The temperature was tumbling into the minus double digits, the heater in the car was cranked up, the walk from the parking lot was brisk--to say the least--and I'm more than a bit envious of those who are in snowbird country until spring.

Inside the office, even my computer was a bit slow warming up, but it eventually got going.

I was scrolling through my e-mails when I saw one that mentioned a U.S. website called www.ishouldlivewhere.com that aims to help people decide where in America they should live.

Hmmm. There's nobody around in the office--maybe I've got time for some daydreaming, wishful thinking and escapism.

The website contains a five-part questionnaire that aims to match people and their wants with a list of places in the U.S. that fit their criteria--everything from work commutes and the importance of museums and art galleries, to crime and unemployment.

The first step was to select a region. Being from Western Canada, I clicked on the southwestern U.S., knowing that many acquaintances of mine hang out down there during the winter.

For the second step, the questionnaire asked me to click on the size of community I preferred.

For the region I choose, there were six options ranging from 10,000 to more than 300,000 people.

I selected 10,000 to 25,000.

Pull-down menus on the website asked me about what cost of living I would be comfortable with (I chose no more than moderately above average), price of owning a home (average house prices, whatever that is), maximum distance from a major city (10 miles, or 16 kilometres), maximum distance from a major airport (25 miles, or 40 kilometres).

Not that I have to worry about it anymore, but I also requested a community where the school system

had to be average or better-- and where the crime rate definitely should be very low.

I clicked to step three. Ah, here comes the good stuff.

This is all about weather. Let's see--I wanted somewhere where it was warm all year and where the sun almost always shone, therefore I didn't want much in the way of rain or snow.

The air and water quality, though, had to be excellent.

Seeing as how I was doing this quiz from the retirement angle, the next set of questions wasn't quite so relevant: my dream community's economy.

Hold on, though--maybe I'd want a job as a Wal-Mart greeter for a little extra pocket change. OK, then.

The place had to have an average or better income, a lower than average unemployment level, higher than average rate for future job growth, and an average commute time of less than 20 minutes.

It wouldn't pay for a Wal-Mart greeter to live too far away from the store.

The next step was amenities, attractions and restaurants: the meat and potaties of the questionnaire.

Amenities first. I need an airport for friends and family coming to visit.

A hospital is also a must. Beaches would be nice and so would casinos, golf courses, movie theatre or a shopping mall for that one day when it might rain.

A stadium would be great for the sunny days when the local baseball team is playing a doubleheader.

As far as I'm concerned, the place would also need a good selection of restaurants (Italian, Thai, Vietnamese, Mexican), a coffee shop, ice cream parlour and a pizza joint--and, of course, a sports bar.

I double-checked this list just to make sure my tastebuds weren't being shortchanged.

So having filled in the appropriate blanks on all pages, I hit the button for the results, thinking about a retirement place in Arizona, California, Nevada or even New Mexico.

The screen went blank for a few seconds and up popped the web-site's top 25 locations.

Every one of them was in Texas.

Of the 25, I've only heard of two--Gainesville and Kingsville. Maybe it was the beaches that gave Texas the nod.

I used the same criteria and chose the west region of the U.S.

I got everything from Hawaii to Wyoming, but the list was still kind of short of the Arizona and Nevada stuff, though. Oh, well.

Huh. Texas.

Never been there. Maybe I should go check it out, but I won't rule out the west.

But as I looked up from my computer to the windows, it was still cold in Calgary, where steam rising into the winter sky from the downtown office towers was moving north to south.

Texas. It might not be so bad after all--but there's nothing like an in-person visit just to make sure.

mhope@theherald.canwest.com