Monday June 20, 2005

Hasta La Vista Kali-four-nia This is my last week as a resident of California. I used the phonetic pronunciation above so you can read it like our Governator would say it. I hope he can turn the State around. California has been great to me and my family, but changing economics and telecommunications advances have culminated in a decision to relocated to Texas. At their same stage of life, my parents migrated our family from Florida to the "Golden State" in 1977. My father found double the salary and double the house price, but net-net it was a great move - and the weather.... Now, however the economics are not so good; perhaps it is still double the pay, but the house prices are quadruple or worse. We are forging our own path in the good old American tradition and starting anew in Austin. The hope is to settle into a neighborhood the kids can enjoy during all their growing up years just like I had in California. We have lost three quarters of our close friends and family in the last 5 years since the dot-com bubble burst. So we are hoping Austinites are less mobile folk. We already know they are a freindly lot. On all three of our trips there thus far, they have been extraordinarily welcoming of our intent to immigrate. We already know more about our future neighbors from a few conversations on our barren lot than we know about our current neighbors. Of course there is the weather.... I'll be blogging after the move and share my thoughts after the honeymoon wears off.

Leaving my buddies at Sun is the biggest downside to the move. An engineering team that I used to manage took me out to "Joy Luck" Dim Sum in Cupertino so I could enjoy chicken feet and jelly fish one last time before setting off to the land of barbequed red meat - which I have nothing against mind you.
Left to right: Brian "Yukfai" Lam, Tiep Vo, Matthew Montgomery, John "Hoffie" Hoffmann, Richard "Tony/Frosty" Welch, Mike Matsui and Venky "Venkman" Kumar.
Photo taken by our former colleague and longtime friend Gwynn (2005-06-20 10:10:10.0) Permalink Comments [0]