What You Need to Know About Moving to Arizona

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I knew as presently as I visited that I wanted to motion here correct abroad, though in that location are a few things I wish I knew before moving to Arizona. I still can't believe there's SO much to practise. At that place are more things to do in Arizona than I always imagined!

Things I Wish I Knew Before Moving to Arizona

There are many wonderful things about this place that I thoroughly enjoy. I had only visited a few times before I packed my family unit up and moved 2,000 miles to get-go our new lives here. Flowers bloom year circular. It seems like information technology is well-nigh e'er sunny. The furnace was simply turned on for iii days last winter. No more fear of falling on the ice in the parking lot or the driveway. No demand for an water ice scraper for the machine windows.

Our hummingbird feeder is decorated every 24-hour interval of the twelvemonth. People like to visit u.s.a. during the winter to escape the snow. There are some things I wish I knew before deciding to motion to Arizona.

Ha…what?

I love boobs but, uh, haboobs? Ha…what? A haboob is a "violent air current and sand storm that comes on quickly and decimates visibility and other things in its path". Terminal summer, in addition to the occasional haboob, in that location were several storms that were potent enough to knock out the electricity for hours at a fourth dimension.

Haboobs and rain are my favorite parts of Arizona living. I know people become scared and hate the storms just they're but beautiful!

Trampolines flying out of yards, roofs being ripped off, ability outages (no air conditioning and it's 110), flash floods, and amazing lightning storms are all from haboobs. We sat in our dining room during one of the storms because the power was out and watched the lightning for a couple of hours. It was like a strobe light outside.

Neighborhoods are congenital with washes specifically for the flash floods that happen every summer. Huge established trees were ripped from their roots and toppled over. Roads flood in what seems like minutes, but they dry up rather apace, too. For those that accept lived here long enough, they know that these storms are just part of a typical summer. For the people that are experiencing it for the offset time, it can be very scary.

Humidity

When you retrieve of the desert, you lot think dry dry dry. Believe it or not, though, when all of those summer storms hit, the humidity comes with them. Add together the humidity to the rut and you have a recipe for what feels like a swamp. You lot'll take swamp ass for one-half of storm flavour!

Snowbirds

Jesus. Snowbirds. They take a maxim hither in Arizona: You don't take to shovel sunshine. With the exception of the storm season, the humidity is super depression; information technology is the desert, later on all. Who wouldn't want the luxury of having a business firm to escape to when the snow starts flying then become to go out once again when information technology starts getting too hot to handle? Old folks come and go in flocks similar birds, which is where the term "snowbird" comes in. The traffic is the ane prissy matter about summertime here. It is so much lighter once they all exit!

Yep, it's really 120 degrees.

I have figured out that when people ask me how long I have lived here, what they really want to know is how many summers have you survived so far?

Yous expect it to be hot during the summertime. You lot prepare with your typical shorts, t-shirts, and sandals. The temperatures start to climb in April and don't come up back downward until October. You're thinking, "how hot can it possibly get?", but you really don't want the respond. Information technology can go really. freaking. hot.

Well-nigh people live in a place where it gets hot in the summer for a few months with at least a trivial bit of relief during the night when the sunday isn't blazing downwardly. Hither in Arizona, once it reaches 100 degrees, it's but so damn hot. Temperatures soar to around 120. For me, I don't experience like there'due south much of a difference between 100 and 120. Either way, I'm hiding inside with the A/C.

Nobody wants to step outside. They are all indoors laying naked under the fan. I remember learning in school that it gets COLD in the desert at night. But you know what? During the summer, it doesn't cool down at night! Information technology is notwithstanding so damn hot! I sleep with an ice pack.

Those big fluffy oven mitts you have in your kitchen? Nosotros go along them in the car for driving gloves because the steering bike and any metallic you have to bear on your auto will burn you. I didn't wash my machine for three months terminal summer because the outside of the car was so hot I didn't want to lay my bare arm on the sizzling hot metallic to pay in the drive thru. Some things you learn the hard fashion (ouch!). Us locals are so happy when the temps start falling even in to the 90s. That's how nosotros know Fall is on its way.

No common cold water. Ever.

This is something I just never thought most, either. The tap water only gets as cool every bit information technology is outside. Since the atmospheric condition rarely gets cold enough to freeze annihilation, the pipes aren't buried very deep in the ground. You go hot h2o out of the cold tap all summertime long that is actually hotter than the hot tap. The inside of the business firm is so much cooler than the outside, so you get cooler water for awhile using the hot side instead of the cold. All summertime long, we accept showers using the coldest possible water that volition come out of the shower and it is nonetheless hot. People throw ice in the puddle to try and absurd it downwardly. If you want cold water, you take to store it in the refrigerator.

The kids wanna play in the hose? That's not happening; you might as well throw a pot of hot water at them in that example. It takes a long fourth dimension for the water to even get to a safe temp to touch!

And so. Many. Creepy crawlies.

Almost places have their share of bugs, spiders, and snakes. Missouri had mosquitos and so many snakes! I hated it. Arizona takes creepy crawlies to a whole new, creepy, disgusting level. In addition to your typical nasty critters, at that place are scorpions, roaches, venomous centipedes and rattlesnakes… just to proper noun a few. They want to live in your house with you lot. Particularly scorpions!

To exist able to survive in this climate, a creature has to have a tough constitution and nosotros willing to consume darn near anything it can find. This includes you lot, your kids, and your pets. Blood is blood to them when they are hungry. Termites are inevitable. If you don't have them already, you probably will! Issues treatments are just part of the territory here.

Old people ratio

I talked virtually snowbirds already simply the number of older people to the general population is more noticeable – even with year-circular residents. There are many 55+ communities that draw them in. The amazing weather for the bulk of the year, the inexpensive housing, and twelvemonth round golfing opportunities are all draws for the old folks. There seems to be an amazing number of doctors here also. You tin can't make it without seeing a hospital, doctors office, or specialty medical dispensary. All this warm weather is practiced for those achy bones.

I dearest old people and so I can't complain, merely I know it annoys a lot of younger folks to exist surrounded by seniors all of the time. Grace says they "move like turtles running through peanut butter".

Structure.

When I first moved here, my friend pointed to construction cones and said "those are our land tree". I laughed, just she was serious. Y'all volition literally not drive a single day without seeing construction here in Arizona. In most areas, road construction is something that you typically expect during the summer fourth dimension. But in Southern Arizona, the road structure is year circular.

The weather is ordinarily beautiful and sunny twelvemonth round which gives the opportunity for the construction crews to never terminate trigger-happy up and "repairing" our roads. With the ever growing population, the infrastructure is trying to take hold of upward. There are large bedroom communities that are located 45 minutes from the nearest freeway. They are congenital around places that were rural farm areas and never needed roads that would have to handle the large volume of people they now see daily. This brings about having to widen roads, motion utilities underground, and create more through streets.

The delays structure causes for commuters can be such a source of frustration. Since they are still building a second route, if in that location is one impatient, self-important jerk that refuses to leave any following altitude and he happens to crusade a fender bough, that small blow tin cause an additional 60 minutes-long pile upwardly for the tired and hungry people that just desire to go home.

Highways and Byways

The highway system is so jacked up. It seriously looks like someone had a ball of yarn, they dropped it, and some cats swatted it around for a bit. Then these genius engineers designed the roads based on where the yarn landed. It's truthful that Phoenix runs on a grid system but that's just in town. I've lived here for nearly 5 years and still tin't figure out the damn 202/101 crap! I take to use a GPS to get anywhere.

Aridity is a thing.

Dry out pare, dusty oral cavity, and headaches are just a few of the signs of dehydration. It'due south a proficient thought to detect a h2o jug that volition proceed things cold for a very long time if you programme on visiting or moving to Arizona. Drinking plenty water tin exist very challenging in this extreme climate. You will sweat through your wearing apparel.

I like to hide inside in the a/c, but your start utility bill will damn most give you a heart assail. I promise. The kickoff time nosotros received a utility nib for $450 from setting the thermostat to what I thought was a pocket-size 75, I gasped. Most people proceed their houses between 78 and 80. It sounds atrociously hot, just you do eventually get used to it. The a/c also sucks the moisture out of you, so fifty-fifty if you aren't sweating y'all are however being dried out.

Grit, grit, everywhere!

Equally much every bit I would like to open upwards all of the windows when it does first to absurd down, it comes at a cost. The dust is horrible. It will cover every surface in your home. Information technology will penetrate your electronics and shorten their life. Carpeting, drapes, and bedding volition all be dusty. You will literally accept a layer of dust all over everything.

The dust causes breathing bug for people. Sinus infections, allergies, and asthma are mutual hither. Sapphire had allergies before nosotros moved here, though, and it'southward been a HUGE relief on her asthma (it's triggered by common cold weather). Dust will seep into every crack and fissure. You'll wonder how on earth did dust get in in that location? It will discover a way. Yous'll taste it in the air and feel the grit in your teeth.

Poverty – good and bad?

I expected Arizona to exist more than expensive than Missouri is, but it's not. Arizona is literally PARADISE in comparison, but information technology doesn't cost any more than to live here than it does dorsum in the Midwest! That's a swell thing for me, because I work from habitation and am 100% in control of my income. However, Arizona actually doesn't pay well then that'south not a great thing for many folks.

Unfortunately, in that location are big pockets of poverty in southern Arizona. When you first visit Arizona, you lot'll simply see what tourists typically meet. At first glance the job market around the Phoenix area seems like even though the pay rates are slightly lower, it is in ratio to the lower housing prices that are bachelor in the surrounding metro areas just outside the metropolis.

The government employees that work for the state of Arizona as white neckband educated role professionals with an accounting groundwork haven't had a raise in 10 years. Can you imagine having an bookkeeping degree and but making $11.61 an hour for an entire decade? Private sector would pay at to the lowest degree double that corporeality. Granted, the benefits are good, but they aren't that skilful. It's difficult to believe they have been able to retain whatsoever employees, merely because there are more than job seekers than jobs, they have. Every bit long as people have the hope that they will be able to move to a better paying position they stay. The governor gave himself a raise, simply not the individuals that make all of the details happen on the business organization end. Go figure.

At the end of the day…

Nothing beats Arizona. I've lived many places, I've visited many places, and Arizona is still my favorite. Information technology'south cute and it felt like home from the solar day we got here!

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Source: https://slapdashmom.com/things-wish-knew-moving-arizona/