Washington State and Pendleton

Wednesday was our day to “check out” Washington as a place to live. Washington and Oregon have an interesting difference in the way they tax their citizens. Oregon does not have a sales tax. Washington does not have an income tax. So, it’s possible to play the two states’ tax differences – you live in Washington (and arrange your work so that you’re based there) and buy stuff in Oregon.

There’s no secret to this. It’s a major reason for the development of Vancouver, Washington which is just across the river from Portland.

Our final decision – we’ll stick with Oregon. Two reasons. First, while Vancouver is nearby, it isn’t as close to Portland as we’d like, especially during rush hours. The second reason is that the railroad runs along the Washington shore line – in other words, right next to the houses closest to Portland.

We did take advantage of our drive to stop at the Pendleton (http://www.pendleton-usa.com/) mill and outlet store. We saw the process of turning raw wool into yarn and then into cloth which was especially interesting for Maxine since she’s been learning about weaving. Years ago, Pendleton proved to me that they value their customers, and besides, I believe they’re the largest wool clothing manufacturer in the US. Yes, as Southern California residents, we don’t often wear wool, but we do occasionally.

Finally, Wednesday night, I made the drive over to Beaverton (home of Nike), about 20 minutes from here, for a Philosophy study group I’d learned of through meetup.com. Seventeen people and a very interesting discussion on the topic of why we care about things and what it’s important to care about. And yes, I do enjoy multi-hour conversations on topics like that.