Somewhere Greener, Somewhere Warmer

Heads Carolina, tails California, somewhere greener, somewhere warmer.

Jo Dee Messina

It's a little early to think about retirement, but that doesn't stop me. Today's post is about the search for a suitable place to retire. Using the process of elimination, let's see if we can zero in on an approximate location.

The most obvious place to think about right away is right where we are now, and I have to admit it's a possibility. The Seattle area is very pretty, and we already have friends here. There is a decent chance the boys will still be here when we are ready to retire, and we may want to be near them. On the other hand, we have already been here for a long time, and the weather is not so great. We got hail and snow today. Retirement might be a good time to try somewhere else.

Next we can eliminate a few places. Some other country? I doubt it; Jackie and I have lots of ties to the United States, obviously, and we won't have the means to just hop a plane every few months to come back and visit. We can't afford anyplace very expensive, so that rules out Hawaii and California. Snow states are out; if it regularly gets below zero, we'd be better off staying in Washington. Cross off Montana, Minnesota, Ohio, Illinois, Alaska and others.

I'm not a big fan of the South. People there are nuts. Something like half of all Southerners think Barack Obama was born in another country. I don't want to live with that many loons. We want to live close to an urban area. Places like Kansas and Arkansas seem a bit remote. The East Coast might be possible, but it is far from Jackie's family and farther from mine.

Somewhere greener, somewhere warmer. Actually, Western Washington is about as green as it gets. But somewhere warmer. Florida is too humid. Texas is full of Texans.

So I see us moving to the Southwest -- Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada. Lots of sun, lots of retirement communities, some big cities, not too expensive. In between Jackie's family in Oklahoma and Texas and my family in California, Oregon, and maybe Washington if the boys are here. Not exactly original, but people retire to Arizona for good reasons.

The picture above is a beach in Florida. If I had shown a cactus, it would have given away the ending.