Baghdad By The Bay

Apparently a cold front has hit San Francisco and it’s down in the 40’s at the moment and lots of my friends and acquaintances on FaceBook are complaining about how cold it is.

Granted, being a native I would probably be saying the same thing if I was there, but now that I’m not and have had to experience winter in the teens and for a few days in the single digits I’ve learned a few things that explain why people [like me] live in places where it gets cold and snowy.

1. We don’t have as much wind here: Granted SF isn’t called the Windy City, but the wind blows and that makes 50° weather seem cold. We do get occasional bursts of wind for a day or two, but you’re usually not spending too much time outside because you’ve got larger living spaces and you only have to walk about 10′ to get to your car.
2. We have heat: Sure, lots of places in SF have heat as well, but there are plenty of apartments and houses that have old or non-existent heating systems that do little to heat the house so you have to rely on space heaters which are better than nothing, but won’t give you a warm to the bone feeling.
3. Humidity can be your friend: This was a weird one for me. It was 48° one day and I stupidly walked outside with a t-shirt and jeans on and realized that it wasn’t that bad. I actually put the garbage out this morning in 28° with a hoodie and jeans and it felt cold, but I wasn’t fazed by it too much. Humidity sucks when it’s hot, but when it’s cold it adds an odd layer of insulation that makes it feel warmer. That’s why weather apps have the temperature and the feels like next to it.
4. We sell clothes for cold weather: Sure, you could find cold weather clothes in SF, but parkas and snow pants were a little tougher to find. Not a problem here. I’m really fond of the fleece lined jeans I got at Costco that when I mentioned them on FaceBook found out that they are available in the Bay Area, so I suggest you go get them right now if you don’t like cold. They’re super comfortable and a bit water resistant if you get any rain [which I understand you’re getting right now].
5. We have to deal with it every year: It happens every year so we don’t mind spending $350/year to have someone come out twice a year to check our heating and AC. We have that extra money because the winter clothes are actually cheaper here and then, well everything here is a lot cheaper.

I’ve actually been out clothes shopping a bit after doing a good job last winter, but fixing a few things I missed. I found a parka this year and some cool Wellington snow boots and a couple of hats to make me look like someone out of a pic of winter in Russia. This Sunday we’re going to get our first snow they’re saying and it could be up to a foot. We’re prepping our lawn area in front with snow spikes so when the city has their snow plows come by they won’t take out our curbs or lawn and we have a supply of ice melt to help with the driveway even though we have a young guy who comes and snow plows and cleans our driveway when it snows. I do have to get the snow tires put in the one of our cars, but I probably won’t need to drive that one until next week.

I took my daughter out for a drive this afternoon and while it’s only 35° out [which doesn’t seem bad after being here for a year and a half] I did notice lots of people out walking that were testing out their parkas for the coming weather. There were also the girls in their down jackets and leggings showing off their winter bods for the guys that was well appreciated of course.

Stay warm my friends and look in some out of the way places to help you find clothes to stay warm.

Well if finally happened. After almost a year and a half after being told I needed bypass surgery I was able to have the surgery and as you can tell if you’re reading this…I survived.

I will say that it wasn’t the most pleasant thing to have done to me, but that was just over two weeks ago and I’ve lost over 10 lbs and feeling much better, even if I’m a little slow still.

I won’t be able to drive for four weeks and was told I wouldn’t feel back to normal for about 12 weeks, but hopefully I’ll be able to milk some of this time to be able to sit down and write a little more.

I’ve been keeping an eye on San Francisco and talking with friends who are still there and I am both happy and sad with the few businesses that were still around that helped give the City it’s name closing and new companies moving in selling ridiculously overpriced food and goods that not so many people in the City can afford.

My happiness isn’t a form of schadenfreude, but more a feeling that I am glad I moved when I did. Raising a family was pretty much impossible and it would have gotten even worse if we had stayed.  Yes, there are some unpleasant things here like winter which you like the snow at first, but then after three months of cold and snow you’re pretty much done with it, but we have a new car with a very nice heating system and going outside in the snow to go shopping isn’t so bad. Things move a bit slower here so when you call for a doctor’s appointment don’t expect to get one next week and if they offer to book your next appointment six months out then you jump on it.

Things are less expensive here and the crime rate compared to the Bay Area even in the worst areas of the Pioneer Valley are still better than San Francisco and Oakland and income inequality [while some people bring it up here too] is nothing like in the Bay Area.

It’s a change than not too many people would be willing to do, but I’ve oddly enough met quite a few people from the Bay Area who have moved here. You can easily buy a 3 bedroom/2 bathroom house here from $200k-$400k and if you’re a renter you can easily get a nice apartment for $1000/month here [cheaper if you know where to look].

I read about the ridiculous heat wave everyone got a couple of days ago and realized that the old adage of, eh, you don’t need AC in San Francisco. is no longer true. The City gets more than just a few hot days a year and we never used to get hot in June. As I’ve suggested to everyone who complained about the heat, they should just get the $150 window AC unit. You’ll be happier, most of you are apartment dwellers that don’t pay utilities so it won’t cost you anything to run as well. Just cut out a few trips to that local overpriced deli and it’ll be affordable and might help Make San Francisco Great Again. Here when it’s hot everyone has AC and you wouldn’t even know it’s in the upper 90’s outside because it’s a cool 68°-72° inside. Hell, our basement that is six feet under is constantly around 65° year round.

From a distance and after seeing what you can and do outside of San Francisco I do think the City needs to step away and look outside the box to fix some of their problems. Even though most people in the City are now from somewhere else the City makes you forget how you used to deal with problems and seems at times to make them worse. I’ll just leave it at that while I look at what else is going on. 

One year ago today we packed up and left the house where I was raised, grew up and moved into again after 55 years of living in San Francisco. When the house was finally emptied and we had packed up the car I knew that in driving away I would never see this house in person again.

It was a sad day for me. I had never lived in any other city than San Francisco and while this was an exciting time, it was a terrifying time as well. I hadn’t been on a plane since 2002 I think and our daughter had never been on a plane let alone sleep anywhere else.

The trip went better than expected and I assume you’ve been following along so it was fun to discover new things and re-visit some places I hadn’t seen in 22 years. Overall I’ve been happy with the move and being out of debt and feeling financially secure for the first time in I don’t know how long. 

The people of Northampton, MA have been extremely welcoming and helpful to someone who moved from San Francisco, CA unlike what you hear about the reception of San Francisco residents who move to Washington or Oregon. They gave us lots of tips for surviving the hot summers [not really needed since we have central AC] and dealing with the snow in the Winter [not a bad one and we have a Gardner who plows snow for you in the Winter].

I still miss looking out my dining room window and seeing the Pacific Ocean and the smell of the beach [well, maybe the smell of the beach from when I was a kid], but things have been much better for us since we arrived here. The food is good and inexpensive generally, but it’s kind of like pizza places have swapped places with Chinese restaurants here. You can walk down the block and pass 4 pizza places, but you’ll have to drive a bit to find a Chinese restaurant. Mexican food isn’t as bad as people said it would be [because this is Western Mass, not Boston]. Indian food is off the hook here.

Our daughter loves her school and the teachers have been there for years because they can actually afford to live here. The schools as well as the people are very accepting of all students which is nice when you’ve got an autistic daughter that sometimes was looked down upon in SF. The schools are actually helping our daughter to move forward and learn new skills and abilities and to be a part of the school.

So now I kind of have a decision to make for Baghdad by the Bay. I’m not in San Francisco anymore and can’t really experience the things I used to write about in the City. So what should I do now? If you have ideas you can email me any suggestions you might have or comment below. I’m definitely not going to remove the site and all the work I had done, but I’m thinking for now I’ll keep going with the comparison and contrasts of what I’ve seen here.

I also had developed while living in San Francisco a bit of a heart problem in that I’m going to need to have bypass surgery done in the near future. My doctor’s are confident that I’m young and healthy enough to come through it fine, but while I’ve been a bit sparse here, I might be a little more sparse in the near future as I have the surgery done and go through the recovery, but I assume if I’m spending a lot of time in bed that I might have more time to write as well.