PeaPod doesn’t deliver here - unlike MA there’s only one tiny area on the seacoast they deliver in NH - but we make things a bit more bearable by moving groceries up the very long driveway in one of those kid’s plastic sleds with fairly deep sides. I’m not saying you never slip on the walk up, but you don’t drop the groceries too if you do. And hey, the sled holds 8 gallons of milk and water, so it saves a lot of effort on multiple trips up and down.
If I do, I’ll just make sure to erase the address on my envelopes.
I’m sure the property taxes would go way up, remember CA has Prop 13 which depressed property taxes greatly. However, like I think I said, there is hardly a way to even comprehend how much real estate costs out here in comparison to almost everywhere else. We have a 2 bed 1 bath 1100 square foot home which is presently worth something between $600K and $700K. You can pay a lot of property tax with what’s left of that after buying your similar-sized house in western MA for $300K.
Also, that liberal stuff? I’m just moving from ultra left wing to ultra left wing, I probably won’t notice the difference. It can be silly (declaring nuclear-free zones within the city limits), but I prefer it to the other end of the spectrum.
Anyway if I wait a couple years, global warming will shorten those winters for me. Like it is already doing. USDA recently changed the gardening zones to reflect this. Yay.
Do you live in Berkeley?
Winter here is actually pretty awesome.
When I was in TX half an inch of snow could shut down schools, roads, and throw everyone into a massive panic. When I was in NY 6 inches of snow wouldn’t close down most things, but since it was a pedestrian environment you were taking your life into your own hands walking to and from the subway everywhere since the sidewalk shoveling was haphazardly done by each individual building owner.
But in MA they seem to have this instinctual understanding that getting rid of the snow so life can function is fucking important. Plows are out within seconds of the snow starting to fall, or so it seems, and at least where I am in the state the CEOs and government officials are not shy about shutting everything down in the middle of the day so everyone can get home if there is a huge snow forecast. And while the trees do get bare in the winter the blanket of snow gives everything a sort of winter wonderland feel to it for much of the season. If you don’t enjoy the cold it will be unpleasant, of course, but it will be a lot less unpleasant than it could be.
Thanksgiving in New England is awesome, so there’s that!
This is true, though you’ll only actually celebrate Thanksgiving once in Plimouth Plantation. Not only is the food awful, but they keep the rooms authentically cold!
That aside though, going to Old Sturbridge Village around Thanksgiving is an awful lot of fun.
Another good point about Northampton is that if you like driving around and exploring, it’s a perfect central point for wandering around New England. Except for the very northern extremities of Vermont and New Hampshire, and half of Maine, a two day road trip will let you drive to, wander around, and return from anywhere in New England. This does not necessarily involve interstates. U.S., state, and local highways all work for this.
No. The nuclear free zone thing is not limited to Berkeley. Although I don’t live in Santa Cruz, that’s probably the nearest city to me with one.
I’m actually not nearly as tired of the leftism as I am of the money and the crowdedness. The area was once amusingly creative, full of open natural spaces, and easy to live in (I once rented a room for $45 a month – granted it was not a very good room). It isn’t any of those things any more.
Raised in CA (mostly), moved around the country for about 15 years, including 7 years in Boston, back in CA for the last 10 years.
Concur about the winter. Personally, I am not a winter person. I could never enjoy the wonderful New England fall fully because I knew that the long, soul-sucking winter was coming. Although the cider donuts did help a bit.
Also, I found that the people were less friendly to outsiders. In other regions, it is fairly easy to strike up friendships if you are new to the area. In New England, people hang out with their family (who is all still in the area) and their childhood friends (who are also still in the area). They are not really interested in making friends with new people. There are a lot of exceptions to that, though. One of my closest friends is a native Bostonian and still lives there.
Overall the area sounds like a good fit for you though.
You know that song “over the river and through the woods, to grandmother’s house we go”? Grandmother’s house is just down the street from me.
Some reasons not to move (although I recommend it): our accents can be really grating. It varies from region to region, and through socioeconomic levels, but it’s there in almost all non-transplants.
We fucking swear like fucking crazy. Not fucking everyone all the fucking time, but enough that even if you yourself swear and aren’t generally bothered by it, you still might be taken aback. I am sometimes… and sometimes I turn into what I fucking hate.
MA people drive like fucking crazy. It varies from region to region, but a rural part of MA is still way more fucking aggressive than rural VT, NH, and ME. CT is a whole other beast and RI is too small to be considered rural, imo. Upstate NY is more laid back, I find.
We can be really aggressive, but mostly it’s bark and not bite. We also can mind our own business. It’s really nice being introverted because people generally don’t get up in my face the way they do down south. When I visit the south, I visibly shudder the first time some random stranger practically screams “How y’all doing today?” at me. I always forget how personal-space-invading it is. Here, people will ignore you, but will be really nice most of the time if you do talk to them. It’s a very live-and-let-live attitude MOST of the time that is soothing.
It can be hard in some communities to fit in, if that’s your thing, because families have lived there for generations. It can be clique-y. It’s not a “we’re better than you” attitude but more like a big extended family sticking to itself because they know each other so well. Hell, one branch of my family has lived in one town for generations and we’re still not at the cool kids’ table.
As mentioned, the cold can suck. However, it’s so varied in New England. It can be six months of winter and no spring (last year). I’ve had snow before Halloween and seen it in May. But I’ve gone outside in a t-shirt in January and had to wear pants because I was cold in August. Cold is different from snow. We had one winter in VT where it didn’t accumulate snow until January, but it was bitterly cold every day until then. I preferred the snow after a while. The winters wreak havoc on the roads all year long. Potholes are not your friend.
But despite how we fucking talk and our shitty weather, it’s a great place to live. People are very educated and leave you alone, but don’t shun you. It’s generally clean outside urban areas. The scenery is beautiful, and has something for most everyone.
:smack: That’s the night they killed an innocent man I believe.
Just don’t leave her standing on her own.
We really shouldn’t judge the coldness of winter by this past winter, though. This winter was the second coldest of my entire life according to the national weather service, and I’m 37.
I don’t even really remember the temperature of last winter so much as that it DID NOT END and the snow was piled so high for so long. 
I got up the courage to walk out on my patio a few times and look at the outdoor thermometer. There was no temperature - 0 Fahrenheit (or some other life-threatening thing on a foreign scale) or even less. The whole area was flat-lined and didn’t make a recovery for months. It is a miracle we are still here at all. Coming out of a coma like that will certainly make you take a hard look at your life choices. This Louisiana boy did not appreciate that bullshit at all. It normally doesn’t get Minnesota cold in Massachusetts at least not for very long but we got bitch-slapped with it last year. If it happens again this year, PM me about a good deal on a property.
Gee. Sounds like New England actually died and went to the ninth circle of hell. Then it must have come back.
Hang on now, can we agree that every other car in Rhode Island is a small, low-to-the-ground vehicle with huge bass speakers pounding endlessly and an inability to stay in a single lane? And that many Rhode Island drivers treat I-95 like a big video game?
And let’s talk about the cold. I came here from Texas thinking that I would hate the weather, but as it turns out, I actually like cold. I like the fresh crispness of the air. I like snow on the ground at Christmas. I like having a low temperature in the house, but snuggling under a down comforter with my wife. So maybe it’s not for everybody, but some people do actually like cold weather.
Exactly. It has a nasty habit of doing it nearly every year but last year was much worse than any other in my time here. After 4 months of it, you start to wonder if it will ever end and you really are in Hell, then you start to accept your fate. Shortly after that, it gets warmer and early bulbs start springing up again in a teaser kind of way. It takes until early May until things really start growing again and then you have 3 and a half months of summer to look forward to. The few weeks of Fall are among the best in the world unless you are a forward looking person like I am and constantly anticipating what is about to hit you for a very long time.
Rural New England is among the prettiest and most pristine areas of the U.S. but there are very good reasons why much of it isn’t densely settled.