Thursday, December 6, 2012

An Improved Perspective

Wednesday was the first day that I got done working before it got dark outside (sucks when you wake up at 4am, and work past dusk... but somebody has to make sure the electrons are flowing).  So I decided to go outside and do yoga in the back yard, since it had finally stopped raining, the sun was out, and still shining on part of the bricked patio to warm it.  Ambient was about 65F, with nearly no breeze at all at ground level - upper level clouds and contrails were cooking along, west to east (from the Pacific, of course), at a good 50 or 60 mph.  Admittedly, it was the first time I'd done yoga since getting to California, and my back was very unhappy about this fact.

Well, this is one of three palms on the East side of my house.   It dwarfs the old Mexican Fence Post Cactus that stands in the front yard back in Phoenix.  And looking up at it from the yoga mat, had a very relaxing result.  As you can see, there's quite a bit "more green" in the California landscape in contrast to it's libertarian and arid neighbor to the east.

These are the other views that I have to 'endure' while doing yoga in the back yard.  I think I'll manage. 

AND - there's NO yappin dogs here, unlike their ubiquitous presence in western Phoenix! Coyotes, hawks,  and bobcats keep the population in check.  There's many small and large dogs - I see neighbors walking them all the time, but they're on leashes, and they are never left outside at night to bark incessantly.  So That's a Very Nice improvement as well.

Now I have to figure out how to string Christmas lights on palm trees, rosemary hedges, concrete pillars, and fan palms.  We'll see how well that turns out this weekend.

5 comments:

  1. Sounds like you're settling in nicely. Looks very pleasant. How far a commute is it for DDF? Will you be limited to looking for more permanent housing in Orange County or would you be able to live in LA or somewhere else that's not Orange County?

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  2. 15 minutes, no highways, very pleasant. No efficient public transit though (she COULD take a bus, and it would take 1.5 hours; not a viable option). Downtown LA is almost 3 hours away (I google mapped "La Brea Tar Pits" and then "Downtown LA" and it is +3 hours to each). We are 5 miles from the Ocean, 3 miles from the mountains. We'll not be moving much closer to LA. We've found "the sweet spot".

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  3. Correction: we are 1 hour from downtown LA. Tijuana is 2 hours from downtown LA. So we are sort of 1/2 way between LA and Mexico. I was misreading the Google maps directions, and adding 3 parallel paths together in a serial fashion. Sorry fro the confusion.

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  4. Joe .. Happy to hear that you got very peaceful and pleasant neighbourhood. Enjoy and don't work later hours it sucks ... Take care

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  5. Namaskaram my friend Sundar! As I was telling Sudip on Wednesday, the neighborhood is in fact, somewhat similar to the Palm Meadows neighborhood in Whitefield in some ways (number of Range Rovers, palm trees, executives, etc). I feel very out of place around such ostentatious displays, but it is what the good Dr preferred, so I will not complain. As to avoiding long hours, that is easy - I am 'off work' and 'on vacation' for the next 2 weeks! =) (though I still have several meetings and conf calls to host & attend, despite being 'on vacation')

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