Pros & Cons

First up, let's give a shout out to Mikey for getting a job so quickly. His old employer came to him when they found out he was back in town, they met up Wednesday, and he got his "Welcome back" email Thursday. Now that is coming full circle. The good news is that he's happy about it. The HR person and one of his crew are the last two standing since since Michael's days (he was there when the resort opened), so things might be a little different, but he's up for it. I'm still running around like a chicken, so haven't even had a chance to think about employment, but at least he can cover the bills going forward. My income will be for savings.

I thought I'd share a comparison of where we were to where we are.



What's to like?

• 
  No more mold, rust, or veggies/bread that go bad in a day if left outside the fridge.
• 
  Mountains. There's some depth to our world again. We're not just looking at an endless sea of houses.
• 
  No more bicyclists everywhere. Take it from a pedestrian - they were like mosquitoes in Key West. Riders never understood that the same rules that applied to cars, applied to them. I almost got plowed over by a bicyclist just about every single day because they were doing something stupid. 
• 
  It's quieter.
• 
  It is much cheaper. Especially in apartment prices, but also in gas, utilities, and groceries.
• 
  If we need stuff, we now have more choices than an outdated K-Mart/Sears (owned by the same corporation, so carrying the same tired things). Side note: We went to the mall today, and I was unimpressed. Who is buying this crap?
• 
  No more getting out of the shower, drying off, and getting wet again because it's so frickin' humid.
• 
  We don't have to say we're locals to get a respectable price. We get a respectable price right off the bat, and we don't go broke if we don't hit a happy hour or a sale.
• 
  We're going to have to dress better - which is sort of a blessing and a curse - but at least we don't have to stare at braless saggy boobs and bare beer guts (sometimes on the same person) anymore. No, that wasn't just for Fantasy Fest.
• 
  No more sugar ants, mosquitos, and poisonous toads in the house.
• 
  We have access to huge outdoor art shows/fairs again. For someone who hates malls, and shopping in general, this is a big deal.

What don't we like?

• Key West got cold, and when it did, we had no heat, but Arizona gets colder.
• 
  While I like the dry heat better than humid-laden heat, hands-down, 115 degrees is still unpleasant. Especially for months at a time. They don't call it Furnace instead of Phoenix for nothing.
• 
  If the kitties fall off the balcony, they no longer just have a bigger cat to contend with. They have coyotes. While our last cat did survive a coyote attack, I wouldn't count on that kind of luck again.
• 
  There are times we miss the blues/greens of Key West and Caribbean waters. Even though we can drive to the Pacific or even the Gulf of Mexico, it's not the same.
• 
  Things get really dusty here, quick. Michael's mom came to visit once and thought I was just a bad wife (maybe, but not because of my cleaning; and Michael knows how to clean too), but she learned quite fast that it wasn't me. You've seen those dust storms on the news, well that stuff is in the air all the time, so it's also on our furniture all the time.  And up our noses.  
• 
  We no longer have an avocado tree to steal from.
• 
  They don't recycle here.
• 
  We traded the critters above for more poisonous painful things, mainly when hiking.
• 
  Dry skin. We battled dry skin even amidst the humidity in Florida. Here it's magnified by 10.

It's always a trade-off. The biggest issue is going to be the weather. We'll see how it all plays out. Lovin' my mountains. And a fan of the heater too, which has now switched on. I'm a simple girl.