Moving to Wyoming! Enough yackin' about it, we're DOING it.

[MichaelNotMike]

My gosh, Michael and Debra, you are blowing me away. Wyoming sounds so wonderful I don't know if I'll even notice the weather when I get there!

We love it! Everything seems new, mellow, and beautiful.

We’re gardening today. Didn’t have a place to do that in Kalifornia, and if we did it in the front yard, the HOA would have dug the flowers up for not getting written permission ON A HOUSE WE OWN! (they did that to our neighbors!)

We pulled up stakes and moved pretty quick. We have been looking for a place to move for a few years, considered many states, but got on this board November 20, 2008, and moved to Wyoming less than eight months later.

I don't think I've talked much about the fact that it was a bit of a hardship and sacrifice to move, especially to do so quickly. We've been so jazzed about the whole thing that I kind of forgot to mention it. And I'm not mentioning it in a "Oh, whoa is me, feel sorry for me way", but in a celebratory way, to inspire, to say, JUST DO IT.

We left a few very good friends, a very very good job of 15 years with great pay and great benefits, moved away from family, comfortable routine, a home we own, to come here and rent and look for a job (that search will start next week).

And we don't regret any of this for a moment. I'm just saying "freedom ain't free", but it's still totally worth it.

MEW!
  
MWD

[MamaLiberty]

Mama's so proud of you folks she could just about bust... Wyoming will be good for you, and you will be good for Wyoming.

[MichaelNotMike]

Thank you. That means a lot to me.


MWD

[Stormchaser]

Michael I have been enjoying your many posts, and I have been watching your progress for a long time (about 2 weeks since I've joined here, lol). Ok, seems like a long time. I hope you continue to post your reactions - about Wyoming, and about Casper if you stay there. I've read advice on this board that it might be good to locate temporarily in some central city/location and scope out where you might finally like to end up, and checking out the state map it seems Casper, though many miles from the corners, is about the best location if we're talking centrally.

You are my guru, my mentor, my scout! Keep talkin'! 

[MichaelNotMike]

Thanks man. Glad I could help. 

But "guru" sounds like so much work and responsibility! How about just "I'm paying it forward for the folks who helped me. And one day you can do the same for the next batch on the wagon train of life to America in Wyoming."

MWD

(posted from Puppy Linux, but still trying to figure out the encrypted e-mail thing.)

[MichaelNotMike]

DOING it, indeed!  Well done!
I look forward to dropping by sometime!
 
Boston

Sho nuff.
Give us a day's notice so we can make sure we're decent. lol....


MWD

[MichaelNotMike]

Update: we both registered to vote today. Yay! 

Registered Libertarian. Probably gets us on a list, but fug it.

Also saw an interesting bit of anarchy on the drive home: a beat-up funky little car driving with what looked like expired paper temp plates, and under the plate holder in foot-high letters, they'd painted "BLOW ME!"

Love it. And it wouldn't work in California. Wonder if it works here. The driver and his buddy seemed pretty happy, so maybe so.

MWD

[MichaelNotMike]

We got out just in time.

California is "balancing their budget" buy letting 27,000 prisoners out:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-california-budget22-2009jul22,0,1856950.story?track=rss

I'm usually in favor of this, when it's only non-violent (like drug offenses), but there is no such stipulation:

"The plan would grant authority to state corrections officials to allow any inmate with 12 months or less left to serve to complete his or her sentence on home detention....

"....The plan includes a scaled-down version of Schwarzenegger's proposal to change some felonies to misdemeanors so inmates could go to county jails instead of prisons...."

[springtime10]

Well it's always the best time to move to Wyoming. But letting out prisoners in Ca or anywhere is a good thing when you consider this country takes the freedom away from more people per capita than ANY nation  including the most restrictive and dictatorial ones.  Maybe some of them kill more, that I don't know but the U.S. jails more.
springtime06

[MichaelNotMike]

I don't think murderers, rapists, home invaders, thiefs and people who scam people out of their money should be let out of prison early to save money.

Conversely, I think drug users who don't commit violence or crime should even be in prison.

It sounds from that article like California is not considering the crime at all, just letting everyone out early.

We'll see how it affects quality of life there. Probably not well.

MWD

[springtime10]

We have to realize that the government hates us and wants what it wants. In the Ca case it wants higher taxes. So it will let out ON PURPOSE IMO people who will do damage so that the Gov & others can say "Well you wouldn't vote for the bond measures that would have raised taxes and kept these people in prison".....
Am I too cynical?
springtime06
However...everyone please say a prayer for me that my house gets sold in the next year so I can move!!!!!

[Future/Now]

It sounds from that article like California is not considering the crime at all, just letting everyone out early.

We'll see how it affects quality of life there. Probably not well.

MWD

"Not well"? Are you kidding?? Why, what better way to help start a war!

Wouldn't be the first time that's happened in the USA. Apparently to relieve overcrowded jails, King George III had a policy of flushing Britain's worst criminals to the colonies. In 1751, Ben Franklin (writing as "Americanus") wrote a satire peice for his local paper entitled "Transporting Rattlesnakes" where he outlined a snakes-for-crooks exchange program with the mother country. Great stuff...he may have been only half-joking. Even then, it still took another 25 years until war actually did start....that's a long time to tolerate a nonstop wave of bloodthirsty, knife-wielding misanthropes at one's door, no?

And of course, the ever-increasing downside of America's own immigration "policy" beginning in 1965 and intensifying in recent years. Wonder how far off the next war is? 5, 10 years, maybe? The world moves at a much faster pace than it did then.

As for Kali? Dunno, maybe it's a prelude for the much-feared welfare check-stoppage. We shall see.....

In the meantime, keep the Casper stories coming! Sounds even more than ever like a place I'd want to live.

[MichaelNotMike]

....In the meantime, keep the Casper stories coming! Sounds even more than ever like a place I'd want to live.

Nothing Casper-specific today, but some cool Wyoming stuff:

Bought a couple of 15rd mags for my S&W 9mm. Nice. And it feels more balanced in my hand now with the weight of the extra five bullets in the grip. It was made for 15 rd, but California had crippled me to ten rounds.

Also ordered a bunch of .308 ammo delivered to home, via UPS. The UPS guy hates me now (it was heavy), but it felt very freeing, because ordering ammo to your home is not possible in California.

MWD

[Big Ugly]

O.K. Michael,
What you need to do is get in good with your driver!
Be there when he delivers - offer soda/coffee/whatever.
Engage in conversation, find out of he's a gun nut - if so, invite to go shooting and burn some of the ammo he packed in for you.
My drivers (UPS/FedEx) will bring the ammo into the house for me and if I'm not here, will use the back gate key I gave him and he'll put it by the back door - nice and secure.
Remember - suck up with the best and they will return the favour.
Oh, you could leave some cookies by the door with a Thanks note attached if you're not there when he delivers.
Every little bit helps.

[MichaelNotMike]

Cookies and soda. Sounds good!

Thank you,
MWD