I'm Curious About Our Members: Where Do You Live? Why?
Claire Berlinski, Ed. ·
Dec 4, 2010 at 5:56am
By now most of you know that I live in Istanbul, but it occurred to me this morning that I'm not sure where most of our members live. Are there other expatriates among us? Outstripp, you're in Japan, right? I know we have a lot of Californians. Where do the rest of you live? Did you grow up there? If you moved there, why? Do you like it there?
Local flora and fauna? Favorite local pastime? Are your neighbors friendly? Do you think you'll stay there?
Is there some place you'd rather live? Where?
The photos are places I've lived. I don't think I've written about either place. Does anyone recognize them?
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May '10
Re: I'm Curious About Our Members: Where Do You Live? Why?
May '10
Re: I'm Curious About Our Members: Where Do You Live? Why?
Claire Berlinski, Ed.
Midget Faded Rattlesnake
But I do know that if you have had respiratory problems (asthma, allergies, persistent bronchitis or sinusitus...) or a family history of respiratory problems, you may find the drier, relatively allergy-free air of the American Southwest much easier to cope with than the humid, moldy ...air of the Southeast.
If you have respiratory problems then you're screwed for aviation or Special Forces. What are you going to do? You're in command of a $10 Million helo and you inhale fumes from the jet engines and you're going to have an asthma attack? Or, you're on the side of a mountain in Afghanistan and it's cold, snowing and your asthma gets triggered by cold air? You're looking at training or fighting on 10,000 foot mountain tops in Afghanistan to the Panamanian jungles. The environment of North Carolina is nothing. You will train in swamps in the cold. At night. Half submerged and carrying a pack. You need to be a perfect physical specimen to be an Army Ranger and a damn good athlete.
Michael, find an Apache pilot and an Army Ranger and talk to those guys.
Oct '10
Re: I'm Curious About Our Members: Where Do You Live? Why?
I envy you Michael. Are you going active duty for training, or straight active duty? Having been an Army Aviator I can say I found military flying an absolute blast! I worked frequently with Forces guys and found the description of them as a cross between a Mafia hit man and a Harvard trained lawyer to be accurate. You have two exciting and challenging choices. Good luck to you.
Nov '10
Re: I'm Curious About Our Members: Where Do You Live? Why?
Pseudodionysius
Claire Berlinski, Ed.
You cheated! I feared this. · Dec 4 at 6:18am
Blame Wikileaks. · Dec 4 at 6:19am
You beat me to it!
Aug '10
Re: I'm Curious About Our Members: Where Do You Live? Why?
Claire Berlinski, Ed.
Local flora and fauna?
I'd like to point out that this is another attraction of the American Southwest -- really interesting flora and fauna.
Many of our scaly friends live out in the Southwest. The collared lizard. The desert spiny lizard. The chuckwalla. And of course, the midget faded rattlesnake, whom you can visit at Arches, Capitol Reef, or Canyonlands National Park.
Bryce Canyon is a fairyland, but the rattlesnakes are bigger.
Oh! I forgot! "Horny toads" (horned lizards). Their grumpy little faces just melt your heart, don't they?
May '10
Re: I'm Curious About Our Members: Where Do You Live? Why?
Grew up in Iowa... traveled the world by myself as a teenager... Missouri for college... California/Florida/Japan/Australia (with the Marines)... back to Missouri. In the U.S., I love the Midwest. Internationally, I love the Aussies.
Sep '10
Re: I'm Curious About Our Members: Where Do You Live? Why?
I live in Jersey. I don't call it "Peoples Republic" of NJ because I don't think the government here even pretends to care about the "people." Hopefully the fat guy down in Trenton will change all that.
May '10
Re: I'm Curious About Our Members: Where Do You Live? Why?
Well, I didn't click on the pictures and I was not sure of it but it did immediately look to me like Lake Lugano with Mt. San Salvatore... Visited that place many times, for work mostly... Beautiful.
As to my personal route, here it is: Kharkov, USSR (now, Kharkiv, Ukraine - in my passport it says that I was born in Ukraine, but there was no country like that till I was almost 40!)* --> Jerusalem and then a rather predictable chain of university places in the US: Hamilton, NY --> Pittsburgh, PA --> Las Cruces, NM --> Baltimore, MD. Happiest memories are from Jerusalem... But a good job is a mighty magnet...
*As usual, this reminds me of a joke: Vienna, 1928. "Professor, do you know how last night's Austria - Hungary game ended?" "No, whom did vee play?"
May '10
Re: I'm Curious About Our Members: Where Do You Live? Why?
Really appreciate all the advice. I'm in tip top shape and haven't got any respiratory problems (yes, otherwise special forces would be utterly impossible). Army aviation is primarily a rotary wing force as opposed to a fixed wing force, so no F/A-18s or F-15s. I should have been more descriptive with regard to the flight school. It pertains to "unmanned drones" and not rotary wing aircraft. Being a pilot of an unmanned drone then expedites one's chances of becoming a pilot of other aircraft.
As far as environment goes, I'll take Arizona over North Carolina any day because I love the landscape and climate of the Southwest.
Oct '10
Re: I'm Curious About Our Members: Where Do You Live? Why?
Currently living in Orlando, Florida. My folks left a house here when they passed away, so when I retired from the military I moved down here. Did not plan on staying this long, just kind of worked out that way.
Born in New York city. High school in Montana. Spent a year in school in Switzerland. Stationed in Germany for three years, spent a year in S.E.A. Had two tours to Korea. Spent over a year in Central America. Variously stationed in Texas, California, Montana, Kentucky, Alabama, and Georgia.
If I had my druthers would probably live in California.
Nov '10
Re: I'm Curious About Our Members: Where Do You Live? Why?
Hi Claire,
I actually moved TO Taxachusetts from San Juan, Puerto Rico. In life you have a place, job, and a person/people as your reasons for being where you are. I chose the people (siblings and friends), figuring I'd adjust to the place (which I'd previously come to know and grow fond of), and find a career. Worked out so far, but as the winter comes, I do miss my Cuba Libres on the beach in PR.
Nov '10
Re: I'm Curious About Our Members: Where Do You Live? Why?
Claire Berlinski, Ed.
I was mesmerized by the description until I remembered that I've lived in the Pacific Northwest and it just never stops raining. It's as beautiful as he says though, otherwise. · Dec 4 at 7:11am
I'll take 364 days of rain for one sunny day in Whatcom county. It's actually not raining today, in fact there is hardly a cloud in the sky, surprisingly. I can see the summit of Mount Baker just poking out behind Sumas Mountain, and the sun is coming up behind both. The sky is a pale blue, and the few wispy clouds there are are turning bright orange, as is the snow on the mountains. A cup of coffee and a warm fireplace, looking out at the mountains, what more could you ask for?
May '10
Re: I'm Curious About Our Members: Where Do You Live? Why?
PJS,
Yes, missing the NYC Ricosoirees is a certainly a negative, but speaking of Ricosoirees, I don't see why Ricocheters should assemble only in Manhattan. West coast Ricosoirees are conceivable for people who live in California or Washington State.
Jun '10
Re: I'm Curious About Our Members: Where Do You Live? Why?
Anoka County, Minnesota, USA
http://tinypic.com/player.php?v=29azb81&s=5
Oct '10
Re: I'm Curious About Our Members: Where Do You Live? Why?
Colorado Springs, at the base of Pikes Peak where America The Beautiful was penned. And it truly is... beginning right here. Got here via many places... born in Philadelphia, then Texas, UK, Scotland, Paraguay, and then dozens of short term stays in around 30 or so countries. Lived some in the Caribbean, mostly Trinidad, a bit in Hawaii, landed in California for 25 years... no good reason, and here for the last 19 years. For 10 years did short term missionary work with the disabled poor in countries from Vietnam and Russia to Afghanistan, Pakistan Uzbekistan and all of Central America while living here in C.S.
I love the USA, and have seen enough of the world to know why I do. Sadly, it is difficult remaining optimistic. I look around my own town, and can see the decay, not with my eyes, but with my heart. Yet, across the street and in the neighborhood, hope is strong, and my soul prospers. Perhaps there is simply too much news from across the nation that depresses me.
Have we lost our mooring in Western Judea-Christianity and Constitutional conservatism? Can that be recovered if God is lost?
Oct '10
Re: I'm Curious About Our Members: Where Do You Live? Why?
Born and raised in the people's republic of .... Ottawa, Canada. At age 18, after 3 semesters at the University of Ottawa I decided that political science and history at that institution were far too left wing for me to ever dream of finishing so I transferred to Trinidad State Junior College in beautiful southern Colorado to pursue the other lifelong dream of playing baseball. The baseball dream didn't pan out but I did meet some amazing friends, my wife, and the coach was a true mentor to us.
Junior college complete I went to Dubuque, Iowa to finish my degree at Clarke College (now University) where the baseball team was a dismal struggle of horrors. After graduation started the process of applying for US residence through marriage, married my girl, moved to Grand Junction, CO with her where I today reside.
In exactly one month from today I will be en route to Fort Benning, Georgia for Army basic training and infantry school and after that who can say?
Aug '10
Re: I'm Curious About Our Members: Where Do You Live? Why?
Minnesota, on a frozen lake just a couple miles west of Lileks - and just back inside from shoveling six inches of last night's global warming, looking for my ibuprofen.
Nov '10
Re: I'm Curious About Our Members: Where Do You Live? Why?
Thailand, in my first eleven years, a delightful way to grow up. Then my parents' home area of upstate New York--little farms, rolling hills, corn and wildflowers in the summertime. Next, Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania, then San Diego for twenty years.
We've moved to Montana for my husband, who likes seasons and less gridlock. The pleasant months here are a parenthesis between dark, cold, and dripping ones, but when it's beautiful, it's jaw-dropping. One limpidly lovely day with balmy breezes just about makes up for all the months of staying inside. I stand out in it, raise my arms, and breath it in. It sounds strange, but one begins a kind of obsession to have one's feet on dry ground and bathe in solar rays around December or January.
We live in the hills, out of sight of any neighbors, with a horse arena up the road and sometimes trucks going by piled with logs and rocks. The rocks go to refurbish the walls in Glacier's Going-to-the-Sun Road. We've had cats disappear from--what--coyotes? Mountain lions? Wolves? My walks are more like hikes, and I always carry bearspray.
Edited on Dec 4, 2010 at 8:28amMay '10
Re: I'm Curious About Our Members: Where Do You Live? Why?
Buckle up my friend and good luck as a grunt.
Nov '10
Re: I'm Curious About Our Members: Where Do You Live? Why?
Oh, we can see mountains from our house, and I get different views of them as I climb rugged driveways or drive out toward town. They are imposing, vast, and different every day.