Viva Las Vegas

I love living in Las Vegas although after 22 years, the thrill has definitely left the building.... along with Elvis. We travel alot, and always wonder, "What would it be like to live here?" These thoughts end the minute our plane touches down at McCarran. Truly, there is no place like home, even after 2 decades.

It's amazing to me what peoples perceptions are about Las Vegas. Until recently, I think people just assumed Las Vegan's lived on the strip and worked on the strip and we raised our kids up to be dealers and show performers. With the housing boom (and bust), people now know that Las Vegas actually has neighborhoods, churches, schools, parks, and all the things that make up a community. It's nice here people.


Friends and work colleagues in eastern cities ask me all the time, "Does the heat bother you?"

"Nope - I consider it my snow shoveling weather."

Puzzled looks....

I go on, "It's just that I would rather have 115 degree heat for a few months instead of having to shovel snow for half the year."

The light goes on in their head, "Ahhhhh."

At that point I can actually see the gears moving in their brains as they begin to think of the snow, the ice, the gray skies that linger for months on end, and the bitter cold.

I say to them, "Do you know why so many people live in old, crappy places in the east and midwest?"

"Uh, no."

"It's because back in the 1700 and 1800's, cities pretty much had to have access to water since that was the only way to move people and supplies. Access to rivers, lakes and oceans determined where our first great cities were located." People were stuck living along waterways.

Think about it, who could even get to Las Vegas 200 years ago? Native American Indians didn't even want to live here since it was so damn hot and the dirt was so bad and hard that even to this day, it can be hard to plant a flower without hitting rocks. Since there weren't any casinos, airline flights OR air-conditioning until the 1950's, there was no way in hell that anyone would or even could live here - except for a few brave souls. Air-conditioning = Genius.

We're a city/state that's pretty laid back. Driving to California on I-15 there is a California Highway Patrol stop in the middle of nowwhere - it's a good 75 miles from the Nevada border, and its sole purpose is to inquire if you are bringing any fruit in the car to California. Each day, thousands of travelers are slowed down, and vast sums of money are spent to staff a station to ask a dumb ass question that is pointless, "Have any fruit in the car?" Even if I did, would I tell the guy? How many Las Vegas families have ziplock bags of cut up apples, pears, and grapes to feed junior on the long ride to San Diego or Disneyland? I mean, is one bag of grapes going to set off a chain reaction that will require FEMA's assistance?

Now the irony. Going the opposite direction - heading into Nevada - there is no stop. No signs telling travelers what they can or cannot bring into our fine state. You know why? It's because since the 1950's and clear up to the early 1990's, the federal government set off 928 nuclear bombs in Nevada. Do you think we care if you bring in a piece of fruit with some exotic spore on it? Hell no. We set off nukes above and below ground for decades. Our state is already polluted - more than New Jersey if that's possible. And people here (they're all newcomers) get all freaked out about storing nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain. Newsflash: That ground is already producing watermelons the size of VW Bugs.

I say, let's store the stuff and tax it up the wazoo so it will help pay for schools, police, roads, and all that other crap our taxes fund. People griped about the cost of building Yucca Mountain, but $9 billion dollars nowadays is nothing but bonus checks for AIG executives (that's for another blog post).



The singular drawback to living in Las Vegas...the wind.





Every spring the wind shows up. This atmospheric occurrence doesn't last for a day. Hell no. It can last for months. I've been sitting in my backyard writing this, and already a thin film of pollen and dust blanket my computer. Ah....spring in Las Vegas.

But you konw what? My grass is green, my flowers are in bloom, and we sleep with our windowns open.





I wouldn't want to live anywhere else.