| Thoughts and Comments

30 years in the South Bay has been a fun ride. I mean, when I am rich and famous (at least really, really, really rich) I wanna buy a strand house and come back for summer sessions and all that, but it is just not reality here. I don't want Wylie growing up around here. (Not that buying a summer house on the strand is reality... but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it!).

I just can't imagine what this place is going to be like in 10 years, when it has already changed so much for the worse the past 10. There are of course spectres of the past all around, but the general overwhelming feeling is that this place is going to hell in a Mercedes S600, and I just can't stand it. I don't like watching this place corrupt the good memories I have and turn them into bitterness and hate.

So, evidently in our quest to find a more even and balanced upbringing for Wylie, we move to the north and end up in a town that is like 95% white. Which is funny, or rather ironic, because the folks we are renting from are in the other 5%!

I know it is the right thing to do for us, and really when you get down to brass tacks about it, building and selling a new house here is the only fiscally responsible option we have, and that is saying a lot because spec homes are a huge gamble. Up north you get a little more for a little less, have clean air 95% of the time (MB is something like 36% for a barometer), and are close to natural trees. The world around is not manicured, it is natural. Kids still ride bikes to school, and seriously for the 3 days we were there this past week, I was looking really hard, and only saw ONE 7 series BMW.

Getting stuck in 'traffic' in Santa Cruz means sitting on a two lane freeway surrounded by trees and mountains, not spray paint, concrete, trash, more concrete, and more trash.

I dunno. It will be a huge change for me, as I pretty well know the South Bay inside and out, and almost all my memories are tied to this place. But I look forward to it.

And friends are like riding bikes. You can not ride a bike for a while, but when you do, you pick up where you left off and are totally doing rad bunny hops, skid outs, and sweet airs off of curbs, so I am not really concerned about losing touch with anyone. Not to mention I gotta come back at least once a year for the travesty that is the Body Surfing Championships!

And finally, having Enron and the lads up north these past few years, once you start to make the drive up (or down), it really gets easier each time and then it's nothing.

And screw going to movies. If the movie doesn't suck, the fucking audience will.