Friday, September 15, 2017

Leaving Kalifornia.....

Last post here for a while. I may or may not post from the road...we'll have to see about that.

And the place we'll be staying at has basically NO Internet, so I'll be using one of my portable 4G WiFi Hot Spots.

Things are going South in a hurry here. My wife she was going to arrange the junkman pick-up, but since *I* didn't get this room cleaned out yesterday because I was outside making big piles of stuff into smaller pile of throw-away and very small piles of keep, she says I broke my promise to have the room cleaned, and now it's my task to make arrangements to having the stuff hauled away.

And I'll have to park the Supra on the street starting Sunday night, as she's demanding I have the entire driveway empty so U-Haul can fill it with pods. I took the tap measure outside and measured out the area they said they'd need, pointing out that two of the six pods could be placed alongside the house, by OH NO!!!!!! The whole damn driveway MUST be empty accord to She Who Must BE Obeyed.

And other misc BS, dagger stares, etc, etc, etc.

Makes me wonder why I bothered to get married again. I can give myself this kind of abuse, and then it's over. She's running at flank speed all over me, and shows no signs of letting up.

Oh, well......

So here's something I ginned up a while back. I was planning on making it pretty and polished, but that wouldn't really fit with this blog very well, so here it is:


Leaving Kalifornia…..Or Should That Be “Kommiefornia”?



As our time in The People’s Demokratik Republik of Kaliforniastan draws to a close, I thought it interesting to go through my time here and reflect on some things. There’s times I wonder if I made the right decision when I moved here, and ponder what Might Have Been if I’d stayed in Illinois. I can pretty much say that I never would have had the interesting career I’ve had, and I know I wouldn’t have been able to do a lot of the things I got to do while living here.


Things I’ll miss:

My family and friends

The Battleship Iowa

The weather. My wife has never lived anywhere with REAL weather. The first major thunderstorm will have her under the bed clutching the dog

The ocean. Now I’ll have the mountains, though, so I’ll call that a wash

In-N-Out Burger. The closest one is in Utah

Really good “Chinese” food. The only place I’ve that I like is the HuHot, a pretty good “Mongolian BBQ”, but the add-your-own sauces are pretty bland, at least compared to The Golden Camel in Torrance

REALLY good Mexican food, although The Kids tell us Fort Collins has some great Mexican restaurants

KLOS, KCBS (“Jack FM”), KROQ, KSWR, KYSD, and a couple of other FM radio stations

150MB high-speed Internet for a reasonable price


Things I absolutely, positively, will NOT miss:

The congestion that comes with “postage stamp” sized lots. Our lot is 5400 sqft, with maybe 15’ between the houses, and is in a neighborhood consisting of a couple of hundred other houses. I don’t want to know when my neighbor flushes their toilet, or what they’re cooking for dinner

The traffic. Used to take me 20~22 minutes to get to the Iowa in 2008. Now it takes 45 or more

The graffiti that gets painted over only to reappear a day later, larger and more colorful

The trash alongside the roads and in the parking lots. It’s everywhere. It really boils my blood to see somebody open their car door, dump a bag of McDonald’s on the ground, and then walk to a store that has a big trash bin right by the entrance...

The crime. This part of Long Beach is pretty safe, but go a mile or two North or West, and the whole scene changes….

The STOOPID gun laws

The even STOOPIDER (is that possible?) politicians. How Nazi Pelosi and Dianne Frankenstein manage to keep getting elected is astounding

The taxes. You name it, and it’s most likely taxed here. And at an exorbitant rate…..which is increasing. Our betters in Sacramento just added $1/month to everybody’s water bill, domestic and commercial, to pay for “Safe, clean water for our rural brothers and sisters”, or some equally inane reason. They’ll probably want another tax to repair Oroville Dam…..

The ever increasing numbers of The Entitled and their attitude. And their driving is getting worse. Cutting across multiple lanes without a turn signal, stopping in the street to talk to somebody, blatantly blabbing away or texting while they’re driving, etc, etc, etc

The FOURTEEN Mexican and SEVEN rap crap radio stations on the FM dial

I’m tempted to say “The DMV”, but that’s highly dependent on which office you go to

So bye-bye Kalifornia. You used to be The Golden State, but that was a long time ago, in a USA far, far away

18 comments:

  1. There is something to miss and some people enjoy beating themselves in the head with a ball peen hammer every day.

    You can always return - or you can put your mouth on the exhaust pipe of your car and remember.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We can always visit, but we can never return.

      The economics of returning make that impossible....

      Delete
  2. Congrats on your escape and thank-you for making California a better place while you were here.

    My wife also got into Full Angry Turbo Mode with me when I failed to follow certain criteria she had as we moved out, I think it's a chick-thing about moving and cleanup...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well, I tried to make it better in my own, small way.

      And my wife is in full-bore bat guano crazy mode.....

      Delete
    2. As I try to move, I have noted the same thing. My Ham Shack was a wonder of stuff crammed into a small space. I have never met SWMBO's timeline to clean it out. This weekend I have two out buildings to try to clear the majority of stuff out but I know already that my efforts will be insufficient.

      Delete
    3. Yep. I could have made HALF the pile disappear within a few days, and all she would have yapped about is "WHEN are you going to GET RID of the REST of it??".

      Delete
  3. I've heard it said that everybody who calls California a paradise is remembering it when it had 6 million people, not the 40 million it has now.
    I've visited before and it has its nice spots, but it isn't for me - last year I lost a serious relationship because I didn't want to move there and she wouldn't consider living anywhere else; even right over the border in Arizona or Nevada was too far from family in San Diego.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I moved here in 1982, and there were about 23 million. In the 35 years I've been here I've seen a LOT of changes, and very few of them for the better.

      I, for one, we be very happy to "Get Outta Dodge". I think my wife will take a while to adjust to a much more "rural" lifestyle, but I'm hoping she'll grow to love it.

      Delete
  4. Congratulations on getting out, and I hope it goes smoothly. We'll be pulling for you.

    In the industry, it's almost impossible to not get sent to California at least a couple of times and I've been to El Lay, Torrance and Camarillo as well as the "silicon valley" proper. I really thought it was beautiful in places and would have been really nice if there were 10 or 20 million fewer people. The problems are many, though, and I don't see it changing without massive disruption and suffering. It's really a place to actively avoid.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's why I moved out here in the first place. The plant I was working in for a large company was the smallest plant they had. After the plant manager quite, they consolidated us in with the motor rewind shop, and things started going downhill fast. I was out her on field service (again....long story), and two of my friends convinced me to apply around. Hughes Aircraft about grabbed me by the lapels and begged me to work for them, and the rest is history.

      It would take me anywhere from from 15 minutes to 20 minutes to get to work. That same trip today would be more like 45 minutes.

      I'm tired of it.

      And the cost of living in Colorado is at least 20~25% less than it is here.

      Delete
  5. Good luck on the move, and I hope the transition to your new home is as smooth and low stress as possible.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Aaron.

      It's a ball breaker right now. Hopefully it will calm down in a day or two....

      Delete
  6. This California is not the California I grew up in.
    I'm gone as soon as the estate is settled. Neighbors are gone to Colorado as soon as their house is sold, and lots of friends are gone as soon as possible.

    Get your wife a massage & pampering at the day spa asap! If that doesn't tone things down, I'm truly sorry for you...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, things have changed a lot in the 35 years I've been here, and not in a direction I care for.

      Time to vote with our feet!

      Thanks for the tip on calming the wife. I'll offer that to her and see if she accepts, or explodes.

      Delete
  7. High speed internet for any price if you live in the boonies.
    Safe trip. God bless you and give you strength.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Good luck on your journey and congrats to getting out of that shi7hole. 😁

    ReplyDelete
  9. Gun laws in Colorado aren't great either...better than Kommieland for sure...
    Consider moving across the state line into Wyoming where they have open carry...
    No more steaming hot summers. Summers in Colorado begin in July, and end in August...you're gonna be seeing a freeze overnight very soon...snow by Halloween...
    You will see colors in the season changes you thought not possible...
    Beware of the Chinook winds...
    Get yourself a snow shovel or snow blower if you got the money...get yourself overboots...at least one size bigger than your shoe size...cold weather gear? Get a snow brush and scraper...learn to brush snow off your tail lights and headlights...always give yourself more time to get anywhere in the winter...beware of black ice.
    Rear wheel drive vehicles in winter are worthless when roads are icy...worthless...get yourself a front wheel drive something...
    Carry extra wipes blades with your vehicle...carry extra windshield washer fluid with you as well...you will need to wash your car after you've been driving in a snowstorm...get some snowmelt for your sidewalk and driveway...chill pills for your wife...
    Best of luck, friend. Will look forward to hear from you after you settle!
    EX

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I grew up in the Chicago area, so the winters in Fort Collins won't bother me. I already have big "E Box" in the Jeep for emergencies, but I'll have to update it for the different climate. Well Seasoned Fool will almost be a neighbor, and he's helped me a lot.

      I already have a bunch of cold weather gear, but will need to get some over boots/galoshes.

      Wife has a front-wheel drive, I have a Jeep, and my Supra will sleep in the garage during snow.

      Snow blower is on the list for when we buy a house. I'm NOT going to shovel snow, PERIOD! Had enough of that when I was a kid!

      Colorado is open carry, too, except for Denver (and possibly Boulder) and places like court houses.

      Delete

Keep it civil, please....

Gloomy, Gritty, Grey Day

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