Observations in the "hood"

As I walked around the neighborhood today, I noticed a number things (musings of a happy retired person):
*The decorative plum trees have all lost their leaves completely now (started in July), probably due to the unusually cool and foggy summer we've had.

*It pays to listen to the radio sometimes when you are walking as I got an emergency broadcast of an impending thunderstorm - another one of those weather things that never happens here!

*There are many houses having renovations done

*Male golfers blatantly and unabashedly pee on the golf course

*Golfers swear a lot on the golf course

*Some golfers play poorly judging from the golf balls not on the golf course

*Many golfers drive the golf carts with their left leg hanging outside of the cart almost dragging on the ground

*Many golfers could do to walk the course

*There are not many houses for sale in the development

*There are a number of "new" cars judging from those cardboard plates from the dealers in lieu of license plates

*People don't police their property after trash day

*Dogs help their owners appear friendlier than they are without the dog

Dealing with older people

I know one day I will be one of these older people. With the average age of the people working at the Thrift Shop being around 80! I've had to deal with a number of them of late. Sometimes they really try my patience - especially when they ask for input but have a reason for why any new idea won't work or they just want to talk trash about some other person and how they can't do anything right or they rope you into doing something and you begin to feel manipulated or they agree to do something and then totally forget that they agreed to do it or or or - gosh this sounds like dealing with an adolescent???

Where have all the people gone?

T and I went to the beach the Thursday on a gloriously warm and sunny day. There were surprisingly few people at the beach on what I would classify a "10" beach day. Yesterday, the Friday of Labor Day at 5:30 I did my typical Friday afternoon grocery run after working at the Thrift store. The highway was flowing smoothly with little traffic and I was able to wizz through the store, no back-ups anywhere. They say this is the year of the "staycation" and from my observations I would have to agree!

Tired of the news

I'm tired of the news. Often the local newscasters are mostly news readers and they don't even do a good job of that! The weather forecasters are rarely right and often they only have weather readers reading the forecast who don't even check what they are reading before they read it. The newscasters often are making the news by beating a topic to death or by their reporting make the topic the news. With a whole world of news out there you would think there is more than the 10 stories they repeat over and over again. The newscasters' opinions and lines of questioning become the focus and it becomes difficult to separate the news from the opining. Arghhhh!

Is it a California thing?

The top 20 most popular boys names in California in 2007 were:
Daniel, Anthony, Angel, Jacob, David, Andrew, Christopher, Joshua, Jose, Diego, Alexander, Matthew, Michael, Ethan, Jonathan, Nathan, Joseph, Brandon, Adrian and Kevin
and girls names were:
Emily, Isabella, Sophia, Ashley, Samantha, Mia, Natalie, Emma, Allyssa, Jocelyn, Elizabeth, Ava, Abigail, Kimberly, Madison, Olivia, Brianna, Sofia, Jasmine and Andrea.

The spelling of these names looks pretty "normal" so here's my question: Is it just in California or is it all across the nation that children's names are being spelled more and more uniquely: e.g. Mychale, Jordin, Loryn, Rolyn, Robyn, Ithyn, Crys, Danyel, Kymbreleigh, etc.? So I get it, everyone wants their child to be unique, but really...

Recovery?

In California when you buy a new car it takes a while to get new license plates as they are all issued out of Sacramento. As a result you can tell a newly purchased car because it has cardboard tags front and back usually advertising the car dealership. The temporary registration is taped to the front windshield. For many months now there has been a dearth of these "dealer" cardboard plates in evidence as we drive around the area. Beginning last week I suddenly started to see an uptick in the number of these tags. New cars are either getting so cheap (some news stories say they are cheaper than used cars)or cars are beginning to wear out and need replacing. Hopefully it is an early sign of consumer spending.....There's always hope...

So another year and what did I learn?

As I look at the last year I have learned so much. So many gifts have come our way from wonderful family, good friends old and new, good health, new paths to follow in the quest to try to leave this planet better than when we arrived. So in the end what tenets helped me the most? I'd have to say that "the four agreements" taken from the Toltec ancestors of a shaman really resonate with me: Be impeccable with your word. Don't take anything personally. Don't make assumptions. Always do your best. All basic things we were taught early in life but are so hard to carry out day in and day out.
Also practicing every day to be a better listener and remembering that listening is not a competition, and one must listen first to understand then to be understood.

Many afflictions

December 1 was the first anniversary of T and my arrival in California. A year ago we were renting a house in Shell Beach just a block from the ocean. We did not know anyone other than cousin P and S and our realtor. We have met many people through the two gyms we belong to and through the association here at CR.

I guess it is a sign of our age but almost everyone we've met has some sort of health problem. The most common seems to be breast cancer survivors. There are many other afflictions: cancer of the thyroid, prostate cancer, heart attacks, strokes, swallowing disorders, tintinitis (war related), PTSD, and of course the myriad of more common disorders like ligament tears, hip and knee problems, back pain, arthritis, etc.

At the moment I am feeling really blessed to be enjoying good health and reflecting on all that has happened in the past year. We have totally enjoyed a year of moderate central California coast weather and although we miss our east coast friends, we are enjoying the many new friends we have made.

What's the buzz?

I find it interesting to listen to what is on people's minds. The fitness center is a great place to listen in on the topics of the day. This morning the talk was about a number of people's tales of recent vacations, how much money various people have lost in the recent turbulent times, the failed bail out plan,the vice-presidential debate, Sunday night's Desparate Housewives season opener and Dancing with the Stars. Everywhere I go I find people are a lot more willing to share things about themselves than I would ever be. At social gatherings people share details about portfolio losses, hygiene habits, political persuasions, details of the children's lives and choices in everything from food to movies. It's fun to throw out a topic and listen to what people want to contribute. Most of the area is pretty liberal and democrat but there are pockets of conservative, Christian right wing folks mixed in. There is a new group of liberal women who are meeting monthly because they say they feel uncomfortable espousing their liberal views.

There is a California wide vote on disallowing gay marriage. The lines are drawn and there doesn't appear to be a middle ground.

Turbulent times

In my old working life I spent a number of years giving investment advice to pension plan sponsors and later to individuals. These turbulent times we are experiencing are like no others I ever experienced when I was in the business. People are very skiddish and some are on the verge of panic. I believe that if you can ride out the storm (and it is a big one) that you do that and when the market recovers, you should re-examine your risk tolerance. I think many people get overexposed to equities - the let it ride mentality and portfolios get out of balance. This is a real test of whether one has too much invested in risky assets!

I've always been a proponent of setting an asset allocation strategy first and utilizing lower cost index funds which automatic rebalancing. It doesn't help much if you've got too much risk than what you're comfortable with which leads back to having the right asset allocation strategy.

Anyway, people all over the world are in a similar boat. We'll have to stay tuned for the next episode.

Things are aging

Things we brought with us are already beginning to age, even after being so careful to throw out so much stuff. The natural wear and tear takes its toll. We've had to replace a few pairs of T's jeans and a few short-sleeve t-shirts of mine. I'm a lot more aware of condition of clothing now that I've been processing clothing at the thrift store. Most of my clothing would be thrown out at the thrift store if I donated it. It's amazing how many things have small stains, frayed edges, tiny holes and are faded. It's a great excuse to clear out some things and make room for some new purchases. I bought new gym towels the other day because the fitness center is no longer going to provide them. It's a small gym and the owner has been laundering the towels every night which extends her work day by a couple of hours and she's already there 12 hours a day! I realize that we haven't bought much since our initial spending spree when we got here. We're not doing much to help out the economy.

Changes

The economy is affecting many businesses and services here. The lamp store where we had two pewter lamps restored and rewired is closing its doors after over 50 years in business. The building they leased is being torn down. They were planning on closing next year anyway and the demolition moved up their plans, since moving the business would have been costly. The glass place that perfectly matched the glass in our coffee table (broken during the move from CT), is closing its AG store for economic reasons. My guitar teacher isn't continuing classes in AG because of the price of gas. He comes from the north county and it isn't cost effective (or time effective). So Monday was the last group guitar class with him. I learned quite a lot and will continue to download songs and may contact him for occaisonal one on one lessons.

I created a new shorter form (the equivalent of 10 forms) t'ai chi exercise routine for the clients at the fitness center that hopefully will work better for the types of clients they have. The 24 forms is too long and complicated for many of these folks. This is a hit and run group and they want to come in and take a class but not "learn" the routines with practice on their own. Hopefully they will like it well enough and with some encouragement may want to take the 24 forms. I am working on shorter forms that I can teach in a single class.

T and I ushered again at the Clark Center this time for the local middle school (the one near our house) band and guitar concert. They don't introduce instruments until the 7th grade. We are so spoiled with the quality of the music program from WH where the children pick instruments in the 3rd and 4th grades.

Back in the swing

Yesterday I spent most of the day catching up with AHU things working with our team of pick-up and delivery leaders. They are amazing - contacting clients, arranging pick-ups all over the Hfd area, putting teams of volunteers together and making deliveries. There is a delivery planned for Saturday.

I also had to straighten out our direct TV bill and the Avis bill for the car I rented in Hfd. The tv bill was suddenly $40 higher than usual. Turns out the free offer for 2 premium channels ran out and they automatically started charging us for them. We never watch them anyway so I called to cancel. While I was at it I talked to them about the way our boxes are installed backwards with the HD box connected to a non-HD tv and the DVR connected to the HD tv in one of the bedrooms. It costs $100 to have them come out to fix it. They kindly offered to come out - no charge- to switch the boxes for us! What do you know- amazing.

Then I got a copy of my Avis bill on line and the rate was $25 a day higher than the rate I had negotiated. I called them too and found out that because I turned in the car a day early, they said I forfeited the rate I negotiated with them! I managed to talk them into reversing that decision and got a credit which took me back to the original deal. Man, I'm telling you, you got to watch everyone all the time!

My brother and sister-in-law have been keeping us posted on their travels up to Cape Cod from Florida. They are stopping in Brooklyn to see their daughter before reaching the Cape on Friday.

I went back to the fitness center today and got back into my routine of taking a class, practicing my t'ai chi and walking - yay!

Road work and the price of gas

For weeks the CalTran folks (California Transportation I think) have been saying they were going to close off one of our main routes off the mesa. It was supposed to start on March 30 and go through June 30. Well, as you might suspect, it didn't happen when advertized although they planted signposts warning of the imminent closure back in late March. Starting last week they wheeled in those large lighted signs flashing warnings that starting April 21 they were closing S. Halcyon Rd. Lo and behold it actually happened and now we are down to 2 major routes off the mesa and traffic can get pretty heavy at "rush hours" as one of the roads is this areas Route 1. There really isn't much traffic around here and one can usually measure the delays in minutes.

Gas prices have skyrocketed here and the paper said that the first station in the area posted regular gas for just over $4 a gallon yesterday. We're really glad we bought those Priuses.

Asian Food Stores

We went to Santa Maria to look for the Costco there and to investigate other Asian food stores in the area. We visited a small Asian market run by Filipino owners. The store in SLO is small and doesn't have much in the way of fresh vegetable or prepared foods like you find at A Dongs in WH. You'd think that being here in California there would be a huge selection of Asian markets. As it turns out on the central coast there are not that many Asians. There were many more in the early 20th century when they were building the railroads but for whatever reason many of the Chinese people have moved away. The owners of the little market in Santa Maria said there were many Filipino people there, enough to support 3 Filipino social clubs. This store has fresh produce on Tuesdays and Fridays and they said they get many of the more popular Chinese vegetables.

Asian markets have a kind of "dirty" feel about them. It reminds me of the markets in HK and the Philippines where everything was at least a little untidy, if not in disarray and the shelves looked dirty and the display areas and floors all looked like they need a good washing. I don't know what it is about these markets but they all seem to be the same. Although I must say that the one in SLO runs counter to this impression. The owner there is very friendly and tries to get things you want if he can. They say that to get good Asian food (vegetables and prepared foods like roast pork, duck and ribs) the closest place is in San Jose.

AG High School

This morning's newspaper announced that four local high schools recently received over $12 million in state grants for their career training programs. AG got the largest share of $5.7 million. It was interesting to read that the they plan to spend it on the school’s new engineering academy and its robotics program and to build a new facility for agricultural science and mechanics and to double the size of the school’s automotive tech program.
In another town north of us, Atascadero recieved $3.1 million and they plan to allocate it to a hospitality and food service program, as well as a diesel mechanics and welding program. In Paso Robles in the wine country, they plan on spending their $3 million for its existing agriculture program. Cities have to raise matching funds. It certainly is a different community than WH

The Thrift Store Index

Today was another volunteer day at the St. Barnabas Thrift Store. There is an interesting phenomenon occuring which I believe is the "thrift store indicator" for predicting a recession. I haven't been volunteer there very long but there is a trend developing.

First, the amount of donated items has slowed down to a trickle. The first time I volunteered there nearly 6 weeks ago, the thrift store was turning away items because all the storage places were overflowing. The next week we were accepting items and they flowed in. Since then there has been a declining amount of donations and for the first time there were no donations in "the shed", the first stop for all donated items!

Secondly, the number of people shopping at the thrift store has increased significantly and the type of shopper has pushed further into the middle class.

I suppose it could be between seasons and people are just not clearing out things or this thrift store indicator is pointing towards a significant tightening of the belt pointing the way to the next recession. Hmmmm.....