Moving: One Year On

It has been one year since I moved to here Like most places there are the good and the bad. One of the good things is that I got out of Virginia (I have a very big dislike for the State and the people I met there.)Back to NH.

I live in a fairly large, isolated mountain house literally out in the middle of no-where. It has really nice views of forests and the mountains. I also like the fact that the "main" road (which is the only road and is made of dirt) doesn't have many people, houses or cars on it.

As everyplace there have been bad things - although sometimes it seems that it was worse here in NH (mainly because we had to do many things around the house before winter set in.)Even moving up here was a nightmare. The small roads had signs saying no big trucks could go on them because of the mud (even though there was still snow everywhere.) So we had to have the moving van park a ways away and shuttle our things in a smaller van. Then there was the driver who seemed nice, but later we found out he had broken and stolen many of our things - the most during any of our numerous moves. We had 3 electricians at the house. The first one over-charged for everything and did little, the second one didn't know his job or the new codes and so had to have the third electrician come and fix everything (for which we were charged for his 2 hour round trip to/from our house.) We had 2 contractors come to: clear trees and some land to put a turn-around in our driveway and install a 1,000 gallon propane tank and whole house generator. The first contractor did part of his job (cutting down the trees) and only finished the job after we threatened to bring him to court - and he had the nerve to ask why we weren't going to use him for the rest of the job. The second contractor was a weasel who had an excuse every time we talked. His crew did the driveway, but his electrician (the 2nd one) did a bad job on hooking up the generator and all of this was supposed to have been included in our contract - instead we had to find someone else to finish the job. We also hired a guy to come and clear snow from our walkways and driveway and then hired him to do some carpentry work. In the end he over-charged us for each storm (sometimes claiming he had to come twice for one storm even when we told him that he only needed to come when the storm ended.) He also did only half the carpentry job. Then there are the other companies we had to deal with (mainly satellite TV - which we had to wait 2 weeks for them to find a ladder - and the propane company.)Despite all the problems with the contractors and companies we got the house ready for winter on-time (mainly using threats and finding last-minute people.)

Living in NH has been trying (especially when dealing with the locals.) I thought that living in a New England town would be like a Norman Rockwell painting, but I was sadly mistaken. Instead of the locals being friendly and neighborly the majority we have dealt with have been swindlers who knew we were not from NH and took advantage of that. Some people have said that New Hampshirites have to be on-guard all the time because they get many people from Massachusetts who come and cause all sorts of trouble - I am not from MA and never claimed to be and you would think people would be nice either way. Instead we had to deal with a power-hungry supervisor of the local dump who changed her rules every time I came (although I stood up to her and her minions and things have calmed down - knock on wood.) Then I learned the dump woman (who looks like the "feed the birds" woman from Mary Poppins) decided to run to be one of our town's selectmen - I have no idea if she won since our town's official website hasn't been updated in 9 months. At least I didn't vote for her. We also had to deal with a very stupid woman at the garage we used to bring our car too.

I tried to go back to college and get my Master's at the local State School (which is 50 minutes away) only to deal with both stupid people and stupid State regulations. Now I am looking for another place to go.

On top of all these things we had to deal with many doctors and dentists. It seems that NH has an unofficial rule that you can't get an appointment to be seen earlier than 3 months. We had one regular doctor that was basically useless. He never wanted to make any decisions and was never available when there was an emergency. I changed to a new regular doctor who is really good - although I had a fight with his stupid staff when an emergency came up, but the doctor talked to me about it and told me that in the future I should just ask to have him call me personally - that shows he cares. We have had to go to several hospitals and ERs this past year and while the majority of them were decent we had an issue with one in Concord (both with the specialist and his staff) and afterwards I found a new specialist and have been using him ever since. As for dentists: I have seen 4 of them up here. The first one did an awful job and treated us badly, the second one decided that since they didn't treat a certain issue they wouldn't tell me about it, the third was too expensive and their staff were stupid while the fourth was good (although you had to mention their $39 media special or they would charge you $200 for the same thing.)

Now a brief mention about our local vet. The first 4-5 times we went there we had issues because the staff decided to put our dogs under a different name and it took me several times reminding them about for it to get fixed. Now things seem fine - knock on wood. The vet himself is nice and I like that they have after-hours for emergencies.

As for living in the middle of nowhere it takes a lot longer to do basic things than any other place I have lived before. Our mailbox is 1/2 a mile from my house and you have to drive down a steep hill to get there. The closest Post Office (where I have to go to mail boxes to my dad in Iraq or to collect boxes) is 23 minutes away - as is the closest supermarket, gas station, etc. The closest fast food is an hour away, the closest hospital is also an hour away. The majority of roads around here are small, dirt ones that have one-lane bridges. When it rains there is thick mud everywhere. Of course we get a lot of snow, but since we have a whole house generator (which we have had to use a few times,) a fireplace, wood-stove, lots of wood and a stocked pantry we can just stay home when we get 1, 2 or 3 feet of snow at a time. We also have a snowblower and a plow guy. Sometimes even having 4 wheel drive it is difficult to drive in the mud, ice or snow.

There are some good things to living here. There is almost no traffic (although during the summer there are many tourists.)The two women who work at the Post Office have been very nice and friendly - anyone who knows my troubled past dealing with Post Offices around the world knows this local one is something unusual. There is also a nice woman who works at the Town Hall (even if small-town politics are kind of slow.) Another nice thing is the dog kennel and the owner who live 5 minutes from my house. We now live closer to our old house in New York and to friends in MA and so when we go for a day-trip we have to put our dogs at the kennel. The rates are fairly cheap and the dogs seem to really like it.

I guess all in all living in NH as a non-native adds more work on my part. I have to always be on my guard for contractors, companies and people who think they are smarter than me and try to cheat me (usually I catch it and give them hell.)When I can just stay on my mountain and not deal with anyone is when I really like living in New Hampshire.

I have lived in numerous States and countries and while New Hampshire isn't the State I hate the most (that would be Virginia) it also isn't my favorite (that would be New York.) I guess when all is said and done I consider New Hampshire to be just a stop on the road of places I have lived and will live in. I only hope that the next year will be better and that when I write about living in NH for 2 years I will be able to say that things and the people are nicer.