Name:   MrHodja - Subject:   Wix, have you ever lived in the DC area? Date:   9/21/2020 4:28:08 PM

Making a decision based on a couple one week conventions doesn't reflect the reality of day-to-day life up there.

There are many good reasons to live and work there...for a while.  For me it was a four year active duty assignment to HQ USAF in the "Five Sided Funny Farm".  Got to meet and work with some great officers, many of whom ended up achieving flag rank.  If given the option again under the same circumstances I would once again jump at the opportunity - and leave after four years.

There is also a lot going on all the time in the area, both governmentally and in the entertainment arena.  Saw Rock Hudson and Doris Day in a play at the Kennedy Center, was there for the Bicentennial celebration (1976), and visited many of the treasures on the Mall, not only monuments but museums holding incrediblly valuable historical objects.  You can visit the Archives and view the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.  But at the end of the day you go back to your apartment or townhouse where the excitement ends (unless you are having a family argument, lol).

One thing that struck me was that if you watch people waiting on the Metro, or a bus, or their carpool, nobody smiles.  They are almost like robots.  It is that attitude that you find also in stores and restaurants.  Kind of hard to be upbeat in a sea of Eyores (sp?).  Plus it seems few peoply retire there...they all come to make their promotion, experience the excitement for a while, or satisfy their yearning to rub elbows with the bigwigs but then when they tire of that they return to their roots or some other place where folks enjoy life and family.  There are some who choose to retire there but they seem to be in the minority.