Hi Billion - Don did give a very good reason for being here - The weather.

The way I look at it we have weather that is very close to Paradise (at least along the coast) - about the only place better would be Hawaii - we don't have tornados (very rarely a wind storm will blow thru) - we don't have Hurricanes (well, ok - once in a blue moon - not impossible but very very rare) - we don't have the high humidity and heat combo unless there's a hurricane south of us.

And best of all the snow is kept well in the mountains where we can drive to it to play and ski. I don't know of many places you can get up in the morning, take a quick surf in the ocean, don your ski clothes and go skiing and then do a little mineral collecting in shorts out in the desert on the way home...

You have to remember: Earthquakes don't kill people, buildings do. We really only have damaging quakes about once a decade (averages) - so 45 seconds of shaking and things falling and flying and then its all over. We've also got some pretty good building codes and the buildings are all getting better.

There are some downsides - energy costs, state taxes.... I guess that's the price you have to pay...

Canie