Suburbanite Child

As we were driving through the middle of Missouri yesterday, my wife was commenting on how beautiful the scenery was and how there are other places that can have green landscapes. I like green landscapes myself but almost all my life I've grown up within somewhat close proximity to major cities, moderately populated areas, and places that were centers of business & technology.

Ok, so even out here in Podunk, Missouri (also known as Lake of the Ozarks) I do have decent internet access and Digital Satellite tv can be had almost anywhere so I have to give it that. But when I was younger the standard for whether or not a place was civilized or not was based on if the town had a McDonald's. These days my standards have really been raised allot and you can find McDonald's, Starbucks, and Subway just about everywhere. So when my wife asked me about things that needed to be considered for places I would live, I had to think for a moment. Then after some thought about what qualities need to be in an area before I move there (all of about 10 seconds of deep analysis) I told her I couldn't move anywhere that didn't have a Best Buy or something similar (not Circuit City, they have terrible customer service and I'm ashamed to even use those words in the same sentence) within 10-15 miles of my front door. 20 miles was just too far away. I didn't say it at the time but I think I would also like to stay the same distance from a major airport as well given how much I'd like to travel and/or have relatives visit.

Now that I've taken the time to check, there's actually more Best Buy stores around than I thought. On the way to Osage Beach, MO. we passed through the capitol of Missouri, Jefferson City (still about 50 miles away). Come to find out there's a Best Buy there. When we got off the plane in St. Louis, we drove about 90 minutes west to Columbia and there's a Best Buy there. Of course the University is also there (where my wife's brother is an ENT doctor.) So Best Buy's are not too far away but I'm not driving more than an hour to go to the airport in order to get from one major city to another.

Despite the amount of online purchases I make, it's not the fact that I shop at places like Best Buy a great deal either. I just know that if there's that kind of place around, it's going to be surrounded by several other places I like to go. Not only that, it's not that I do go to those places, there's some comfort in just knowing that the option is there and I can go if I want to.