Moving back to Southern Calif. - How Stupid is That? Earthquakes, Unemployment, High Cost of Living, Crowded Freeways, Too Many People, On and On...

And don't forget that 2012 has replaced the "big one" (which is still out there and probably more likely), as the reason for sliding into the ocean and the new beach to be miles inland any second. When you come right down to it, and friends have pointed it out, it probably is stupid to move back. I mean you've got Las Vegas, Phoenix, and maybe some others that give essentially the same climate, the same benefits more or less, and at the same time fewer of the negatives, as well as being far from sliding into the ocean...yes, I'm kidding. 
But the truth is I still, after being away for almost twenty years, think of Fullerton as my hometown. Yes there were things I didn't like about living in Calif., heat mostly, but overall it was better, based on memory of being a kid in NY, so in theory, than living anywhere else. Now I can say from recent experience with NY winters, NY humidity, mud, fly's, bugs in general, hitting deer, salty winterroads, slippery winter roads, winter again in general, etc. that it is in fact better.  Yes, Fullerton is my real hometown, not Oxford NY where I was born and grew up until we moved after the eighth grade, not Earlville NY where I've lived since '92, Fullerton, where I lived from the ninth grade, to when I moved here in '92. Just once more, Fullerton...
There are things here in NY that are keeping or trying to keep me here. The history all around us, the people are great, the scenery, the old things, and it goes without saying I'll miss family when I leave, but based on the example of my friend Bill, driving back to visit is just a matter of a few days, or flying is a few hours if you don't mind being treated like a potential terrorist.  I do have to admit that I flew to Las Vegas, and back from Ontario, CA in '03 and found the experience relatively easy and painless. Completely unlike the horror stories then. So maybe it's not so bad now.
I tell my friends out there that one big difference is that out there something gets to be 20-30-50 years old, it gets torn down and rebuilt or turned into a parking lot. Back here you can literally drive down Rte 12 between Rte 20 and here for instance, or in the Adirondacs, or any small road really, and get a real feel what it was like in the 17-1800's, but maybe that's just me. The house we live in was built in 1824, as I remember. Yes, it's dark, yes it's drafty and cold, yes it costs a fortune to heat, yes it's small, and crowded, yes it constantly needs work, but it's almost two hundred years old, it has lived through history, through many generations of owners, it is history.  When we did the roof a couple years ago, the first layer, of the five on it, was made of cedar shake. It was the original roof, installed almost 200 years ago. Amazing...
Also I have to stay, or feel I should stay until we get my mother and aunt moved and settled where they'll be happier and taken care of.  I know I'll feel guilty if I don't, everybody says they won't move until I do, and if I'm going to move why take half measures, but I'll still feel bad like I'm letting them down.
Of course another thing that is a concern, is getting back out there and at my age, not that old really, just seems that way, not finding a job, ending up worse off than I am. I already went broke once in Calif, that's how I ended up in NY, and don't want to repeat that experience, thank you.  It took a few years here to land a good deal, making good money, then it peaked, and has slid downhill, but maybe we only get one good deal, and I've had mine... Of course one good thing is that if I do end up living in a box, cadging meals, at least it'll be warmer. Comparatively, a 30 or 40 degree winter night has got to be better than 0, 10 below, or like it was for almost a month in 2004 or '05  35 below. That's cold...
Well that's it for now I guess