Tralfaz

Month: January 2014

  • News from the Road

    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:

    1. Those that over schedule you: every minute of every day is planned. Of course, reality settles in, and some appointments will shift or be missed. These trips are hectic, often 5 countries in 4 days, no more than one night in a hotel, and guaranteed chaos.
    2. Those that spread it out too much: Plans change, schedules don’t align, and you find yourself with some downtime. I honestly don’t mind this, because I often can be super productive in these times. Often without internet access, being time shifted so that there is little overlap with the home country. It can be a good thing.

    Of course, regardless of the type of trip scheduled, the local team will feel like they failed you if they don’t keep every minute packed.

    In all my years of travel I have yet to find a sure fire way to quash jet lag. This time, I was up for 36 hours, and slept great my first night. I felt great the first day. Then last night I was tossing and turning until well past 2:00AM.  GRRRRRRR. Alcohol, melatonin, sleeping aids. All tried over the years, and all failed.

    Good food though. I usually push to eat local specialties and (usually) am surprised. Here in Austria and Germany, I will eat much meat.

    I rarely get to do any real sightseeing. I try to enjoy the weekends, but often I am so frazzled that I collapse in my hotel and just do work. This weekend will be an exception. I will be in London, and I will do some walking around. I have never spent any real time here, just flown in, and then headed north or west depending on the trip.

    Shopping. I am not a big shopper. Not much into the kitsch, and souvenirs. I don;t have kids, so no demand to carry stuff back.

    Well, it is almost Bier time, and I believe tonight we will be eating schnitzel. Yummy

  • “Silly”con Valley Neighborhoods

    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 – Probably the hardest of all. The further away you get, the more affordable it is, but this is inversely proportional to the suck factor of the commute.

    On Monday we ruled out a few neighborhoods in San Jose. The fear factor and the feel of some of the neighborhoods was pretty bleak. We also ruled out Gilroy and Morgan Hill. Yes, some affordable options there, but my commute would be tied to Caltrain, and it is a LONG drive for when that wouldn’t work.

    But we did find some downtown areas that were well within the “livable” and “affordable” category. And it would be possible to commute by bicycle if I wanted, a bonus!

    Tuesday we went up the east bay. Started in Milpitas. Very little inventory, (but lots, and I do mean lots of foreclosures) but every neighborhood we looked at was ratty and run down. Likely due to the reduced tax receipts caused by all the foreclosures (people in foreclosure are not paying their property taxes either). A real turn off.

    Further up the east bay, we checked a few places in Fremont. The problem here is the neighborhoods were squiffy. Some really gnarly neighborhoods that made me want to drive through quickly, and some that were in the process of gentrification. But that process was not far enough along to make them attractive. Plus the commute from here is getting egregious.

    Last place on the east bay was to check out the Hayward/Castro Valley area. A colleague lives up there, and recommended it. Claimed it took him 45 minutes to get to the office. cough He must never do it in the commute hours. It takes 45 minutes with no traffic and being at the speed limit on the freeways. Big negative.

    We also went up the peninsula. Some people urged us to look at Redwood City. The few (very few) affordable places were east of El Camino Real. Very rough neighborhoods. Of course, west of El Camino Real are nice, but it starts at $1M and goes up. Apparently that part of Redwood City is the slums of Woodside.

    Lastly, there was one house in “Menlo Park” that met our price target. But this finger of Menlo Park is just east of East Palo Alto. EPA often fights for the “Murder Capitol of America” with DC. Yes, EPA is changing, but it is still not a neighborhood to covet.

    The Net Results

    The trip was a success. We accomplished:

    • We will be able to buy something that is affordable (if we hold our nose and not think about the price).
    • There are some neighborhoods that are suitable and should be in our price range (yay!)
    • We now know what we don’t want. The fact that we were able to cross a lot off our list will help tremendously when we are actually shopping.
    • The move, while scary, is not terrifying. Yes, it will be tough, and yes, we will give up a lot to move back, but it is going to be do-able.

    Now to the next phase. Getting ready to sell our house. We will likely need to downsize a lot of the detritus of our lives. It’s as good a time as any to streamline, so they say.

  • Moving Travails

    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. Not a huge collection, but apart from some special ones, that I want to save (signed etc) they have been digitized and archived long ago. Bookman’s will get a bounty.
    • My textbooks. I will look long and hard at my physics and math texts. Most will get pitched. A few I still refer to, but the truth be told, they have been collecting dust for a long time.
    • My old computer gear. I have fond memories of my 8-bit days, and a couple old Atari’s and Apples. I fear they need to go adios. There are emulators, and I still have all the software, so apart from nostalgia, there is little value there anymore.
    • My paperback and Sci Fi collection. This is going to hurt. I have a lot of sci fi that I have bought over the years. Some collectors editions, a lot of old books long out of print. I will sort through the 8 or so moving boxes, and pick one to keep. The rest will go to Bookman’s. I have been using the reader for 6 years now, and I find that most of what I want to read is available electronically.
    • My second computer desk/workstation. I will likely not have room for both. One will go, and I will probably sell/use my second 24″ monitor at the office. It will make it inconvenient to work at home, but that is OK.

    This should help immensely if we get into 1,200 sqft. If we go much smaller than that, or only a one car garage, a lot more will get sacrificed. Probably some guitars and amplification. gulp

  • Notes from House Hunting in San Jose Area

    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 end of the Coyote valley, and it was OK, but still a long commute, even by light rail.

    I did find some great neighborhoods in downtown San Jose. Near the Japantown district are cute bungalows (small houses) that look fun, and some neighborhoods just north of Willow Glen are attractive and affordable. The whole downtown area has cleaned up a lot since I graduated from SJSU. Definitely like it.

    The Edenvale/Blossom Hill area is another strong contender. Older neighborhoods, but good feel, and it seemed like “home”. We did find some neighborhoods that genuinely sucked. Of course, when even in a sketchy neighborhood, a modest house costs over $500K, the trend is towards gentrification. Just not soon enough for our tastes.

    The Internet makes it cozy to sit at your desk and look for houses. MLS Listings, Zillow and Trulia are all pretty easy to navigate. But until you sit in front of a house, you fail to get a feel. One would think that real estate agents would invest in a decent camera and some classes on how to take a decent picture.

    Somethings I noticed on the road:

    • People here still can’t drive. Stupid maneuvers on the freeways, inability to merge on said freeways, crazy “california” stops. I thought Arizona had a lot of lousy drivers. But this takes the cake.
    • The infrastructure is looking old. Really old. Sidewalks are crumbling. Streets are rough. Not as bad as Tucson, but you can tell that some of the neighborhoods I looked in were from the very early 1900’s.
    • One thing Arizona gets right is the laws about how to deal with emergency vehicles. You pull over, both directions, and let them pass. I forgot about the past time here of chasing fire trucks and ambulances to catch their “green lights”. Insane at any speed.
    • Those “Keep clear” markings on the streets. Completely ignored. Traffic is bad enough, and it is difficult enough to merge cleanly, but blocking those areas is just selfish douchebag-ness. You are not helping, and you aren’t going to get there any quicker.
    • BMW must make a “California ONLY” version of their car. I swear in 2.5 days of driving around, I have yet to see a single BMW signal its intent. They must come without turn indicators here.
    • If you are in the right lane, and you want to make a left turn, it is OK in California to just cut across 4 lanes of traffic in 50′. No, really, nobody minds.

    I am back at the hotel, and I am tired. Mexican food and Margaritas tonight.

  • Relocating back to Silicon Valley – The Good

    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 good things there will be about returning to my childhood and early adult home.

    • Family and Friends – Since I lived in the south bay until I was 38, I still have many ties to the area. My step father, and sister still live there. My other sister lives a few hours away by car in the Sierra Nevada foothills. I also still have several friends in the area. It will be good to reconnect with them.
    • Climate and Activities – I love the outdoors and the related activities. Cycling, hiking, scenic drives are all good stress relievers for me. Tucson had great (technically challenging) hiking, but the climate was such that you were limited from May to October due to the heat. It will begreat to have redwood forests, Stevens Creek Reservoir, Fremont-Older, and other great hiking. Being an hour or less from the beach will be a huge benefit (not that I am a beach comber).
    • The Food – Tucson had the best Mexican food I have ever had. But I struggled to find good Chinese or Indian food. The one Korean restaurant was so so, and everybody’s recommendation for Italian, “Caruso’s” doesn’t even rate a sneer. I know that the Bay Area has a much wider selection, and the ethnic communities do have far better restaurants and variation. Yum. And one thing that I greatly missed is good sourdough bread. Yep, Beyond Bread did a passable sourdough, but nothing, I mean nothing compares to real crusty, chewy San Francisco sourdough. Yum.
    • Business – I am not ever planning on leaving my current job. I love it, and at heart I am an instrumentation guy. But, after the barreness of Tucson, and the better but not great employment market of Phoenix, it is reassuring to know that there will be opportunities to find new challenges should I need to. Silicon Valley remains the epicenter of much of the tech world.

    There are some plusses to the move, and I will keep them in mind as I am hunting for neighborhoods, weighing commute, quality of life, and where I can realistically afford to live.

    Next post: The Bad

  • Anniversary of an Ominous Day

    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 the shower, and BAM it hit me like a ton of bricks. Shooting pains out the arms, huge pressure on my chest. I knew I was in trouble.

    Fortunately my wife panicked and called 911 (first bit of good fortune) instead of driving me to the ER.

    Once I was at the ER, they hooked me up to a machine, and voila, I was having a heart attack. You never saw so many people jump into action. Off to the catheter lab, a call to the rad tech and the cardiologist on duty, and I was fitted with a Stent.

    Verdict: Complete blockage of my right coronary artery. The angioplasty and stent successfully opened it up, and I began a long recovery.

    Every January 3rd, I pause and recognize the day that I was dying and dodged a major bullet. I was 44 years old. I was running 5 – 6 miles 6 days a week. I was hiking on weekends, and I was eating healthy. I had been battling high blood pressure for years, but that had been controlled via medication, diet and exercise.

    Naturally I recovered, went through my rehab (12 weeks), and even was able 8 weeks after the event hike to the Phantom Ranch and back out.

    To this day, I try to live life to the fullest. I am cautious naturally, but every day is a gift to be celebrated and cherished.