Year One Commentary

So this month marks the one year anniversary of my move out west. This blog was originally titled "Westward Bound" but I guess that phase is pretty much over so we have a new title which will be more indicative of life from this point on.

Posted some photos which sums up Year One. The first three photos show the long drive from the Midwest crossing the Plains states (notice the Kansas City reference???) and about to hit Colorado and then all hell broke loose.

Limon, Colorado will forever be burned into my mind as the place I thought I was going to die. My poor Annie and I were facing the end of everything as we survived the most insane hail storm. Cracked windshield, the entire right side of Annie being dinged up (these were not golf ball size but softball sized chunks of ice!) all over. Spent the night in some roadside motel as it was a local disaster and the roads were impassable. People, this was in the middle of summer!

From this point forward, Annie (who is also affectionately now nicknamed "Annie Dimples" or "Dimples") will go through a lot of drama which made my life needlessly more interesting. You will hear more in later postings.

Been living in various places in the Bay but Church Street and Noe Valley is still considered my "home" as it so reminds me of Lockerbie and Mass Ave and met some great people there. The British Terrier is Bean and we will have a whole entry about him at the Burning Mansion.

Back when I first started coming to the Bay Area, a family member who moved out here long ago introduced me to the whole array of things I could not even imagine back in the Midwest. One of the fondest memories I have is the Folsom Street Fair. I ended up having a rather nostalgic place in my heart for this event. A new friend named "Kitty" wants us to take it to the next step and be part of this scene and stop being just an observer. Look for future entries on this!

And finally, the most stressing thing about living out here: having a car and all it's headaches. Parking in particular will be the everyday challenge as it drains you of sanity, money and increases your paranoia! Ugh!!!

Stay tuned for more on this and other wacky things out here!

Year One in Photos

Turns and Twists

The move and tying up things are taking longer than expected, in particular liquidating some assets I have tied up to investments.

With these delays, I am leaning more towards after Thanksgiving to head out to California.

In the meantime, I have some very promising news. As of last night, a verbal agreement has been reached with a local PR/Marketing firm where I will be their West Coast account manager and help develop client base for them.

I will still be in job search mode when I get out to the Bay Area but this gives me something in the meantime.

I think people are wondering if I will actually do this but I am being very methodical about this and want to lay out all the options available. Hope it works.

The First Steps

So I always used to wonder about people who blogged? Now here I am about to start one of my own.

Well, here is my premise. In the worst economic crisis in two generations, I am about to leave my comfortable and familiar surrounds of the last 30 years and move to California with its 12% unemployment and a state that is pretty much broke.

Why am I doing this? This is one of the ways to remind me why I am taking such a risk. But in a way, is it a risk?