If you can stand it, cold therapy can really condition your body to tolerate it a lot more. You don't even need to go full ice bath, just stand in the shower with the water as cold as you can take it for at least 2 - 4 minutes. You'll learn to control your breath to generate heat and with practice will become much more cold tolerant, especially acutely for the hour or so following the session. Not fun but there's some evidence for modest health benefits as well...might be worth a try.

As a working class person - Fuck Wal Mart. I consider it a point of pride to not shop there.

Michael's Deli on Harvard St. in Brookline does a killer thanksgiving sandwich

Hmm. Fair enough. I drive out of San Antonio up to hill country once or twice a year to visit family and haven't noticed issues on the highway that stand out but I've literally never gotten off the highway and driven around town. Up in the panhandle Oklahoma was what came up...as soon as you crossed the state line driving to OKC the highway was just like a rumble strip, but I've heard they have a new turnpike and the highways are nicer now...

So your second chart has MA with a higher percentage of unacceptable roads but a slightly lower cost per driver...but I think the methods here probably dont capture everything. I also suspect it's somewhat difficult to make direct comparisons for the simple fact that Texas is much much larger, with huge swaths of little to no population and a large network of dirt roads, that while crappy, are only being used by farmers. At any rate, I am aware I'm just offering an anecdote here, but I've driven a lot in all these places, as has my wife, and we are constantly in awe of the number of skull rattling pot holes and rusty, run down, crumbling bridges here.

Where exactly...I spent 18 years in the Texas panhandle and about 10 in south Texas before moving to Boston...Boston is way worse.