The Big City of Roseburg

          I don’t know what exactly freaks me out about driving in Roseburg.  The population is less than half of what I’m used to – but I’m also used to driving on a grid – and having streets that are numbered rather than all names.

          Oregon drivers (as a whole) seem a lot more courteous than Utah drivers – not that Salt Lake accounts for all Utah drivers.  But Salt Lake County makes up for over 1/3 of Utah’s population at  1,029,655. The entire Douglas County has a population of 107,667 with Roseburg population at only 21,181 but still the largest city in the county with the next largest city coming in at 7,810  and then Myrtle Creek at less than half of that – and the numbers go down from there.

          Overall, the state of Oregon has a higher population than does the state of Utah; Oregon residence are just more spread-out throughout the state making their largest counties from 300 – 800 thousand people and most of their smaller counties with still a higher population than the average Utah county (the largest after Salt Lake has less than 600,000 and goes down from there)

Oregon is a very large forest dotted with cities.  Except for the Portland area, it seems you have to drive through a huge amount of forest before the next city.  In Salt Lake it is often not known when you have passed one city and entered another as there doesn’t seem to be a break between them. That's always nice when either your car or stomach are acting up - unlike the county where we currently live.  Can't say the same for the entire state of Utah - as there seem to be a lot more rural cities than what we've found in Oregon.

We’ve been to Grants Pass and Eugene – both in other counties – both much larger than Roseburg.  In fact, Eugene is the second largest city next to Portland, with Oregon’s state capitol, Salem, coming in 3^rd.  Roland is usually always behind the wheel.  I've driven to Canyonville by myself - but I still don't like getting on the freeway - even though I5 has a dense population of cars (at least in Douglas county) as opposed to I15 (the Salt Lake to Provo commute) and one doesn't have to wait in line just to get on the ramp or merge at the speed of light. 

The speed limit posted is 65 except for Semi trucks which is posted at 55.  Often I just stay in the lane with the trucks - except for when they are really slow and have their blinkers on and are  moving in the shoulder lane.  The highways are steep.  They go up and down and wind all over the place.  Our car is even less used to it than I am.  And pulling over too far on the shoulder makes for an unpleasant drop.  I don't understand why there are so few guard rails. 

Some Oregon drivers are ruthless - like tonight.  We were returning from Roseburg when all these cars passed us as though we were standing still - and it was Roland behind the wheel - not me.  Usually we do not see that many cars wiz by.  But the county fair is on - we don't know how far they may have traveled to get to Roseburg in the first place - or how far they have to travel to get to work. 

The big city of Roseburg is not actually all that big.  I just refer to it as such because of the rural area where we are currently living.  It's a 17 - 21 minute drive from where we live.  It is where we go to do major shopping, visit the hospital, attend the cinema, stuff like that. Somebody had told us that Grants Pass was about the same distance and a better drive.  It wasn't.

It took twice the amount of time to get  to Grants Pass as to Roseburg - and though it didn't seem quite as steep, it was definitely a lot more smokey the particular day we chose to go.  I had a massive headache - but I can't complain.  There are firefighters among others who are much closer to the elements than I.

Grants Pass pride in the bears.  Local artists create bears to be displayed along the streets for the summer.  We were told that by the end of summer the bears are auctioned off and new creations are made with each summer.  I know we didn't see all that are found on Google.

The Good, the Bad, the Ugly and the Beautiful

Jenna does NOT deal with change well.  She is horrible at it.  Horrible.  I don’t even remember what it was she was complaining about last night.  I told her that whatever we do, wherever we live, no matter what, there are going to be some things that we like about our current situation and some things that we don’t. 

I told her to write a list of pros and cons with living in West Valley and with living in Myrtle Creek.  I didn’t suggest for her to include Kearns – after all she was only five when we had moved. There was probably more drama about that move than there was with this last one.

After reviewing her lists, I decided to make some lists of my own.  Thus for this post, I have decided to share each list that was created (or started at least)

Jenna’s pro list for living in West Valley

1)           school friends

2)           church friends

3)           good principal (Mrs. Randolf is truly amazing)

4)           FAMILY

5)           More time with dad (they had actually eaten breakfast together)

Jenna’s con list for living in West Valley

1)           a certain individual from school

2)           church friends live in apartments

Jenna’s pro list for living in Myrtle Creek

1)           same answer as number one on last list

2)           swim lessons (pool in general)

3)           friends made

4)           a library

5)           a bike

6)           good people

7)           Netflix

 Jenna’s Con list for living in Myrtle Creek

1)              mom forced me to be in band before school even started

2)             have to practice the clarinet

3)             missing friends from West Valley

4)             Barely anything to do (EVERYTHING IS IN ROSEBURG)

5)             Missing family

6)             Less time with dad [who’s still working according to mountain time and eats breakfast at his desk or long before Jenna gets out of bed]

My pro list for living in West Valley

1)           public transportation

2)           conveniences (driving locations)

3)           playing games with family members

4)           dual immersion

My con list for living in West Valley

1)           dry air

2)           traffic

3)           construction

4)           small house

5)           no sidewalks

My pro list for living in Myrtle Creek

1)           I can more easily breathe

2)           Low crime

3)           Best house

4)           Strong ward

5)           Opportunities that Jenna will have in this school as opposed to Salt Lake (such as low income rental on instrument and swim lessons that didn’t get cancelled due to a lack of numbers)

6)           Overall friendliness of people

7)           Low key traffic

8)           New Friendships

            9)         that Roland was able to bring his job with us

My con list for Myrtle Creek

1)           windy roads without guard rails

2)           family members live so far away

3)           outrageous water bills

4)           lack of public transportation

5)           library hours

6)           variety

Love the House I Live in

         Though Roland seemed anxious to purchase a house right away, I still don’t know what city I would like to make my permanent resident.  I love Myrtle Creek. Everyone’s been so friendly and it really did not take long to warm up to things.

         Roland has always looked at the house itself.  My primary concern is with the neighborhood, the ward, the area itself.  The house is only secondary.  But I do love this house we’re in right now – though we are just renting and haven’t even bothered looking at a house to buy – though Roland still seems anxious to do that very thing. 

        School is so expensive, and if we can find a home now, Jenna will have a better chance of going to school in Oregon for a much lower cost than her brothers.  MUCH LOWER – but we have to be homeowners.  But I also believe we need to be making more money than our budget allows at this time.  As renters, we do not have to pay property taxes.  I find that to be a plus right now.  

         I do know we’ll need to move eventually.  But let’s let Jenna do a year or two of middle school at least.  I thought I’d want to move her to a bigger high school, but I’m finding that I really like those that graduated from So. Umpqua High.  But I don’t know that I could last six or seven years more in this county.  Eventually I’m going to need to go back to public transportation. 

         I don’t remember yellow flowering plants with thorns even existing when I lived on the east side of state street growing up in Salt Lake City.  But after I got married and moved to the west side, thorns were an everyday part of our life.  Both houses we were in.  We couldn’t help but step of them. 

      They were constantly being dragged into the house and it seemed to house needed to be swept and vacuumed more often, but somehow thorns were always left behind.  I could never go barefoot in the house, let alone outside.  In Myrtle Creek, I’ve been able to do both.  And it’s been wonderful.

       When we lived in West Valley, there was no garbage disposal hook-up.  I am so used to scraping garbage out of the sink and throwing it away that I forget we have access to a disposal in the house where we currently live.

         We also have a place to put our table and call a dining room

         We have a lot more closet and cupboard space and just a lot more space.  It is so awesome to be able to walk from room to room without bumping into walls or furniture because everything is narrow and small.

         We have water pressure!  Something else I have truly missed the last 5 ½ years.  I love being able to do dishes in more than just a trickle of water.  I can even do dishes when the washing machine is running – something I couldn’t even fathom in West Valley. Taking showers is also a lot nicer.

         I had a laundry room when we lived in Kearns, but not in West Valley.  My desire was to move the appliances outside, wall up that area and have more elbowroom.  The washer and dryer are now in the garage where one might think I have more elbow room, but with a refrigerator on one side and a car on the other, the space might actually be tighter than in West Valley. 

         In West Valley my washer opened to the left and my dryer to the left opened down.  It was kind of a bother to attempt to push clothes over one door and hope they would land in the dryer or at least of the door – though I wasn’t happy with having too much weight.  Now my doors open opposite directions.

         I found a system that lessens the inconvenience of having two doors in between the washer and dryer.  I take the clothes out of the washer and put them in the basket.  I put the basket on top of the dryer and clothes the washer drawer.  I move my body over to the tiny space in front of the dryer and take the clothes down and put them inside.  Wish I would have thought to do the same when we lived in West Valley. I’m not complaining because there are so many other features about the house that I love.

         I love having shelves to put things.  I love having a coat closet (not that we’ve had a need for it as of yet) None of the houses I have lived in have offered coat closets.

         I love having access to electronic communication, for I still miss those that we left behind in Utah.  I am grateful that Roland was able to bring his electronic position with him and still has a job regardless of where we live.  

         I love being able to breathe.