Cool Toronto, Canada?

Yeah, I used to live about 45 minutes south of the Canadian border, so I was up there all the time. Made a lot of friends up that way.

*wags*

Nice, here in Spokane Washington we are close Canada too in fact most of our family vacations are to Edmonton or Calgary in Alberta.

Groovy. :) That's some pretty country out there as well! I have relatives that live in Washington state. But I've never been able to get out that way to see it.

Hopefully someday you will be able to see Washington it is A very nice place:)

Yeah, same here. :)

WAHHHhhh... I miss visiting toronto. :/ I only managed to get up there once when i went to guelph to visit with miami. that was a fun time!

I would imagine so, Miami's awesome. :) I miss heading up that way too, but it's rough from the other end of the continent.

Yeah I hear yah. I'm in south central missouri. makes it hard to get up there to visit.

No shit? I stayed in St.Joseph MO for a little while. Back in like winter of 2000. Was kinda' on accident, I drove out there to visit a friend, and my steering box blew. So I had to work out there till I could pay for the parts to fix it.

no shit!! St.Joseph is about an hour from me.. I'm just south of Rolla. :) Missouri is pretty nice, but man oh man, talk about NO WORK anywhere except the big shi..er.. cities.. But if you can swing it, it's heaven on earth. Lots of national forests and stuff like that.

Yeah, I thought it was a pretty state when I was out there. I miss being able to travel like I usedto. I don't get a lot of time outside Florida anymore.

Work keepin' yah busy? or lack of fundage? Both? I don't travel like I had been for a while there after california. I had a few years off and managed to go to FL a lot and to toronto once and a few other places. Nowadays, it's just go to where the work is.

It's been a little bit of both really, but more so lack of money. Heh, Florida is a great place to visit, but it's really hard to live here. Between the economy being crappy, the job market being really rough from about 3 dollars below poverty level (which in Orlando, is about $12 an hour) on up. It makes it really hard to have spare money around to do any traveling. That and housing costs a lot down here.

Yah, my parents live down there and all the contracts I've looked at down there are WAY low priced.. I'd not want to try and live in florida. That and too much sand, too easy for horses to get sand colic there.

That's the main problem, cost of living is high, wages are low.

Then unless yer bound there with chains.. time to move! :)

I wish it was that easy, but unfortunately, I kinda' am. Right now there's 9 months left on our lease here, and this is where our jobs are. Though, my boyfriend and I have both been looking for somewhere to move to when it's over. Maybe to the boonies here, maybe somewhere else entirely. Personally, I kinda' miss the snow.

Dude, after this last week of snow.. I aint missing it so much any more.. :) Yeah, I like teh boonies, only bad part about the boonies is how hard it is to find decent paying jobs in the boonies.

Yeah, that's true. That was honestly my main motivation in moving away. I was trying to find work. Problem is, in today's economy, it's just plain hard to find work wherever you are.

Very true, although service sector jobs are still strong, things like.. auto mechanics, handy men, home repair folkses..

And, thank god, embedded software guys are still in high demand. What kind of stuff do you do?

I do some IT work, but I'm honestly trying to get out of it due to the market there being so depressed. (Netowrking, hardware, wrench turner stuff). Programming is still pretty decent from what I've been hearing, but if you're just a mechanic like me, we're a dime a dozen.
But my main focus is photography. I've been behind a camera since I was about 7 years old. (I was given a little hand me down Polaroid instant by my folks that I used to annoy them with. LOL) and I've been at it ever since. Though, like any other self employment, it's hard to get started, and takes time to build up. So I do pretty much whatever I can right now to make some cash.

Gotcha! And nope. i've been seriously looking down in that area for software contract wwork. All the prices are pretty low there. Lower than in most otehr parts of the country. I'm really not sure *WHY* though.

To be totally honest, I'm not sure either. You'd think that with the cost of living being higher down here, the wages would be too, but they're really not. I've been on and off working contract work down here, doing wrench turner stuff. That pays pretty well, but the work is hard to get, and NO ONE wants to pay for travel now a days. So even though I've turned in that I'll travel to work, no one wants to pay for me to do so. High fuel prices are likely the reason for that.
Right now, I'm doing my best to NOT have to sell the computer I'm typing this to you on. It's really been rough down here.

yah dude, sorry to hear it's that hard. But yes, no one wants to pay travel time. Usually what folks do is charge a minimum number of hours so you don't get called out 100 miles to do one hour of work. Fuel here is running about 3.75 a gallon for high octane (which I have to use unless I wanna watch my valves get launched through the hood of my car)

Yeah, it's expensive everywhere. I'm really honestly glad my diesel is down right now, at $4.02 a gallon, I couldn't afford to feed it if it wasn't. (Why the hell is diesel fuel so expensive all the sudden? remember when it used to be the CHEAPER fuel?)

Yes, as a matter of fact, i do.. Then suddenly they realized that people can stop driving their cars and take public transportation, but diesel consumers can't.. soo.. they stuck it ot the diesel dudes.. Of course, that's teh CYNICAL viewpoint. :)

Eh, to a point. If there's one thing I've noticed, it's that public transportation is REALLY horrid for getting around if you don't have a set schedule, Like if you can plan things out a day ahead, and have plenty of time for the inevitable turn arounds and waits at bus stations, you're good. But if you have to be any kind of spontanious, you're fucked. Also, it often takes 3 hours by bus to do what a car can in 20 minutes. Given that varies depending on where you're at.

As far as that having an impact on the fuel prices? I don't personally think it's that. People have been walking / biking / taking public transit for a while now, especially in cities. So the percentage may have increased slightly, but not enough for this. I think you might be on the right track though. But instead of public transit, it's shipping that is the unchanging factor. Busionesses need to ship things via truck all over. Mial gets delivered via truck all over, etc. Those trucks are going to run even if the cost of diesel goes to $10 a gallon, because without them, the country stops running. No mail, no groceries, no goods, nothing gets to where it needs to go.
However, (and you may already be seeing this as well) the reason that these things will always be running, is that the consumers are the ones that are ultimately paying for them. When the cost of shipping goes higher, the companies raise their prices to make up for the cost of shipping.

Come n July, maybe we could celebrate your birfday.

You know, if I could, I would. Maybe if the powers that be deem it so, I can at least get up that way some time. :)