You and me both. Years ago I had a job at White Sands Missile range, where the main entrance road was named after PFC Marvin R. Owen, an MP who had been on duty during one of those monsoon rains. Some guy reporting for duty from New Jersey, or some such station, didn't want to be late. So he drove into the running arroyo that separated him from post HQ. He had his wife and two kids with him as I recall, and they all started floating downstream. PFC Owen drove his pickup into the arroyo in an attempt to stop the car, but they were all swept away.

They all drowned in the middle of the desert, and the next day most likely there was hardly any water to be seen.

I tend not to be the first one to cross.

Arcata, being our college town, is the most expensive town here. I would consider other nearby towns if being cheap is important. Try Blue Lake, where I am (I'm outside town), it's more rural but under 10 miles from Arcata.
We moved here 25 years ago....back then, a 1000 square ft house with an acre cost us $800a month. I've owned my home since then, so I'm out of the rent loop, but poking on craigslist looks like around $1500-$2000 for a decent house, with some more, some less depending on what you get. Nice 2-3 bedroom homes seem to be about $500000 now with some property.

Our gas is the most expensive in the country consistently, over $4.

Beyond that, it's pretty cheap. Property tax is 1%, food is reasonable, entertainment is mostly nature and community, fishing, hunting, hiking, boating, surfing, diving, even back country skiing 1/2 hour up hill, so free, although there are paid events too, we even had GWAR play a few times in Eureka, but no opera or ballet.

My wife and I live on $30k....we have 4 cars, pets, vacations, a large pond, hot tub, etc. Because I have room, I grow a lot of our produce and we have around 40 fruit trees. We aren't putting any extra in the bank, but aren't depleting our savings either.

We are the marijuana capital of America, if you know the right people, it's maybe $100 an oz for A grade, $10-20 a gram for wax/oil.

All in all, it depends on your lifestyle. It would be easy to spend all you save living here on gas, or easy to not have a car at all if you're in town and will ride a bike in the rain. While there are certainly cheaper places to live, I'm not sure there's better. Our forests are gorgeous with skyscraper redwoods, the ocean is cold but clean here, the rivers unspoilt and full of fish, our air is some of the cleanest in the lower 48, water is too, and our summer daytime temperature is mostly 70-75 F, winter is low 50's- freezing, but we have very few freezing days.

Mckinleyville, just above Arcata, was (still is?) the largest town in California with no police, only highway patrol. They got a multiplex before police!

We have a ton of immigration from the bay area, but more often than not they move back because they miss the fast pace and abundant services and entertainment....I didn't.

Hope that helps. We love it here, but we're slow paced and super cheap bastards. If you are too, come check it out.

You live in FL?

I live in FL. My work requires me to wear a tie and dress jacket.

I get a lot free time but I have a short leash. I am on call 24 hrs. a day, 6 days a week.

Sometimes my job requires me to walk in the heat or rain to retrieve a dead body out of the woods or an open field or out on the Interstate.

All I know is, no matter the conditions here, it's better than Jersey.

*quality

So Ah when are they going to do a story of the time the Cleveland Indians had Mini Bat Night? Or the time they had Dog Bone night. I'm not making this up. They gave out free cookies in the shape of dog bones and half way thru the game the fans started raining them down on the field. Awe Cleveland how can you not love that town.

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reminds me of Kanna in the rain.

https://youtu.be/SxLcO2kodFU

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And in the rain too. If only all civic infrastructure works were this fast.

This is Playa Montesinos in downtown Santo Domingo. On Google Earth there is a cruise ship docked less than a kilometer from this beach. Apparently this happens after heavy rains which ties in with studies that show that 90-95% of all the plastic in the oceans comes from 10 rivers, 2 in Africa and 8 in Asia with China being the worst offender. It seems that as third world economies improve, their taste for western throwaway culture increases without a corresponding increase in disposal and recycling infrastructure. I've read somewhere that even where they have landfills they're often located near rivers where rains and floods flush the landfill and allow it to accept more trash.

Now just add an alligator or some piranha and you've got a perfectly good moat. Although I wonder what they do if the rains get heavy?

I just kept thinking to make this street legal, it needs plates, signal lights, brake lights, head lights... etc. But with those wheels on both front and back, where do you put everything else?

And that's beside the point of having fenders. which a bike legally needs, but imagine hitting water on the street or rain, the spray off that thing would be crazy.

Boy King Newt! May it never rain on your parade my liege ...

https://goo.gl/images/hC6Ncq

I've been following this story here. Sure was happy when they were found alive -- I had started to lose much hope after they'd been gone 4+ days.

The bad news today is that a Thai volunteer diver, a former SEAL, died on a return trip from setting up extra air supply tanks along the route. BBC coverage is very good:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-44734385

Most cave diving experts think that it would be extremely risky to try to move the kids out by diving. One of the on-scene people from the US has said that none of the boys know how to swim, let alone dive, and the conditions in cave diving make it so that panic can quickly lead to disaster.

Unfortunately, a new complication has come up. Oxygen levels in the chamber they are in are now at 15%, down from the usual 21%. They are working to get piping in to supply fresh air, but logistics of that are difficult since they need about 3 miles of piping. And to make matters worse, heavy rains are in the forecast, which will further stress the pumping that they are doing to keep water levels low in the cave.

The Thai head of the Navy rescue operation was quoted today as saying that "At first, we thought the children could stay for a long time... but now things have changed, we have a limited time." If that is correct and can't be resolved (due to dropping oxygen levels, rising water, or whatever), they may have to opt for the risky exit via diving. So definitely not out of the woods yet.