I am in Europe for a few days (almost 2 weeks, really), and as usual, there are some petite observations. In Austria, a lot of people smoke. You almost forget how it used to be, but a trip here has reminded me of smoking in restaurants and bars. Oh joy. I guess I will not wear this Sweater again on this trip. There are two types of trips: Those that over schedule you: every minute of every day is...
More on the saga so far. This week we spent three days crawling around neighborhoods looking for places that fit the criteria: They are livable – as in, we can walk our dogs in the evening without fear for our lives. We can afford it – We do have an upper limit to what is affordable, after all. I don’t have early Facebook equity. The commute doesn’t completely suck –...
Moving from Phoenix to San Jose is going to be an eye opener. We currently have almost 2,400 sqft of house, not counting the garage. We will be lucky to have half that here (for 2.5x the price). I am already thinking about what will have to go. A lot of what I have packed in my garage is going to get nuked. It has mostly sat in a box, so I am not going to miss it. My CD’s might get sold...
This week I am in San Jose/South Bay to “preview” prior to deciding to relocate. Since I spent the first 38 years of my life here, I don’t need much pre-viewing, so we are hitting likely locations to live. So far, I have pretty much dismissed the far south bay. Morgan Hill and Gilroy, while they are near and served by Caltrain, are just too damn far. I last lived at the north...
Hell has frozen over, and it looks like I am going to be relocating back to the Silicon Valley. I left there in 2003 to take a job in Tucson that I liked, and came to enjoy much of what Arizona offers. A couple times I flirted with going back, including a very tempting job offer. As we head out to “preview” the south bay, I would like to take a few minutes to reflect on some of the...
Four years ago today was the classic definition of a “bad day“. I had been at the gym, doing my daily workout, but felt blah and off. I couldn’t get my heart rate above 100 (registered on the elliptical trainer), and I really had to force myself to do the full hour. I was uncomfortable on the drive home, but that wasn’t so unusual after a session at the gym. I stepped into...