chrome_daddy

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80's music is overrated IMO

The metal scene was solid, but the hard rock hair bands aren't that great across the board.

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So mainstream huh? Too bad you weren't into 80's punk. That was the shite. Misfits, Minor Threat, Dead Kennedys, Social Distortion, X, Bad Brains, Circle Jerks, Meat Puppets, Minutemen, etc., etc. The nights out in BTR and NO watching these guys was insane.

If you weren't into the punk scene as a young white male in the 80's, YOU MISSED OUT!

And then this:

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The only music worth a shite in the 90's was country. That gave you Alan Jackson, Brooks & Dunn, Mark Chestnut, Tracy Lawrence, Tim McGraw, Garth, Joe Diffie and on and on.

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Good lord, make my stomach turn. This isn't a Pro for the 90's, it's a Con. Real country music wouldn't begin to re-appear with the outlaw shift until Hank 3 emerged in the 2000's.

For music, 1980's hands down.

Culture - 80's - Internet hadn't emerged yet, so people still interacted personally.
Politics / govt policy - 80's - Ronald Reagan
Economy - both decades were good, because see above

The market has changed, now staff jobs can be lucrative as well. I retired last year (a year early) as my wife ended her travel nurse phase when she landed a staff job for well over 100K a year. So now she has good benefits and the $$$.

She's a night float pool nurse in our medium sized city, so she can be at any of 5-6 different hospitals on any one of the three nights a week she has to work. If she picks up an extra shift? An extra $750 net.

She LOVES her job. Just ask her. And moving between hospitals she avoids the drama from being in the same place day after day.

My low point financially was when I moved to BTR in 1985 for LSU. Spent all my money on tuition, rent, and a car to get around with.

Was a tough couple of months eating lots of potato’s and PBnJs. Then the sales commission checks from selling computers at Tandy Biz Products started rolling in and I was back in high cotton. From that point forward life for me changed completely.

I flash back to those days of struggling when I ever use an ATM and it asks if you want to see a balance. Money ain’t everything, but it sure beats the alternative.

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Knoxville 3,500 above sea level

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WRONG. 800 feet.

- Born in Charleston SC
- But then lived in France, England, DC for 6-7 years.
- Back to Charleston until senior year of HS
- Abruptly moved to country out in Natchitoches Parish as I turned a senior in HS. Man what a different world than suburban Charleston.
- Bounced around Louisiana, ending up at LSU until 1990.
- A few years after college, moved to Central Va.

Moving around alot as a military brat forced me to make new friends and adapt. There was less emphasis on family roots for sure. Which for me meant I wasn't tied to any one locale.

I keep up w some people in Louisiana and quite a few from Charleston. In fact, when the 2025 LSU Baseball team comes to Columbia, I'll be spending a few days before in Charleston and am hosting a happy hour. Did this for the Foosball game this past fall, was good catching up.

It's a mix...some of the folks I grew up w that stayed in these places didn't do much as far as accomplishments with their lives. But then a few of the folks did well, became degreed professionals. But a lot of them that did this left the area.

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Not if you dont have to have the nicest house.

Everyones problem is they want the house they want in the area they want.

No one wants to live lower end housing to start off. Cowards.


By far, the cheapest non-apartment housing options in any city (which are where the jobs are) are going to be in ghetto neighborhoods, and what quality, family-focused couple wants to raise children in that type of environment?

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Both points are true. Anecdote: My nephew (early 30's) engineer and wife that works, two kids. The house they bought is 4,000 sf in an golfing community in Raleigh. They were stretched as hell when they first got it. But by god they've got a nice house! OMG! And it's in a golfing community! They don't play golf. But they have a nicer house than I've ever lived in.

Young people today have much higher expectations than my generation. It's great if you can swing it. But the wife needs to work to afford the house and I bet they don't have more than two kids.

Good stuff.

Actually, I had an ablation early on and it kept me out of Afib for 10 years. That and staying in shape, etc.

I'll probably get another ablation in the next 12 months so I can forgo the baby asprin I take daily. No other meds. But per my doctor, my health otherwise is good (low BP, heart rate) that they aren't worried. I did retire a year earlier than I had planned just to eliminate stress. But I don't need a pacemaker or anything like that at this point.

Good luck to you.

Since you asked...

I'm retired (63), 6'2 and 190 lbs. Last month I hit 18k steps / day, this month targeting 19k steps.

I live on 30 acres, my house, shop and barn are all 200 feet from each other. I do 1-2 hours walking on the trails around here everyday but the rest is working on various projects or out about town.

From today (Wed - gym, trails, projects, Home Depot):

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Why do you need state permission to stay in your own car?

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You don't if you are on BLM land. But anywhere near a city it becomes dicey. And I'm sure on those college parking lots there are signs everywhere saying No Overnight Parking (and it's enforced).

I can tell you that there are lots of people living in their cars out west. I did it for two months last year and everywhere you go municipalities are on the lookout to run you off.

All this is so 2013: This guy lived in a van and parked around the Duke campus while getting a graduate degree. It was a free internet book you could download, a good read: Walden On Wheels

The housing issue in the US is going to drive this issue beyond California. But with their restrictions, and the fact that you can easily sue on any new development, California's are phucked nine ways to Sunday for years to come.

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Do kids even dance anymore, or is that not a thing anymore?

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Younger folks as a whole do not. Us old folks who go out dancing on the regular (like last night) hate it when a local band gets popular and the hipsters show up. They just stand there right in front of the band with a drink in their hands, blocking the dance floor.

Saw this happen in every big city I've visited. Take the White Horse in Austin. Great honky tonk, music every night, and dancing except for Friday and Saturday - the hipsters come in around 9 and cover the dance floor just standing there.