Feb 2006
Welcome, visitors from the old site!
Hi there, and welcome to the new digs. I hope you like the new look.
I'm using RapidWeaver to build this site. It's pretty cool (and very inexpensive) but somewhat limited. We'll see if I can continue to live with the small annoyances, or if I decide to do something else.
Enjoy!
p.s. For those of you just joining us (Hi, Don! Send me your email address please!) the old site is still available here. But not for much longer, I'm afraid.
I'm using RapidWeaver to build this site. It's pretty cool (and very inexpensive) but somewhat limited. We'll see if I can continue to live with the small annoyances, or if I decide to do something else.
Enjoy!
p.s. For those of you just joining us (Hi, Don! Send me your email address please!) the old site is still available here. But not for much longer, I'm afraid.
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UnBending
For the last couple of weeks we've been on a long road trip to Las Cruces, New Mexico and points between. The purpose was to do some scouting for a new place to live, do some job-finding activites, and visit old friends. I think we're done with living in Bend.
We started out looking for a job and a house in Las Vegas, a city we've always enjoyed visiting. And Anna's growing involvement with professional poker gives her a reason to live there, in the center of the action. There's lots of work there for me — so much growth, lots of high tech jobs going begging.
But after a day of looking at places to live, we don't like the looks of the city. It's overcrowded and noisy and terribly expensive to live there. We'd need a job before we moved, and apparently the local employers don't want to hire you unless you're already local. We'd get a smaller, nastier house than our current dwelling, and we'd have to find work much quicker to avoid running through our savings. And my cousin Bryan, who has lived there for the last 17 years, is trying to leave and advises us not to come.
So we spent two nights there. We looked at houses (well, townhouses and apartments, as houses there are too expensive for us) and I went to a job fair. It turned out to be not terribly helpful — they were mostly looking for warm bodies and not for skilled IT people.
But we enjoyed our stay at Palace Station. The room was much nicer than the $20/night fee indicates, and Anna spent a few hours at the poker tables and came away richer. Las Vegas is a great place to visit, but Anna and I don't want to live there. Maybe someday, when we're rich.
Next it was on to Albuquerque for a quick visit with David and Susan, and off again the next morning to Las Cruces, NM. We like this city much better. For some time, the stars have been pointing us to Las Cruces. I want to work in the space industry someday, and Las Cruces is building a spaceport. White Sands Missile Range is there, along with some sensational jobs that would put my computer network skills to work for NASA and Lockheed Martin. David and Susan live three hours north. New Mexico State University needs a network engineer, and if they don't hire me because I don't have a degree, well, then I can get one there. There's a job for me, I'm sure of it.
The city is the second largest in New Mexico and the fastest growing. Economically, a house purchased there should appreciate. And if the spaceport and commercial space become big business (as we think it will), the sky's the limit. We want to give it a try.
Then it was back to David and Susan's for the weekend. We made some tentative plans for moving with their help, then went home via Winnemucca and Laughlin.
We started out looking for a job and a house in Las Vegas, a city we've always enjoyed visiting. And Anna's growing involvement with professional poker gives her a reason to live there, in the center of the action. There's lots of work there for me — so much growth, lots of high tech jobs going begging.
But after a day of looking at places to live, we don't like the looks of the city. It's overcrowded and noisy and terribly expensive to live there. We'd need a job before we moved, and apparently the local employers don't want to hire you unless you're already local. We'd get a smaller, nastier house than our current dwelling, and we'd have to find work much quicker to avoid running through our savings. And my cousin Bryan, who has lived there for the last 17 years, is trying to leave and advises us not to come.
So we spent two nights there. We looked at houses (well, townhouses and apartments, as houses there are too expensive for us) and I went to a job fair. It turned out to be not terribly helpful — they were mostly looking for warm bodies and not for skilled IT people.
But we enjoyed our stay at Palace Station. The room was much nicer than the $20/night fee indicates, and Anna spent a few hours at the poker tables and came away richer. Las Vegas is a great place to visit, but Anna and I don't want to live there. Maybe someday, when we're rich.
Next it was on to Albuquerque for a quick visit with David and Susan, and off again the next morning to Las Cruces, NM. We like this city much better. For some time, the stars have been pointing us to Las Cruces. I want to work in the space industry someday, and Las Cruces is building a spaceport. White Sands Missile Range is there, along with some sensational jobs that would put my computer network skills to work for NASA and Lockheed Martin. David and Susan live three hours north. New Mexico State University needs a network engineer, and if they don't hire me because I don't have a degree, well, then I can get one there. There's a job for me, I'm sure of it.
The city is the second largest in New Mexico and the fastest growing. Economically, a house purchased there should appreciate. And if the spaceport and commercial space become big business (as we think it will), the sky's the limit. We want to give it a try.
Then it was back to David and Susan's for the weekend. We made some tentative plans for moving with their help, then went home via Winnemucca and Laughlin.