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by halffaday 1342 days ago
Every time I get cajoled into visiting my wife’s family out there my experience is just a long stream of internal “how do you live like this?” moments.

>Why is there a carcinogen warning on the rental car?

>Am I the only one bothered that an in-laws car was broken into in his own driveway in a residential zone in the middle of the day?

>Does nobody else see there’s a guy shooting a deuce on a bus stop?

>Did I really just spend 15 minutes in line for 6oz of soft serve ice cream?

>The first thing you discuss with your middle school class is pronouns? Not, like, here are the fire escapes? Or maybe, this is what we’re going to study?

>Why do all these 40-somethings dress like teenagers?

>Well, I guess no outdoor wedding photos… too much smoke… everything a few miles away is on fire.

>I guess there are just tents at basically every intersection. Huh.

>You’re paying 3K a month to live in a 60s era cracker box? Bummer. My mortgage is less than a third of that for twice the house and five times the land.

Permanent residents seem to have this defense mechanism where they just act like it isn’t happening. I’m pretty happy with flyover county. Given how easy remote work is now, I really don’t get why so many stay. Other than programming from the paid mouths in (info/e)ntertainment beating the drum of urbanization and ‘oh it’s just the zoning’

1 comments

If it were as bad as your post says, people wouldn't pay 3K for a cracker box.

None of your points ring true at all for a 42 year old born and raised here.

I hate the housing costs as much as anyone.

I've been here for 40 basically, and while his comments were slightly exaggerated, they all basically ring true. The most exaggerated one is the smoke being THAT bad. Other than the 2020 smoke Armageddon I've never even noticed fire season. But I assume he just means that in general our public lands are mismanaged.

I've been offroading and riding dirt bikes for 20+ years. Without a doubt, fire roads in the mountains are falling into disrepair. When they do clear them, they do so so lazily that it for sure will alter their response time if they ever need to use them. And that's just one tiny example.

I think OPs list was pretty accurate, just a little exaggerated but I think you know what he means.