I’m Not Dead Yet

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.