Escape from CA Part 2 FS: 100% off gear!

More stuff. If you want me to ship, send me zip code

• x2 15" Eminence Beta woofers. (one has dents in dust cap, does not affect sonics)
• AMB Sigma 11 power supply (set to 12V I think? - you should test for sure)

 

send me address and phone again. will ship today.

 

Despite having population 325k, CC is a small town. It feels like a small town. You start getting to know people, and how those people are connected to other people you know, real quick. Everything is close. Well geographically, it stretches about from my old place in Malibu Canyon to Burbank. The difference is that is only takes 25 minutes to go from one end to the other in CC rather than 1.5 hours in CA.

The answer is 25 minutes. The Schiit building is in the SimCity light yellow industrial zone NW of town. The new home of SBAF is in the SimCity light green residential zone on the Island SW.

 

I'm finally settled now. Yesterday I was in pain, mentally exhausted and felt like my arms were about to fall off. The good thing is that I had started weight training months before (I cut back on hiking because Valley Fever wrecked my lungs and I wasn't quite the same with respect to cardio), so no injuries or major soreness. I did lose about 8lbs in the past month.

Basically after we got back from my trip to TX (Austin to CC) during Thanksgiving break, we went into "war mode", prepping the house for sale and packing what we wanted to take with us into a single 16' Pod; hence, the giveaway. I am happy to be able to give away so much.

Our original plan was to move after X-mas, but we moved up the schedule because our real estate agent said she could make things happen quickly, including staging the house in time. It's awesome when you can find a business partner that helps push you, but is also not too pushy. It's all about teamwork. Besides, this gives us some breathing room before the kids attend school - that is physically attend school. Restaurants are open here. People are dying from COVID here like in CA, but looking at the graphs, CA and especially LA County seems to be in a world of hurt (and massive shutdown).

We packed a bag each, a few supplies, and cats in the back of the Jeep. I whipped up a platform quickly for the back of the Jeep. We opted for no trailer so we could haul ass from CA to TX safely. Besides, U-Haul is pricey from CA to anywhere right now. We noted lots of of CA plates with trailers heading east on Highway 10.


This is somewhere east of Fort Stockton heading to San Antonio, just before dawn.

 

Texas has these markets called HEB. That's H E B, not "heb" or "heeb". They are kind of like Meier in Michigan or Walmart everywhere else. H-E-B is privately held (which I think is a good thing) and with 340 stores, are big enough to have their own house brand.

Now this was a gem. HEB brand Vanilla Ice Cream. This is the best store bought vanilla ice cream I have ever had. The flavor is complex and the vanilla has that all that slightly bitter finish found in vanilla extract (which I've used for cakes or homemade ice cream)



Now this was a trip to find in CC: Imperial Beef (the plate on the left) at Taiwan Restaurant. It's a take on Imperial Spare-Ribs. I think Beijing Beef at Panda Express is supposed to be a take on this, but the flavor is all wrong. In the 80s and 90s, there was one restaurant in SE San Jose by HIghway 101, CA called China Tower which had Imperial Spare-Ribs on the menu. Later on, there was a chain of two other locations which served this dish. These two locations closed after a few years. Silicon Valley Chinese people back then were fickle when it came too food, when a chef left and the food changed, so did the customers.



Today there are few good Chinese (that is non-Cantonese) restaurants in SillyCon Valley. Too expensive to operate one as no one wants to pay $26 for a dish at a Chinese food joint. The last really good restaurant was Hong Fu in Cupertino, but alas that is gone. A very popular decent one just south of Hong Fu closed many years earlier. Alas, California has become a victim of its own success.

 

I already know the routine, at least for myself: small bun, extra mayo, extra onions, spicy ketchup

 

The is the last move for me. I'm getting too old for this.





Anyone like to play 3D physical Tetris?

 

f**k that shit. The meat isn't good or greasy enough, therefore I need the sugar in mayo.

It's the California plates. Need to ditch those ASAP. I hate California drivers. Ever since they ditched Drivers' Ed in the schools, Californians started to drive like shit. Also no highway test is a bad bad bad idea. You have people from Iran, Mexico, and China who have no clue. Heck, even native Californians younger than 45 have no clue. The point of California is that everybody, including illegals and possibly one of my cats can drive.

BTW, on my drive to TX, other than El Paso and Phoenix, only shithead drivers with California plates pissed me off. California drivers think they can just cruise in the left lane. I was more than happy to go Terminator T1000 on their ass to get them to f'ing move over to the right lane.

Couldn't get Trump / Pence bumper stickers in time, and it's too late now anyway. Opted for thin blue line sticker on window of Jeep to offset California plates. Folks in CC hate California progressives (and folks in Austin too, because Austin is basically California in TX).