Yeah Herb. Twice a week a pizza driver gets shot for his pizza and the 20 bucks in his pocket. The thugs call in and order pizza to be delivered to a vacant house and when the driver comes up they rob and beat or shoot him. 3-4 businesses a week get robbed, cars are stolen every day. My general area is considered the hood, but my street is in the pocket inside of that has not had a crime in the 14 years I have lived here. The bulk of the crime is downtown as well as in a couple of very specific areas a few miles from me. And if you are at all streetwise you know what to look for.

Plus there's that whole concealed carry thing.....

I would mainly like to put this several months of awful weather behind me. I know there is snow from time to time in NC but it isn't 22 inches and it isn't accompanied by -2 degrees like what I left behind me when I came down south and it doesn't stay on the ground for weeks because it never gets warm enough to melt. Sure in the mountains.... I am not going to go all Grizzly Adams and line in the mountains. I wouldn't even mind proximity to a city, but for the most part I am home all the time and rarely go out anyway. Give me high speed internet and proximity to a Walmart and I am good. I just don't want to have to live with my head on a swivel because someone who hates me just because I happened to be born white will shoot at me. The north is THAT racist, and I didn't see it until I got away for a week.

So I am spending a good amount of time on real estate sites looking things over. I may have to make some concessions because of finances and budget, buy if I have to paint rooms and pull out carpets myself, so be it. There is a place listed in the Winston-Salem area right now that would do me very well, with a big fenced yard for dogs and enough solitude that I could easily live there. We'll see how this all plays out. I'd love to be down there somewhere by next winter.

Either way I'll come down for Herbstock!