The Move

  Five days until the big move. I've always considered North Carolina my home as I've done most of my important growing up here, Well North Carolina is in some sort of a meltdown right now (as I suppose so is much of the country). Taxes are going up, we're several billion short of balancing the budget, teachers are being laid off, and the governor has new office furniture. Someday someone will answer for being the state with some of the highest gasoline taxes, property taxes and income taxes in the southeast but still coming up short in the budget, but that time seems a way off. As unemployment increases and property values decrease, this is a good time to move.

  So it's off to South Carolina we go. Right off the bat I noticed gasoline was about 25 cents less a gallon, the roads appear to be paved and the schools don't seem to be in shutdown mode. We're not new to SC as that was where I taught college briefly and received my medical degree. The move is slated as temporary, two years in fact, but who knows what the future will bring, I certainly do not.

  As property values have dropped so much in North Carolina (finally catching up with the rest of the country) and since the real estate market is on life support, we've decided not to sell the NC house right yet and let our daughter and son-in-law manage it while they finish their degrees. For the timebeing we'll be downsizing into an apartment smaller than the one we lived in when we were married. My wife is concerned that we'll be tripping over each other, but I know we will manage. The youngest will be enrolling in high school for her last two years. They still offer electives and AP courses in SC and in fact recommend that each student declare a concentration before graduation. Far cry from the 50 student classes we were looking at in NC.

   So we're moving south of the border. If you're ever driving down I-95 and feel the urge to eat a taco at four in the morning, I recommend you drive past south of the border and wait until taco bell opens. Years ago I ate one of their 4 am tacos and believe I never recovered from the gastrointestinal effects.

More to come.