, and they don't miss the scorching summers. They now plant a garden every year, although I heard it just got torn up from hail. Well, they've had some good years, some bad years, but its more than they could grow in AZ. I think they felt the quality of life in AZ was not as good, with the crowds, heat and pollution getting so bad down there.

[CosmicWizard]

xeric wrote:

But (present year excepted) there is lot more sunshine then Seattle (where I moved here from).

I'm glad you added (present year excepted)! I've been wondering lately If I might have taken a wrong turn on my way home from work and somehow ended up back in cloud prone Virginia. Even though Grand Junction is located in a usually sunny desert area, it has been so cloudy this spring ( with very little rain however ) that I'm beginning to wonder what the sun looks like. But wait, next week the temp could hit triple digits making these clouds a distant memory.

[DenverRatMan]

Originally Posted by xeric

I'm not sure that you can really appreciate the extermes of Colorado Front Range weather until you've experienced a couple of late May snowstorms, a mid-September hard freeze, or a June hailstorm that sheers your flowers and vegetable plants to the ground. But heck, no place is perfect.

I'm a little baffled that anyone from Arizona would consider moving to Colorado for the vegetation. Irrigation makes the Front Range cities look like midwestern cities but the natural vegetation is shortgrass prairie. The mountains have confier forests but there's nothing here that you can't also find in Arizona. In contrast, however, Arizona has subtropical and warm temperate ecosystems that you definitely won't find in CO - such as arboreal cacti/succulent deserts, chaparral similar to that of California, and evergreen oak woodlands.

I think people underestimate Denver's weather. For the most part it can be calm but it does get crazy out here. Hail storms, tornado's, blizzards, below zero temperatures, 2+ feet of snow, hot summers, winds, droughts, arctic cold, and did I mention wind?

I visited Arizona and the Sonoran Desert is one of the most diverse and lush deserts in the world. Denver's high-desert plains are quite ugly and plain. As you said, prairie grass is the norm out here. Colorado Plains Looking Towrd the Front Range on Flickr - Photo Sharing! (http://www.flickr.com/photos/flaneur/1777480225/page2/ - broken link)

I really, really hate the wind out here in Denver, it is crazy. My other pet peeve is the unpredictable weather patterns out here. Heck, I remember having a picnic at noontime and it was 75 & sunny outside. A couple of hours later, the wind is blowing at 50MPH, the temperature dropped to 30, and it was snowing. I shouted to everyone at the picnic, Welcome to Denver.