| 1997 December |
December
- Move to Arizona - Mesa I moved out of my San Jose apartment and moved into my condo in Mesa, Arizona. I had great friends help me (one spent Christmas day packing the truck) but the move absolutely exhausted me. I interviewed and got a new challenging job. Pay was a little low but then AZ is not CA. We had arrived in Phoenix just in time to see a car smash into a motorcycle parked on the expressway and send the bike flying. It turned out to be a cop's bike. Why was he parked on the freeway? |
| 1998 January |
January
- Try out a new job and the condo I started my new job. Sort of. I showed up for a day's work but they only had me there for half a day. Filled out papers, smiled. Talked to my new boss. Had lunch. Waited for my daughter to pick me up. But the traffic, oh, the traffic. Phoenix can cause a 6-lane traffic jam on its major interchange (I-10 & I-17) with 3 cars. I could not believe it. I had waited for hours to get through that interchange and there were only 3 cars -- and NONE in the roadway. Just cops harassing traffic to make sure that they did not get run over. I decided that moving to Phoenix and starting a new job was boring and an increase in my blood pressure I did not need. Do not get me wrong: I lived in Phoenix, Glendale, Scottsdale, Mesa for most of the last 30 years. It has always been home even though I lived in Texas or Florida or California. But looking out the front window of my condo I got claustrophobia. I drove to my new job across town: if I stayed, I was definitely going to have to move back to Glendale. But I looked at the financial picture. If I went back to my old job (I had not quit -- I had 8 weeks vacation coming), I could stay for 2 years and qualify for retirement. 24 months. Even at Siemens, I could survive that -- if the company could. I soon found out about the cop. He was dead. He thought that parking his bike on the entrance to the freeway between the white lines in the merge would protect him. Maybe it would have had he not been harassing oncoming traffic. I learned real fast to appreciate CA cops. In CA, the cops are mostly interested in getting people from one place to another safely. In AZ the cops are more interested in playing God and educating the citizens by passing out violation citations as rapidly as they are able. The citizens react with violence to each other. But then we know that that: cops set the behavior for the local society. If cops are paranoid, so is the traffic. My uncle Ernie in Adrian, Michigan was the only cop I really ever respected and he taught me a lot. I don't hate all cops, I have not met enough to get a good sample -- and I grew up in Madison Wisconsin in the '60s where you could count on getting hit before you turned your back. They fixed that later. |
| February
- Move back to California - San Jose I moved back to San Jose. Got a new apartment just like the old one. Repacked the truck and re-unpacked it. I have never been so exhausted. But I had made my decision. The condo would be sold. I would stay here until January 2000. I would mop floors to keep the job and qualify for retirement. I learned the value of having my 2 daughters. On each end they were there with friends to help with the work and to tell me that I was a great daddy. The rumor had gotten out that I had not intended to come back so it took them a few months to give me any work. Sad. But then the company had been bought by another division and all of our jobs were in doubt. But I looked at the numbers and concluded that I would just count months and days until January 2000 and save as much money as I was able. That is not hard. After all, my daughters are independent and I only have to support myself. I started making plans for my new life. |
|
| June -
Vacation in Hawaii with Megan I went to Hawaii with my younger daughter. Great trip. Spend a few hours at a time share and everything you do is discounted. I am a poor person: I travel poor. We stayed in a nice condo and not a fancy resort. I hate those great green golf courses with a white tower in the middle and the $150 bathing suits and drinks everywhere. Not me. I am down in Laheina finding the cheap rides and listening to the tales of the others in line. Great stuff. Our pontoon boat rode for 20 minutes in the middle of a herd of spinning dolphins. If you stuck your hand in the water they would come up and nuzzle you. We snorkeled for the day. Worst sun burn in many years. We used our coupons and had a great steak dinner. My first time in Hawaii where the tourists were mostly white: the financial problems in Japan showed up quickly. We saw local parks, graveyards, beautiful canyons. You have to go there once in your life. Maybe twice. Three times is too many. And you have to bike down the Maui volcano on an unguided tour -- that is not an option. |
|
| September
- Start to plan my Great Adventure There were 2 objectives: the date and enough money. I looked over the web and found financial calculators. Enough money would be .5 million. I can make this but I must move my money into higher risk funds. Everything tells me a bear is coming in March but my gut says to stick it out. I start looking at ways to travel. Will I buy a motor home? A motorcycle and tent? A popup-trailer for my car? I start visiting the RV dealers. I talk to my friends. |
|
| December
- Winter Vacation Take another vacation. Bree and her fiancé come up from Tucson. We take day trips. Do you have any idea how many day trips you can take from San Jose and not duplicate and wish you had another week? Her fiancé asks the tough question: why are the left lanes open and everyone is in the right lanes. He is from AZ and does not understand: the law says stay in the right unless you are passing. The traffic was going over the speed limit and did not need the left lanes. Oh, the miracle of US 101. How sad for everyone else.
|