haha by plummetting heat bills I meant rising lol...must of been a brain malfunction. Thanks everyone for your input. The hardest part about moving is finding work. For myself, not so hard because I could easily find massage position. My boyfriend on the other hand has only had paper route, grocery work, and factory work, even though he's an artist by nature. Any suggestions on where to look for jobs?

"Ah, November. The time of year when Tucsonans go from being miserable to being smug." Peter Segel, NPR show "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me"

Oh, and there's freeway construction. Learn to get around on surface streets. But there's surface street construction too.

Hmm reading this I realize I need to clarify the water problems.
Tucson up untill its first attempt in 1993, and it later attempt in 1998(?) was the largest city in the world 100% dependant on ground water. However it became increasingly apperant in the lat 70's and early 80's that this was not a good long range plan and that the city would eventually run out of ground water to harvest. In the early 80's a plann was funded and passed called the central Arizona project, commonly called CAP. This was orginally supposed to harvest colorado river water to help farmers irrigate (back then the major industries in Arizona were Citrus, Cotton, cattle and copper). However when CAP was finished in the early 90's the farmer refused to use the water, it had a few issues. #1 it was too exspensive, and #2 the chemicals used to process it seemed to kill the plants. So the AZ goverment pretty much pushed Tucson into using it. The first attempt to push CAP water through the water delivery system was in 1993 on the eastside of Tucson. The results were disaterous, the chemicals in the water stripped the pipes in most homes and caused them to burst, hundreds of homes were flooded and damaged due to the CAP water fiasco. The project was pulled and tucson returned for the time being to 100% ground water. However the issue of sink holes poping up around the city was increasing and many wells were going dry. In the late 90's I belive around 98 (sorry my memory is less clear on this one) Tucson water pushed for "blended water" the plan was to pump CAP into the aquafire and blend it with natural ground water somewhat eliminating the problems of both taste and pipes bursting. That is the current system Tucson is on today. However tucson water will admit the project is failing, the water table continues to drop and at current rates we do not have enough projected water to last 40 years. There is no current solution, and the increased growth in Pheonix and Tucson continues to over stress the already stress water supply.
In fact there IS water rationing and regulation to a point, and at times it can be very strict with Tucson water fining people who waste water. There are regulated times you can water, and if you are caught letting water run in the street you can in fact be given a hefty fine. At one time tucson more heavily pushed the infomation about when to water "beat the peak" and publisized fines, they seem to advertise this information less now.

So do we have water right now? yes.
Is the water situation fine? well about as fine as the whole global warming thing only our time line is alot shorter.

BTW I know all this because I am a native, and I happed to live through the east side water fiasco of '93. I also have grown up on beat the peak, occasional city wide water restrictions and I know some folks who have been fined $500 by the city for wasting water.

i live in the northeast u.s. now but after my kids are older, am headed to tucson or thereabouts mostly for weather reasons- have health issues that would be much less severe in warm dry climate ... i've been to tucson a few times not enough to claim I know it well or anything ... is good to read these posts to learn what's up ......