Arizona: Home is where the heat is.

[Roac]

Monsoon season in Nevada meant the humidity would creep up to 35% and it'd rain for an hour a day.

That's funny - I'd kill for 35% humidity.  It's consistantly 80%+ here.  80F and 84% today, which makes it fairly mild by comparison to the norm (90-92F with similar humidity) for this time of year.  By comparison, Phoenix today is 81F and 14% humidity (norm 100F, similar humidity).  Heat Index calculator, for those so inclined.

[Signe]

I like the Southwest.  I worked a couple of years at Taos Ski Valley when I was 18 and during the summers I roamed around a bit.  New Mexico is lovely, all year round, and parts of Arizona are extroidinary.  One of the things that Righ and I have in common is that we grew up living in some unusual places.  Between us and together, we've found wonderful things in nearly every place we've lived or visited.  I still even have hopes for New Jersey... we'd better hurry, it's almost time to leave this state.

[Madman]

I live in Indiana, so we get the full spectrum of weather from 95-100 degree summers to -10 to 20 degree winters with massive snowstorms.

And tornadoes, but no one who lives here is all that impressed by them.

I can vouch for this spectrum of weather having lived mostly in Chicago my whole life with a little bit of time served in Muncie, Indiana. It is the same way in Chicago, blazingly hot during the summer and cold as hell during the winter.

And you fuckers don't know how lucky you are to have dry heat. Yeah, I know it is still hot, but when you walk outdoors in the summer here you are immediately covered in a sheen of sweat that just doesn't go away and that shit just isn't pleasant. Of course, I would rather live in Chicago (well the burbs anyway) than anywhere else.

[Signe]

I'm a lady.  I never sweat... I glow.

[Bunk]

Wow, this must be some special thread, having two posts from Joe in it.

All this talk of 100 degree weather just makes me apreciate my Pacific Northwest (or Westcoast as we call it in my country) climate all the more. So Schild, is there a particular reason for moving to Arizona specifically? No offense to those of you that are there, but it wouldn't exaclty be high on my list of places in the States to move to.

[Toast]

I'm in Texas, and the heat isn't too bad. Just get ready to spend an amazing fortune on air conditioning.

We do get the benefit of mild winters with little to no snow or ice.

[schild]

As Ookiih said, rent is cheap. But that's not my impetus for moving out there. I'm not too worried about rent wherever. My big reason for moving out there is that the east coast is a wretched hive of scum. This entire coast is just a giant fucking wasteland. I fucking hate it. There aren't enough words. I hate New York. DC. Miami. I'm sick of it all. I've done my time here. It's a goddamn prison and I'm set free in August.

Now why Arizona instead of anywhere else off the east coast? Rent is cheap. And I want to strike fear into the minds of Shockeye's kids. I like Mexican food. But I don't want to live in Mexico. Or Texas. Or New Mexico. And definately not California.

[kaid]

One other plus about living in AZ is if you take care of your cars they can last a real freaking long time. Unlike Wisconsin which is the car eating rust monster in AZ take care of your car and it will go and go and go.

But yes if you are going to live in pheonix you will want a vehical because it is a pretty spread out town and at least as of the last time I was down there the public transportation was okay but not super.

[schild]

I'll be bringing my RSX Type-S. I'm hoping there's more room and flat roads to abuse than there are in Ghetto, MD. This car was not made for city-driving.

[Merusk]

I like Mexican food. But I don't want to live in Mexico. Or Texas. Or New Mexico. And definately not California.

Damn tricky return keys.

From what the in-laws say, you don't want to live outside of Phoenix, then.  Not in the least.  It's Mexico lite.

Basically the reason we are moving out there is that the rent is so goddamn cheap, I mean the utilities couldn't be THAT expensive right?

Basically the reason we are moving out there is that the rent is so goddamn cheap, I mean the utilities couldn't be THAT expensive right?

Well, Shockeye could speak on the utilities, but water ain't cheap (You're in the desert, after all) and running the AC all the time isn't cheap either.  My brother-in-law couldn't find any tech work out there, either.  But he's a moron to the Vault degree, so I wouldn't take it as any sort of sign.

Actually, we have plenty of fucking mosquitos in Phoenix. It's because Joe Sixpack decides the desert isn't good enough and transforms shit into the midwest which means standing water and west nile disease.

Thanks a lot all you fucktards that insist we have to have trees and grass everything in the goddamn desert.

This is what struck me the most when I visited Tuscon.  All these walled-in yards with grass that was greener than my own lawn back in Cincinnati.  I expected lots of rock gardens and maybe a few water feature pools to provide some evaporative cooling.  Oh hell no, full lush lawns in every back yard.  I flipped.

Also, a few years back there was an article in Architectural Record (I think) about the abundance of water features and metal/ reflective glass buildings in Phoenix had completly changed the microclimate of the downtown area.  All that glass was reflecting and intensifying the sunlight to insane levels down on the street, and the water features/ evaporative cooling ponds were just adding to the humidity of the city.  So instead of having 100-110 degree temps with 5-15% humidity you wound-up with 120 degrees and 40-50% humidity in some areas.   Fucking insane.

[schild]

I like Mexican food. But I don't want to live in Mexico. Or Texas. Or New Mexico. And definately not California.

Confused? Bewildered? Not-So-Fresh feeling?

[Merusk]

The enter key, she pwned me as the page was loading.

[schild]

Ah, heh, when I go out in July to visit, I will actively try to find a house without a grass yard. Having a yard in the desert is just too fucking stupid. I can't speak for the other people in the house, but koboshi and I had an apartment in college and had the windows blacked out with sheets inside curtains for movies - with the side effect of those rooms always being cool. I very much plan on having the sun NEVER hitting the rooms I inhabit for more than 30 minutes a day from March til November.

Yes, I expect utilities to cost an assload, but then, you won't be running heat or A/C for a few months there. Though, I don't expect it to cost much more than in MD. Like others have said, you'll run the AC just as hard and long in 90 degree 80% humidity.

[WayAbvPar]

My wife has family that lives in Mesa. They are snowbirds, so they decided not to build a pool (PITA to maintain it when you are gone that long). Their backyard is stone deck, with a rockery surrounding it- and an artificial turf putting green where the pool should be =)

I could see living there part time- I enjoyed my visit. But if I am going to live in the desert full time, it is gonna be in Las Vegas.

[Bunk]

Moving to Arizona becuase you like Mexican food. Ok, sounds like as good a reason as any. I think you're really just stalking Shockeye and don't want to admit it to yourself, but hey, whatever. I'll agree with Way, if I were gonna live in the desert, it would be in Vegas.

I just don't think i could stand that kind of prolonged heat. I'll take my rain up here in Vancouver. Water bill, air conditioning, what are those? Admitedly, if you want to live in the city here, the cost of living gets pretty bad, but we have plenty of affordable suburbs.

I love my city - Whistler an hour away for skiing, beaches and rainforests, and a four hour drive and you're at the lakes in the Okanagan desert (heading there in two weeks for a golf and jetski bachelor party).

I do hope you find what you are looking for man. I visited DC recently on business, and I can understand the urge to want to find something different.

[schild]

Ya know, I had forced myself not to do the green text thing. But I might have to start.

[Pococurante]

My big reason for moving out there is that the east coast is a wretched hive of scum. This entire coast is just a giant fucking wasteland. I fucking hate it. There aren't enough words. I hate New York. DC. Miami. I'm sick of it all. I've done my time here. It's a goddamn prison and I'm set free in August.

I'll never move back to East of the Mississippi.  I love the wide open too much.  Anytime I visit the East coast I feel claustrophobic.  And I like the people in the South much more, though we've had such an influx of snowbirds over the last two decades (/cough I was one of them) they're finally making the Mean felt by all.  Certainly our politics have gotten more stupid ("public schools? bah who needs 'em!")

I love Texas.  Wouldn't leave it.  Yeah the summers can be brutal but they weed out the weak, feeble, and obnoxiously suburban.

[Zephyr]

I like the Southwest.  I worked a couple of years at Taos Ski Valley when I was 18 and during the summers I roamed around a bit.  New Mexico is lovely, all year round, and parts of Arizona are extroidinary.  One of the things that Righ and I have in common is that we grew up living in some unusual places.  Between us and together, we've found wonderful things in nearly every place we've lived or visited.  I still even have hopes for New Jersey... we'd better hurry, it's almost time to leave this state.

As much as people knock it, there are some great places in New Jersey without guidos, smog, or crack houses.  :P

However, as seems to be the major complaint in this thread, the weather, I plan on leaving to southern Colorado once I get my professional license.  My SO's family lives in the valley on the border with New Mexico and I fell in love with the area last Xmas.

[HaemishM]

You people want humid heat? Try fucking Mississippi. In August, and sometimes earlier, YOU CAN SEE THE HUMIDITY. And it's not raining, it's just that fucking humid.

And mosquitos? Fuck that, add on horseflies the size of your thumbnail, and every manner of flying fucker you can think of. I live by a man-made reservoir, which is a 15-mile stinky dump of a bug breeding ground. Just last weekend, the mayflies came back. Every year, swarms of these juicy little fuckers come flying out of the reservoir. They were so thick around the streetlights and really any light source they could find, it was like carpeting. There's this one car dealership I passed by when picking my brother-in-law up from work, with a big-ass white panel van parked underneath one of those streetlights. The front 1/4 of the vehicle was GRAY from all the goddamn bugs that just attached themselves to the hull. It was like fucking barnacles. They were still there the next morning, only they were dead or they were empty husks because they'd molted.

[Bunk]

And people live in this place because?

[Pococurante]

... because incest means never being without a date on Friday night. 

[HaemishM]

And people live in this place because?

They were born here.






Yeah, that's all I got. Inertia is a bitch.

[Mortriden]

You people want humid heat? Try fucking Mississippi. In August, and sometimes earlier, YOU CAN SEE THE HUMIDITY. And it's not raining, it's just that fucking humid.

And mosquitos? Fuck that, add on horseflies the size of your thumbnail, and every manner of flying fucker you can think of. I live by a man-made reservoir, which is a 15-mile stinky dump of a bug breeding ground. Just last weekend, the mayflies came back. Every year, swarms of these juicy little fuckers come flying out of the reservoir. They were so thick around the streetlights and really any light source they could find, it was like carpeting. There's this one car dealership I passed by when picking my brother-in-law up from work, with a big-ass white panel van parked underneath one of those streetlights. The front 1/4 of the vehicle was GRAY from all the goddamn bugs that just attached themselves to the hull. It was like fucking barnacles. They were still there the next morning, only they were dead or they were empty husks because they'd molted.

My buddy did his miitary time in Mississippi and Georgia (mainly Georgia).  Mention either of those states and he swears like Haemish does for sb.exe. 

[Signe]

I was in Biloxi, Mississippi during August once.    It was very uncomfortable... I was glowing like mad!

[voodoolily]

My parents had been stationed in MD and VA when they were in the military, and I've heard the humidity/palmetto bug horror stories. Although DC does have (or had?) the coolest bar I've ever been to - Cafe Loutrec. Live jazz, old black cat tap-dancing on the bar, coffee cocktails and smoking a j in the balcony. Good times.

Today in Portland we have 100% humidity. It's 70 and drizzling.

[Bunk]

Same here Lily, about 70 and drizzle. The rain feels good on the sunburnt scalp I got this weekend though.

[Pococurante]

Everytime I go to D.C. in the summer I wonder how the hell Houston got so many marble buildings...

[Daeven]

It was pretty hot at the Front Range Airport (EAA Airshow this weekend, some pics on my blog soon) today, probably 90-ish. FTG is about 20 miles East of Denver.

Damn. I'm sorry I missed it.

As to Arizona, I spent 10 years there. That was enough thank you very much.

[ClydeJr]

Everytime I go to D.C. in the summer I wonder how the hell Houston got so many marble buildings...

Houston, TX: Combine one of the fattest cities in the U.S. with weather that most closely resembles the inside of the steam cooker. If St. Peter screwed up and Jeffrey Dahlmer went to heaven, it would be in Houston.

[Daeven]

At least you don't have mosquitos.

Actually, we have plenty of fucking mosquitos in Phoenix. It's because Joe Sixpack decides the desert isn't good enough and transforms shit into the midwest which means standing water and west nile disease.

Thanks a lot all you fucktards that insist we have to have trees and grass everything in the goddamn desert.

Now if you'll excuse me I have to go water my lawn.

Make sure you water the Eucalyptus and Olive groves while you are at it. Just to make certain they can pollinate that 87th time this year....

[MaceVanHoffen]

I lived in Phoenix for 4-ish years, and loved it.  I still miss it.  Phoenix > Cali, that's for sure.

I got used to the heat kinda quick.  The first year was just plain hellish, but after that I was playing hoop outside at 4pm in the summer several times a week.  You do have to drink a metric butt-ton of water, though.  It's wierd to drink a gallon of water while playing some sport, then not have to pee.

My old stomping grounds are probably gone, but one place you have to try if it's still there is Chino Bandito's at 19th and Greenway (I think ... it's been a while so not sure on the intersection).  It's combination Chinese/Mexican food.  It makes you fart for hours while craving it again.  Plus, Phoenix is like some kind of mecca for brewpubs.  Cougan's over near Sun City had some uber-good barley wine.

Oh, yeah, the monsoons.  They suck.  Two or three times a year I had to do a major cleaning on my pool.  But hey, I'll take that over the earthquakes here any day.

[Ookii]

My parents had been stationed in MD and VA when they were in the military, and I've heard the humidity/palmetto bug horror stories. Although DC does have (or had?) the coolest bar I've ever been to - Cafe Loutrec. Live jazz, old black cat tap-dancing on the bar, coffee cocktails and smoking a j in the balcony. Good times.

Lived here all my life and I've never been, schild and I should hit that up before our 2330 mile departure.

What about trips to Mexico from Phoenix, from the map I stare at all day it seems the closest city would be Nogales, and that is the place where the feds busted those guys smuggling heroin in cocaine (not sure if I want to visit).  I guess the best thing would be to drive to Mexicali or Tijuana?

[Llava]

Here's what I paid this last month for utilities:

Electricity: $165.72
Trash/Water: $66.47
Gas: $17.05

So in the summer you're looking at a bit less than 250 a month.  When it gets to be later in fall, the electricity bill will drop a ton because you can just leave air conditioning and heating off.  After Christmas, though, chances are you'll want some heating.  One thing about living in Arizona- suddenly temperatures in the 60s become intolerably cold.  I've got a friend who moved here from Ireland who couldn't handle winter nights without heating.  But he moved back to Ireland and sleeps in his apartment without using the heating at all.

[Merusk]

Here's what I paid this last month for utilities:

Electricity: $165.72
Trash/Water: $66.47
Gas: $17.05

So in the summer you're looking at a bit less than 250 a month.

For how many square feet of living space, and how many people using the shower?  Because I find it amazing that your water/ trash is less than just my water/ sewer in the middle of the midwest. (Without watering the lawn I add, as I sadly look at the brown mess it's becoming.)

[Viin]

Youch, and I thought my $100 electric bill was a lot. I guess $1200/year isn't too bad in the face of things (no a/c though, just a swamp cooler on a timer).