Rockin' and Rollin' in California

[Aronya1]

Tuesday was a strange day, here on the Left coast.

We had a guy die in front of our building in the morning. Had a massive coronary while he was smoking. Then, around 3:30 in the afternoon, an earthquake hit. 5.1 on the scale. Centered about 50 miles from here (San Diego). Scared the **** (pick an appropriate FLW) out of me. Used it as a good excuse to leave the office early & go drinking.

Anybody want to buy beachfront property? In Arizona?

[davidbrent]

Sounds like its not your day! Hmm beach front. Lucky for some! I live in el cold England.

Best Wishes,
David

[PeOfEo]

You seen that commercial where shaq burps or something and california floats off and nevada is ocean front? I think that was it. That is what is going to happen. Sandiago is pretty during the day, but right when it gets to be dusk you can see all of that smog just a flowing on into the city. I was driving over a mountain out there and looked down into a valley and I could not see the ground I could see like some tall buildings through the smog but that was it. I tell you I would hate to live out there. I would hate all of the people and the smog and the traffic. It has nice mountains and a nice beach and everyone flcked there and screwed it all up. You can always move to the right coast, florida is really nice right now, just a bit hot.

[Aronya1]

I don't know what you were smoking. San Diego has very little smog. You probably saw fog. There are times of the year when it gets really heavy. Either fog, or the marine layer moving in. Now, if you were in Los Angeles, I'd say you were right on the money.

[Jick]

I think it was actually a commercial for Nessly Crunch and they were like walking out a in desert type place and then they just sit down in the middle of nowhere and he takes a bite out of the crunch bar and then Cali splits off. Then the kid's like "8 foot waves?" and then he says "I can do that!". It's kinda dumb but funny at the same time. :eek:

[PeOfEo]

Originally posted by Aronya1
I don't know what you were smoking. San Diego has very little smog. You probably saw fog. There are times of the year when it gets really heavy. Either fog, or the marine layer moving in. Now, if you were in Los Angeles, I'd say you were right on the money. It wasn't san diego it was outside of san diego near that mission hill thing with the little chapple on it.... can't think of th name. Also in the lamp district thing. Its been 2 years since I was there so I can't remember exactly. But I remember seeing all of the board off of coranado and all, pretty cool. All the real estate was uber pricy.

[Aronya1]

That's Sandy Eggo. But really, there's no smog here.
You're all too right about the real estate. I bought a house last year. Didn't see anything I wanted to live in for less than $300k. Today, you'd be lucky to find something for $400k. Some friends were talking after work about a place that was in the news this week; 750sf - $500k. The equity build-up is nice, but you still have to pay the mortgage.:eek:

[rhsunderground]

WTF?!?!?!? sucks to be you guys.

in omaha we just bought a 2 level house for $115k and in the smaller towns you'd have to build a mansion to get $500k!

[Aronya1]

Yeah. The sticker shock is hard to get over. I sold a 1150sf condo when we bought the house. Paid $110k 5+1/2 years before. Sold it the first day on the market at full price: $240k. Never put up a For Sale sign. I'm still wondering what we could have got. In the current place, we've probably picked up $50k or more in equity since we bought it last July.

The way I look at it, we're living in our retirement fund. Yeah, you can buy homes a lot cheaper in other areas of the country, but after 10 years, how much is that $115k house going to be worth? $125k? Everything is a tradeoff for something else.

What's the employment situation in Omaha? How's the pay? How's the weather in winter? In the summer? There are reasons for the difference in housing costs. I moved out here from Chicago. It took all of 10 days to figure out it would be damn hard to move back to that kind of weather. I guess you pick your poison...

[PeOfEo]

sandy eggo like eggo waffle? A sandy eggo... like an eggo on the beach? What kind of town name is that.

[Aronya1]

I dunno. I didn't name it. Never heard of Saint Diego, either.

[davidbrent]

I heard that Hollywood had quite a bit of smog at night. Probably all those A-List celebrities with their big cars and cows out back.

[Aronya1]

Yeah. Downtown Hollywood is pretty dirty.

[davidbrent]

It's still a place that you've got to visit though, just for the fact that you might happen to bump into Brad Pitt or something...?

[Aronya1]

From what I hear, if you bump into Brad Pitt, you'll be heading off to take a shower.:(

[PeOfEo]

Brad Pitt is a loser. So is Tom Cruise. I do not care about the personal lives of celeberties, I hate shows like ET and Extra. I just want them to make movies that entertain me / make me laugh. I do not care about scientology, or who married who. Bah. California is kind of funny because tons of environmentalists live out there... in a state that has some of the most polluted cities and most traffic, they drive the urban tank SUVs without reason, I do not see the hauling boats or going off road in them. Then they decide hey lets import our power and not have very many power plants so we do not have polution, then they get a ton of power outages and rolling blackouts because of the demand. That is just how I view that state as an outsider and some of its hypocritical liberal population. Is that how you see it living in cali Aronya, or how do you view the state of your state?

[Aronya1]

The state of the state, eh? Yes, there are a lot of liberals out here. They generally have their heads up their butts. You're a little overboard on things, though. The greater LA area has a lot of smog, but that's pretty much it. You could say the same thing about Colorado, can't you? My understanding is that Denver is terrible. Yes, there are a lot of SUVs running around, but they don't contribute to the smog issue any more than a car, IMHO. LOTS of people go off-roading, dune-buggy driving, boat-hauling, etc.

As far as the power situation, you pretty much hit it on the head. We've had years of Democrat governorship, and they put a halt to, or disallowed construction of numerous power plants. Thank GOD they/we recalled Gray Davis.

[PeOfEo]

SUVs in general suck though, you can't see over them. I have reason to drive a truck, but if I didn't I would be in a little low gas eating tiny asian car in a heart beat.

[rhsunderground]

omaha is very interesting. it can be 50's one day and 90's the next. weather in nebraska is like trying to guess what celebrity will get taken to jail tomorrow. in the winter, i've seen anything from -42 to 68 (kelvin). summers can get past 110. (farenheit, of course.) there are no phuke-ing jobs for kids this summer. the pay varies. working for the city of ralston (in omaha's asscrack) i get 5.50. it all depends on what you do. a friend of mine can pull $20 an hour easily.