You know what’s weird? To me, anyway? We’ve lived in Pennsylvania for 18 years now. That’s a long time. In the near future, it’ll become the place I’ve lived the longest, surpassing West Virginia. I took the liberty of making a pie chart:
The weird part? It doesn’t feel like I’ve been here all that long. It still feels like a recent development. All the other places seem understated, and Pennsylvania seems wildly overstated. It feels like I was in Atlanta for a long, long time. But I’ve been here three times as long. The shit’s all distorted and outta wack in my brain.
For some reason, I have trouble estimating lengths of time now. Years used to last a year, and now they last six or seven months. Ya know? Occasionally my boss will ask me how long an employee has been with the company, and I’ll say something like, “Well… I’m fairly certain it’s more than a year, but less than twenty. Somewhere in there?” I say it as a joke, but it’s not. Not really. I can’t estimate it anymore.
It bothers me that time clicks along so quickly these days. I’d be lying if I said it didn’t. I’m not super-old but will be soon. My parents are now 76. How? They still seem like they’re in their 50s, but that’s me! I’m in my 50s. Sweet sainted mother of Sonny Drysdale.
One thing is very clear, though. I want to put another slice in that pie. I want to make one more move. Toney and I talk about it all the time and have thrown around dozens of scenarios. And I’m not really talking about retiring and moving… I mean something sooner than that. Somewhere in the southeast, probably. Not sure where, or how we’re going to make it work. But it’s our current project, the thing that keeps us semi-sane. We used to be willing to take those big life-changing leaps, and I want to believe it’s still in us somewhere. I think it is.
And by the way, that picture at the top is Charleston, WV. It’s a nice place, but I can’t see myself ever returning on a permanent basis. But hopefully, I can take steps to keep it from being overtaken. I’ve got to protect the sanctity of The Original Slice! We’ll see how it goes.
What about you? Are you where you’re going to stay? And is your Original Slice the biggest slice? Also, do you have a “project” that you work on and think about to keep yourself sane, like our plans to someday move again? I have to have something like that, or I start to lose it a little.
This isn’t the greatest update, but I’m going to have to leave it right here. I’m not feeling all that spectacular. Hopefully, I’m not coming down with that flu that’ll kill ya. That’s mildly disturbing. Not really a fan…
I’ll see you guys again soon.
Have a great day!
Now playing in the bunker
Support us by doing your shopping on Amazon! In Canada? Here’s your link. Thank you, guys!
I eventually want to move to somewhere very remote, possibly in the southwest portion of the country, where at night you can see billions of stars because there is no light pollution. But I would probably be bored within a week so….
I have always wanted to be one of those people who spent their whole life in one house/one place. But that is not true these days. There is a guy down the street from me who has lived in the same house since 1960. He once told me it cost 2,000 when he bought it. When he goes – whoever is left in his family will sell it for 150,000 or maybe more. And it will become a student rental place most likely.
Always have had difficulty judging time. Most of us do so by ratio using our lifetime. 1 year to a six-year-old is 1/6th of their life. To a sixty-year-old it is 1/60th, one tenth of a six-year-old’s.
My “original slice” (southwest Wisconsin) lasted roughly 17 years and 8 months. Then it was off to fulfill my distinguished military career of exactly 3 years, 11 months and 29 days. I was let go at the ripe old age of 21. I spent some time traveling up the east coast, part of a summer in coastal Maine. and lived briefly (very) back in Wisconsin, then to a two room cabin with an outhouse in northern Minnesota for a winter. From there, on to Columbus, Ohio for a year or so. Then central California from some time in early 1979 until the present. And I hope with all my being that I can leave this insufferable shithole of a state while I’m still alive. The wife and I are hoping to spend our retirement years in a free state, far from the political bullshit of the likes of Sacramento, Portland and Seattle. We’ve seriously had a lifetime fill of pandering to the terminally whining, play-doh and safe space jackasses that inhabit the coastal regions ( and apparently control the voting blocks) all three of the states that make up the west coast of the continental United States. Alaska would be nice, but my wife thinks it will be cold for some reason.
Head to Oklahoma. Tulsa in particular. God’s country. It’s beautiful here, not flat like most of the state. You can buy a castle for what a shack goes for in California and we have a minimum amount of safe space trigger warning snowflakes living here.
Home has always been NE Ohio, but I was only there until 18. I have been in Florida since 1992 now…
I’ve been in New York my whole life (except 2 years I lived in CT). My current home I’ve lived in for 22 years next month. That totally blows my mind because it doesn’t feel like “our home” (technically, it isn’t – it’s housing provided to us by my husband’s boss). It’s a gorgeous place, set on a gorgeous piece of land but I’ve never embraced it. Even after 2 decades!
We have the vacation place in Rhode Island where we’ll eventually retire. I can’t wait. I’ll find a part time job, an Improv troupe and anything else I feel like doing.
For almost three years I have been part of a two-state family. My job is in NW Ohio, and the wife’s is in NC. I am on a plane somewhere every week, and loop through RDU for weekends. Something will eventually give and one of us will give up a fun high paying job to keep us together.
What is keeping me sane lately is reading, reading, reading. More than I ever used to. Right now I am 3/4 through the Bruce Springsteen autobiography (Born to Run, wonder how he came up with that?). It’s a good read and I want to finish it before seeing his Broadway show this Friday with the wife. We are flying up a day early to make sure the airlines don’t ruin this for us. At $750 per ticket (6th row left orchestra), I am not taking any chances. That’s face value, not a scalped ticket. Most expensive seats I have ever purchased. But I don’t mind making Bruce rich, he has given me a lot over the years in return and I believe he spends his money wisely.
WOW – you’re the first person I “know” who got tickets to see Bruce on Broadway. I want a full review, please.
And not to scare you but we’re expecting a Nor’Easter – LOTS of heavy rain between Thursday and Friday. You did the right thing trying to get in a day early. Good luck!
The meteorologist said if it was cold, this could easily be up to 2 feet of snow. Hope it all works out, Malcolm.
Thanks for the weather tip – if the airlines screw it up I will drive, walk or swim all night Thursday and all day Friday to get there…
My wife also registered for tickets and won a chance to buy – we could have bought 2 more but didn’t think to do it. Even the worst seats are auctioning online for $1000. If she had gotten similar seats to mine they would go for something like $3500 each. Could have stayed at the Ritz-Carlton and flown first class for this trip!
Looks like the heavy rain and wind will arrive just as we land at LGA on Thursday.
Hopefully we both get in to NYC before trouble brews.
We are staying at a hotel 2 blocks from the theater.
I will definitely post a detailed review in due time.
Cheers M
madz – all travel predictions came true. My flight out of TOL was cancelled and I had to rent a car and drive to Manhattan last night. Got in at 3 am after driving through a winter storm in OH, and this friggin’ nor’easter in PA, NJ, and NY. Wifey flew up from NC without problems earlier in the evening, so we are both here and ready for the show.
Enjoy!!! I’m 60 miles north of midtown all snow and no power. The gusts of wind are shaking the house.
Have a fantastic time. Bruce won’t disappoint!
I will write a comprehensive review later. Suffice to say he did not disappoint! A very deep, personal, and intimate show. Worth every penny.
And I have a large collection of photos of abandoned umbrellas that lost to the wind today in Manhattan! An avant garde photo essay waiting to happen.
I grew up in PA lived here until I was 30, then got a job in the video game industry. 7 years in So Cal, where I starting following the The WVSR, 7 years just south of Boston, MA. Then I got tired of getting laid-off and moving around. Got a great gig working from home, as soon as our daughter graduated from HS we moved back to PA and I live across the street from my parents and house I grew up in, just a zip code or 2 away from The Bunker, and I couldn’t be happier. Not really any plans on moving again.
My original pie slice (SoCal) is still by far the largest, 16 years. I’ve lived in Portland, Oregon for three years solid now and while I greatly enjoy living here, I don’t want to stay forever. It gets busier, ruder, more stressful and more expensive every day. I actually miss living in New York City, which is one of my smallest pie slices (one year). I try to talk my wife into moving to NYC or Boston, at least until retirement age, but she loves her hometown too much.
As for projects, moving is definitely always on my mind. Hiking and camping trips are definitely up there too. Wife and I are going up to British Columbia for a week this summer, and I am having a ball planning the trip.
Australia – 2 years
Canada – 10 years
Austria – 11 years
Canada – 3 years
Marietta, Georgia, USA!!! 33 years – don’t plan on leaving – best place, best weather, and dare I say it? Best Country!
Special Project – writing software for fun. Hope to write the “miracle” iPhone App on day and sell it to someone for millions – never going to happen, but probably a higher probability than winning the lottery.
I grew up pretty close to Marietta. Glad you like it!
Not sure if this counts since I’ve lived in the same state my whole life, but I’ve lived in six different “locations.” Four years in college 190 miles from childhood location started the trek. The shortest (and most recent) move was 112 miles about 10 years ago; the longest was just over 20 years ago from childhood location (20 years there total) and just over 300 miles (4 years there). In between there was 292 miles (6 years) and 207 miles (3 years). Yeah, Texas is a big state- my grad school commute was 186 miles round-trip.
We definitely see at least one more “employed” move in our future followed by a “retirement” move unless those two happen to coincide, which wouldn’t be a bad thing- to wrap up the working years in the same place we retire at. It would save a move.
By far, my most was in West Virginia with stops in California, (back to WV), Rhode Island, and now Virginia. I hope to some day head back to the northeast. Rhode Island felt the most like “home.”
25 years RI, 3 in MA, 11 in OH, 6 years in TX, 2 years AR, 1 year NC, almost 6 in SC. May move closer to the ocean at retirement, but we love the Palmetto State!
I travel a lot for work, so wherever I hang my hat feels like home. Hotels put home in perspective for me.
My Original Slice was 26 years in New York. Current Slice is a little over 30 (!) years in DC and Virginia. In between was about 3.5 years in Massachusetts. I’ve lived the bulk of my life in Dixieland, but I still consider myself a Yankee. Ironically, I only became aware of such a distinction after moving Down South. And we were a Mets household, thanks very much. I still visit my mom in NYC, but at this point it’s been so long since I’ve lived there that it seems foreign. The city and I have both changed over the decades.
Madz, I’m a little jealous of your Rhode Island place. I love southeastern New England. We still have my grandparents’ old house in Groton Ct., but none of us will retire there because taxes. The house is up for sale after 115 years in the family.
No real plan other than to retire as soon as I can reasonably afford to do so.
Well, I guess I only have one slice, since I’ve lived my whole life in New Jersey. But I have lived in at least 12 different places in the state. During one 10 year span when I was single, I moved 11 times. Yeah, some of those places were short-lived, but none involved metal bars and gang rape. The wife and I have been in our current home for almost 20 years now. In about 3 or 4 years we are planning to retire down to the Myrtle Beach area, but it’s a good bet at least one of us will end up moving back up here when the other one checks out.
This was a great post!
I have returned to my original slice after five years away.
My wife and I will head out West when we retire, but I think we’ll be here until then.
I never saw the mornin’ ’til I stayed up all night
I never saw the sunshine ’til you turned out the light
I never saw my hometown until I stayed away too long
I never heard the melody until I needed the song
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . T. Waits @1974 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Lovely. Thanks for that, John.
Being a Cancerian I don’t like to move but move I have. Makes me sad to think I don’t have a place I call home, that when my doin’ days are through I’ll have a place to be scattered and smothered. Maybe by then Soylent Green will be an option.
I must be happy here in the Palmetto State because I’m next to water and crabs love water.
My biggest slice is England, then Pennsylvania, then California.
I don’t think I want to live in the NE United States in the winter when I’m old. But, I haven’t been anywhere in the continental USA that has warm winter weather and that’s made me think “I’d like to live here”. Hawaii is too isolated (and expensive). I want to live somewhere I can walk to a good bakery, and food stores, and restaurants. I’d like a winter place in southern Spain or one of the Spanish islands, I like Spanish culture. However, I don’t speak Spanish. Maybe the Babel fish will be here by then.
While traveling I met someone with 3 (simple) homes, in Canada, Florida, and England, and they rotated between the 3 taking the best 4 months of the year in each place. That sounds good.
A place that’s truly warm in the winter will probably be miserably hot in the summer. If you can settle for not-too-awful-cold in the winter, you could do worse than the Mid-Atlantic region. We still get wretched heat in the summer in DC, and I hear it’s expensive, so maybe the eastern shore or Philly or something.
I only have one slice–the Buckeye State! I grew up in the Dayton area, then moved to the K’lumbus area and have lived here since 1983. I’ve only ever lived in 6 different homes, so I don’t get around a whole lot! I like living in central Ohio because you can be anywhere in the state in just a couple of hours and go from city to country to shoreline (Lake Erie) to rolling hills all in one day. It’s not so bad, but would I ever move to another state? If I could find a state where it isn’t winter or raining 80% of the year and people don’t drive like morons, I’d do that in a heartbeat!
nw ohio 28 yrs k’lumbus 27 years now orlando fl 2 years. Always wanted to escape the cold and finally made the move. Yes the drivers are some of the worst but at least I don’t have to shovel my driveway in order to go to work, or return home.
Woodbridge, Va. 5 years
San Fransisco 2 years
Memphis 7 years
Atlanta 2 years
Knoxville area 41 years
We have talked about moving but it will likely never happen. Our favorite places to visit are within 6-7 hours drive and that ain’t bad. I recently finished the book “Blue Highways” by William Least Heat Moon and would love to do something like that when I retire, see some places we’ve never been and take the back roads.
My home slice is Central Minnesota for 14 years as a kid back in the 50s-60s. I joined the Navy at 18 and was stationed in San Diego CA, Virginia Beach VA, Groton CT, Holy Loch Scotland and Charleston SC…I really liked VB…great area. In civilian life, I did tech service work in Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Dubai and most of the Carribean islands…god awful places all.
I’ve been in CT for 50 years,…not an ideal place economically but I have my family and a lifetime of friends in the area. It’s what I want at this point in my life and it’s very hard to think about leaving that for uncharted climes.
I am really embarrassed when I use a time-specific reference that draws a blank stare…”What you talkin’ about Willis? Where’s the beef? Eight track tapes. Owning a station wagon. etc. etc. etc. I am my grandfather.
Lotta slices.
21 years NE Ohio
1 year North Chicago, IL
1 year Orlando, FL
1 year Saratoga Springs, NY
4 years Oahu, Hawaii
3 years back in Orlando
3 years in Chesapeake, VA
1 year Carmel, IN
2 years Brownsburg, IN
21 years Northern Kentucky
Three more years here then on to our property in North Carolina to retire.
When were you in Oahu? I lived in Kaneohe, Oahu for 4 years in the 70’s.
Missed each other. ’82-’86 at Pearl Harbor sub base. Spent plenty of time in the Kaneohe area diving.
14 years Illinois
28 years Iowa
5 years Missouri
4 years and counting Indiana. Had our “forever” house built here in the sticks.
A project that keeps me sane are my road trips to Iowa, checking out junk shops
along the way. And Tasty Tacos at the finish line.
You may want to add a slice to that pie Jeff, but given your description, sounds like PA is where you are comfortable and able to call home home.
I’ve lived my entire pie chart in the same city. Moved a few times over the years, been in the current house since ’94 or ’95. It’ll be where I stay. It is also a house my dad built, aka: I know its solid (he built houses through the 60’s and 70’s around here) and knowing the general build quality of other builders of the day, and what gets slapped up these days, I do not want to deal with those hidden short-cut surprises.
Original slice : Los Angeles 16 years
Orange County (various cities in the northern part) 26 years
No NV 10 years
Salem, OR going on 4 years
Making our way to Canada or at least somewhere close to the border. Or maybe Idaho.
Jeff has cleverly tricked the cast members into presenting their ages.
Anyways, West Virginia 22 years, Boone, NC 4 years, Sarasota metro area, 31 years.
You could soon change to OldAngryWhiteGuy ?
I prefer SeniorAngryWhiteGuy.
A senior! Graduation will be here before you know it. This is a very exciting time.
I moved back to Texas recently. I grew up here but I spent 23 years in Alabama, which is slightly larger than the Texas slice right now. I’m wanting to retire on a cattle ranch.
“This isn’t the greatest update…” Au contraire! It mirrors my feelings profoundly. Thank you Jeff.
Still one of the worst pie charts I’ve ever seen. Aesthetically speaking, of course.
Oregon (the unhip, deserty eastern side) 20 years, California 2 years, Ohio (for college purposes only) 4 years, Winchester, England, .5 years, island off coast of Maine, 1.5 years, WV 40 years. I never want to move, although I would be more than happy to vacate the suburban traffic jam of Cross Lanes to live somewhere else in wild, wonderful. My wife, a native of Dunbar, Jeff’s hometown, would like to move to the (meh) Wilmington, NC area. We’ll see.
My original slice was in Northern Maine, and lasted 17 years. My next slice was in WV, for close to 6 years. (I spent 2 months in Cincinnati, OH, decided that it wasn’t my favorite place ever, and headed back to Parkersburg.) I have now lived in NC for over 20 years, but still miss Maine. During the summertime.
In my previous post I never gave my slices. Here they are, listed by my age in each place:
0-3: Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK
3-13: Springfield, Massachusetts USA
13-18: Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
18-20: Springfield, MA
20-28: Chicago, IL
28-29: Pasadena, CA
29-54: Chapel Hill, NC
54-present: Perryburg, OH
Obviously the largest slice is in Chapel Hill, NC, and that is not likely to change…
Not sure if anyone will actually read this as it’s so late being added. I’ve lived in Atlanta my entire 63 years. In fact, I’ve lived in the same downtown zip code the entire time. Only moved twice before and both times was due to the f*%#ing D.O.T. buying our house. I have now been in the same house for 46 years. I’m itching to leave Atlanta because it’s changed so much. Husband wants to retire out west where he was raised, maybe somewhere in Montana or Wyoming since Colorado is pretty expensive. I doubt he’ll get me out of Georgia though. Besides, he’s become too southernized anyway. He complains about freezing at 60 degrees, walking around the house with blue lips and shivering. We’ll have to wait and see in a couple more years. The north Georgia mountains are nice and not too remote. Maybe I’ll learn to play the banjo…
As for a project that keeps me sane(ish), it’s my new garden that I’m planting this spring. I built a raised bed last fall and will fill it with compost/vermiculite/peat. Then it’s deciding on what to plant where, and how to best make use of my space.
It’s been a much needed respite from the extremely toxic work environment I find myself in. Office politics, backstabbing, gossip, and a lack of organizational structure: I’ve never experienced anything like this and it’s driven me to anxiety. Like, prescription meds and talking to a therapist weekly anxiety.
So while I work on getting out, it’s nice to have a diversion to direct my attention, and that’s my garden. I know this wasn’t funny or amusing, but it’s where I’m at at this point in my life.