We just got back from three weeks in OKC, living large under the heat dome. OMG, part of me thought I had been imagining how wonderful it is to not have a fistfight to go to the grocery store and to have people willing to work hard and actually be pleasant. It was wonderful to be back home. Nearly killed me to have to leave.

I noticed that there has been a ton of money pumped into certain areas but that most (MOST) of the blighted areas that existed 9 years ago appear to not have had any maintenance in the interim. It was disgraceful, in my opinion, how those areas have declined. Definitely a divide between people with lovely homes (even if not large) vs. crappy, dirty, apartments that look like they have more rats than tenants. That was troubling but everything else was very impressive.

The heat was wonderful. We came back to having to pull back on our jeans because it is too dang cool to go in shorts. For post July Fourth, that is just wrong....

Well the inner city and downtown has changed tremendously since 9 years ago.

> to not have a fistfight to go to the grocery store

Lost me on that one ECO, but glad you enjoyed the trip.

Oh, and a big thanks for taking a smidge of the heat back with you. It's dang near within a degree or two of being nice here this week.

ECO...I long for a cool day. Anytime you want to come and bring some more cool weather with you feel free. Since you left we're heading back into the 100's again. AArrgghh.

Re. Fistfight to go to the grocery store - a reference to the traffic back east in this area. It is a fistfight to go anywhere and for whole chunks of the weekend, especially Saturday, you just stay home and wait for the crowds on I95 to dissipate. It was nice to be able to up and go anywhere at any time of the day or night and not have to allot two hours to drive five miles "just in case" of an accident with the attendant backups.

I used to have to leave the house at 5:00 a.m. to drive 20 miles to get my dog to the vet for her radiation treatments so I could check in at 7:00. They couldn't see her until around 10:30 but if I didn't check in by 7:00, they wouldn't treat her until the afternoon and I'd have to wait all day - first come, first serve At 5:30 they closed the HOV lane to single drivers which added at least two hours to the drive. So it was worth it to leave at 5:00 to be able to get to the vet by 7:00.

We are actually having some lovely weather here on the coast - low humidity for a change. Very, very nice. But I honestly enjoyed the Oklahoma heat dome. I knew I was home. And there is nothing like the rains of September to make you sigh and thank god (of course, you'll curse him all through August).

http://l.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/mesg/emoticons7/2.gif Awww, no visit for your adopted son.

Thunder, after spending time with elderly dad, siblings, long-term (since about age 5) friends and former work colleagues, there wasn't much time left. It is strange to have been surrounded by family and friends for forty something years, then only each other for nearly ten, then have the happy prospect of going back to being surrounded, again.

I will track you down, someday. We feel like we are making significant progress on returning and it won't be too much longer (relative term) to come home for good - or at least start dividing out time between both places.

Goodie! http://l.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/mesg/emoticons7/4.gif I'll have the adoption papers ready. http://l.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/mesg/emoticons7/10.gif I hope you don't mind having 3 grandsons. http://l.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/mesg/emoticons7/113.gif

Wow, if I had very little good to say about where I live, I'd move. But hey, that's just me.

ECO...did you delete something?

Delete something? I don't think so. If I did, was by mistake.

A co-worker of mine moved from DC to Austin a little over a year ago, his wife's family is in San Antonio and with a little one they wanted to move a bit closer to family. His is spread out all over so there wasn't any one particular location they could locate in like with her family. He is so glad not to have his 1-2 hour, 11 mile commute from Alexandria to DC everyday.

DC is number 2 on traffic congestion (behind LA). Austin has its own traffic issues but beats heck out of the Alexandria area (Alexandria is a southern suburb of DC).

After 20 plus hours on the road driving back to this area on Saturday, I was online last night wishing I could get back in the van and head back. Even researched some alternative routes just to make it a less boring drive...