Personal

When I live in a city for 10-12 years, I always start to become disgusted with it and I feel the need to move elsewhere. That has always made it difficult for me to settle down.

I’ve made several big moves in my life. My first was from New York City to Los Angeles, when I left my parent’s house and lived in my own apartment for the first time. Since I don’t enjoy driving, I was never really happy there.

During my time there, I had started a Macintosh consulting business. Eventually my business partner got the idea to move to Casper, WY. I never liked it there in the first place so I only lasted a little more than a year before I wanted to leave.

At that time, my mother got sick, so I moved to Florida, where she moved after my father died, to be closer to her. Now I’m starting to get disgusted with Florida.

I feel completely out of place here as the only computer geek, and I find Florida politics especially vile. I really hate one of my neighbors in particular, often known as “big bird”.

This time my move is complicated by the fact that I own my condo and I’ve accumulated too much stuff. I also have two cats now, which I didn’t during my previous moves. Luckily I bought my condo at a good time, so it’s still worth more than I paid for it and much more than I own on my mortgage. Since my car is leased, I’m not sure what my options are with it, and whether I can return it in a different state.

I don’t think I’ll be able to move again after this one, so where I move this time is probably where I’ll spend the rest of my life.

I’ve been browsing a few places in San Francisco and I’m planning a trip there around the end of this month to look at them and maybe find a place I can buy.

Over the past few years I’ve become very disgusted with Florida, both politically & socially. I finally decided to do something about it. I’ve set a goal for myself to move out of here by November 24, 2009.

The only reason I moved here was because my mother got sick. Since she’s no longer with us, there’s nothing keeping me here. Socially, there’s nothing for me here. I don’t know any other developers here. Most of my local friends & neighbors barely know how to turn on a computer. Almost everyone I deal with every day is either in the San Francisco bay area or Vancouver. I really need to live in a high-tech area like that, since I feel isolated from everyone else in the computer industry.

I work at home, although I’m not self-employed, so I can live anywhere. If I lived somewhere like San Francisco it would give me the option of working in a co-working space instead of at home, or if I lived in Vancouver I could actually work in the office. I hate driving, but that’s my only option here. I prefer living in a real city with an actual downtown area like San Francisco or Vancouver where I can walk to restaurants, theaters, and clubs.

I’m also strongly at odds with Florida politics. Here, it’s not unusual to see people flying a Confederate flag, but when I see a confederate flag I have the urge to tear it up, spit on it, and stomp on it. My political views were formed growing up in New York City, which makes me feel very out of place here.

The first part of my plan is to start cleaning up my place and getting rid of the junk that has accumulated over the years, a large portion of it includes all of my mother’s possessions & documents which I’m storing in my extra bedroom. I’ve always resisted doing that, which is the main thing that has kept me from moving. Once I have it cleaned up, I can start getting my condo ready to sell. Hopefully prices will start to recover by that time, although even at the worst, units were still selling for more than I paid for this one.

I’ve found in previous moves, especially across the country, it’s a lot easier & cheaper to get rid of my furniture and buy new stuff rather than packing & moving it. I plan to take only my computers & cameras and sell all of my furniture.

Today has been a crazy, unsettling, eventful day. For starters, my friend lost her job.

Later, the offer I had made for a foreclosed condo I was planning to buy & rent out was rejected.

Finally, a driver hit one of the buildings in here and caused some serious damage.

Maybe I’ll buy Apple stock with the money I would have spent on the condo, since Steve Jobs’ health concerns made the stock drop.

I know it’s silly, but my mother believed that you should tie a red ribbon in a new car for protection and good luck. The Prius was the first car with which I didn’t do it, and I had more trouble with it than I’ve ever had with any car I owned. Today I salvaged a red ribbon from a gift and tied it to the rearview mirror in my new car.

After no problems for over a year, the 12v starter battery (NOT the hybrid battery) in my Prius died again. This time it wouldn’t even hold a charge if I don’t drive for one day.

I finally gave in and traded it for a Corolla S. This is the third Corolla I’ve owned and I’ve never had one bit of trouble with any of them.

As a final goodbye, I had to jump start the Prius today to get it to the dealer, and when I tried to open it to transfer my stuff to the new car, the battery was dead again.

It feels weird driving a regular car again & I miss some of the features, like the touch screen for audio & climate control. I also miss not having to fumble with a key to start the Prius. Since I don’t take a lot of long trips, which are really needed to keep the underpowered starter battery in the Prius charged, I’m better off with something low maintenance.

I haven’t had a chance to do any blogging since I arrived in Vancouver, since I’ve been busy in the office during the day and exploring & enjoying the city at night.

Even though I brought my CoolPix L5, I never took it out of the bag and simply used my iPhone to take a few pictures.

I’m leaving for Vancouver tomorrow, so I probably won’t be posting until I get there. Vancouver is one of my favorite cities and I’m really looking forward to this trip.

I’m going to Vancouver next week. I’ll be in the office most of the day, but I’ll be available evenings if anyone wants to meet for dinner. Since I most likely won’t be able to get away too long during the day, I’m not bringing my D40x, only my point and shoot Coolpix L5.