Sonuva...

If you've tried to call me in the last few days, I probably haven't answered. Perhaps, however, someone else did.

I've been looking for my cell for the past few days (I'm currently in Portland, ME for business) and haven't had any "luck" in finding it. I was checking my usage this afternoon and noticed that my last call was at 2:52 this afternoon.

You might remember, I just said that I haven't had my phone for the last few days.

Ass. That is, stubborn mule - you jerk. You, the one who refused to answer my calls from my wife's cell phone on my very own phone. You, the one who is enjoying my chocolate while I cannot. You, the one who is stealing.

No more.

If you try to call me in the near future, you'll get some kind of message that my phone has been disconnected. Verizon suspended the number until I get a new phone.

Sorry that this is the next new message after weeks of dark quiet, but if you know of a place where I can get a new phone for next to nothing (just need one with e911, Verizon won't allow me to activate a phone otherwise.

So, for now, I've been thrown back into the early, um, 2000's. That is, that point in time before I ever had my first cell phone.

Cost of Living, Schmost of living…

Many questions people asked when I told them about moving to Philly invariably revolved around the cost of living [COL] here. I suppose that the assumption is that the COL is so high in the Northeast that Philadelphia surely couldn’t be immune.

However, I think that if you do things the right way, the cost of living isn’t really that much higher here than from where we left [I used to say this before we left and some would look at me incredulously].

Here’s the thing though – homes here cost similar to what homes cost in the Ham. However, if you purchase a home here, don’t expect to have a large yard, large trees, or easy parking. Do expect to be within walking distance of 30 corner grocery stores, Chinese restaurants, and pizza / Italian places. In addition, our home doesn’t necessarily have “large” bedrooms, but we don’t necessarily need them either [maybe most people don’t – see this article which will probably turn into a future twilleythought].

Housing costs aside, everything else is reasonable [and, to be honest, I really believe the housing costs are reasonable too]. One of the best things about PA is the way taxes on essential items work – that is, there are no taxes on essential items. Therein, we don’t have to pay taxes on groceries or clothing. In Birmingham, I paid a 9% premium on stuff like that [thanks to city, county, and state taxes]. The state income taxes here – if you can believe it – are actually lower than Alabama’s also.

Where they get you [in Philly at least] are the property taxes and the Philadelphia employment tax [living in Philly exacts a 4% tax out of each of my pay checks – it would be less if I lived out of Philly but worked here]. Also, I may even start taking the train to work [when I’m not scheduled for travel] – which would cut down even more on gas [and traffic – heavy storms caused something like a 2 hour today – no joking].

The only thing, I suppose, that costs is that of trash can lids. As in, when people steal your trash can lid, you have to purchase a new one. Apparently, that has happened to us…recently [yesterday]. But hey, it’s better than a bike valued over $400 [thanks Birmingham].

Hopefully, I can spew some more interesting tidbits to get you to want to move here with us [not actually in our house, but that would be fine too…temporarily].