Good or Bad for the Jews

"Good or Bad for the Jews"

Many years ago, and for many years, I would travel to Morocco to visit uncles, cousins, and my paternal grandmother. Some lived in Tangiers;...

Saturday, October 7, 2017

Good-Bye, California

Well, we did it.

We put an offer on a house out of this state; had a couple of go-rounds with the seller; came to a mutually acceptable price; and . . . we're packing our stuff. We should be out of California in a few weeks, probably well before Thanksgiving.

I was not born in California, and I spent decades out of the state. Despite that, I always considered California my home. I went to school there all the way through graduation from UCLA, once a great university with some fabulous professors. I loved the place, and its colorful history. It seemed anything was possible.

I remember coming to California one Christmas from grad school in Massachusetts, and literally spending the morning in the snow up in the mountains, and the afternoon on the beach. I loved the desert and the coastline; scuba diving off Catalina island; racing up and down the Pacific Coast Highway. For much of my time in California, this place was where IT was happening, almost regardless of what IT was. Technology, medicine, literature, movies, TV, theater, cars, fashion, economy, etc, California set the pace for the country and the world. I have been no place on earth, even the most remote, where people have not heard about California.

In the last few years, however, this place has gone nuts, and not in the eccentric, creative sort of way that produced, say, Hollywood, Apple, or Uber, but in a bizarre, self-destructive one that seeks to undermine all about California that made California into California: The ever rising taxes; government regulations; the absurd political correctness and its ugly traveling companion, to wit, social and political insanity on things such as guns, immigration, and the environment.

Reality has been banned here; I have a feeling, nevertheless, that it will make a reappearance with a vengeance. I don't want to be around these parts when that happens.

So, we're moving. Our house is full of boxes and bins. The dogs are sensing change, and acting nervous and suspicious. My back hurts from moving stuff around. Yes, we're moving.

We looked at a lot of places, and fortunately this country still has a lot of nice places with very good and welcoming people. In the end, however, we had to pick one and we decided on (drum roll) North Carolina!

My non-meat-eating wife discovered pulled pork there: watching her pass up the salad and go for the pulled pork was a sight to see. The BBQ was great; the people were super; the prices are reasonable (gasoline is almost a dollar a gallon cheaper than here in SoCal); folks love the second amendment; the taxes are OK, although property tax is a bit on the high side; and it's a very beautiful place with a colorful history of its own and lots and lots of places to visit and enjoy. It is getting many folks coming in from around the world, and I hope that doesn't destroy the feeling of the place. Anyhow, we've scored a very nice house on a large wooded lot, one without irksome neighbors breathing down my neck. It's a bit dark and remote, but at night you can see these things in the sky, which I believe the locals call "stars." I am going to have to investigate those . . . odd little things that they are . . . We're moving.

97 comments:

  1. *looks up the island* You're a lot closer to my husband's background than mine, but... I sadly must admit you are well to quit the state.

    Joy to you and yours in your new home!

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  2. I'm sure you're kicking yourself for moving now that we are a sanctuary state... Good luck on your move. Do you get a basement with your new home? What's the first non-CA compliant gun you plan on picking up?

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  3. It is truly sad that you have effectively been driven from the place where you were so happy for so long. But that is aim of progressive politics; it is designed to shut down and up anyone who thinks differently, and driving them out is just as good. Leave them to their progressive utopia, and to the inevitable financial and social disaster when the money and the water runs out.

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  4. educate yourself about the wild coyotes and bears in the area. You will want to keep your dogs safe

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  5. Just hope you know that NC has its own brand of liberal weirdness. NC is a beautiful state from the Atlantic ocean to the Blue Ridge mountains. Plus Bonus, you get all four seasons. There are two yard tools you need, a leaf rake and a snow shovel.

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    1. Oh, yes. Having hung around some of the academics there, I realize the disease is spreading.

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    2. I hope to be joining you soon on the other side of the Smokies. East Tennessee is the place I want to be. Even if the Vols are not doing what they are supposed to do.

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    3. Daniel S, I agree! Around Johnson City over to Elizabethton in that area has always been a favorite of mine.

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  6. Lived in Chapel Hill 35 years ago. It was nirvana ... but somehow I sense that now the liberal flu is infecting things there. Keep with the natives and away from the carpetbaggers.

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    1. Liberal cancer, not flu. Stage 5 pancreatic cancer....

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  7. "My back hurts from moving stuff around" Hire some Mexicans.

    Though the last time I had a lot of stuff to move I hired some graduate students with the promise of good pay and lots of tea and buns. Or cakes and ale, if they preferred. They did a splendid job and even declined the offer of beer on a warm July day. Fine lads!

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  8. Welcome Diplomad! As a native born and still resident North Carolinian...y'all come on! Hope the pack up and move goes easily and may I be the first to say, Bless Your Hearts!

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    1. That's not very nice if using in the Southern way.

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  9. Welcome to North Carolina!!! Be sure to visit the Blue Ridge Parkway!!!

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  10. D'Mad,

    Good choice! One point on taxes, though. Unless things have changed, I understand that your government pension should be exempt from the State Income Tax. This was a consequence of the State exempting the State Employees from income taxes, and some military retirees sued to be included, and won. Now all government pensions are exempt. Or so I recall from looking at that a decade ago.

    Green Bear

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    1. That was a factor in my calculations.

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    2. Welcome! That was a result of us putting Rs in our state government, w a R governor. People were choosing to live over the line in SC. Losing lots of low-cost (service wise--no school children!) property tax payers.

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    3. What is this "State Income Tax" of which you speak?

      Jabrwok in Texas:-D

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  11. I'm given to understand that if you feel the need to be reminded as to why you left Cali, all you need to do is drop over to the Raleigh/Durum triangle, heh, heh.

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  12. While I wish we could have attracted you to Texas, you've made a fantastic choice.

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  13. Well congratulations! I am impressed by the speed with which you acted. It took several months for me to decide to move to NV, and my wife a year and a half more.

    NC is a beautiful state. The humidity can be unpleasant after living in SoCal, but you will get used to that. What would worry me is the large number of liberal types moving in from D.C. and the rest of the east coast. I fear it will soon be like the rest of the coastal enclaves.

    One last thought about liberals imposing their values on their neighbors: I can hear the reports from duck hunting shotgunners as I write this, and it reminds me that we all had to give up lead shot several years ago. Sierra Club pressure, IIRC, claiming that ducks ate used lead shot from the waterways and died of lead poisoning -- but more likely an attempt by tree huggers to kill duck hunting by outlawing the ammo. Fortunately, ammo companies found an alternative to lead shot (bismuth and steel, I believe), so they failed and duck hunting survives. But it's good to remember that effort as people begin to push for outlawing bump stocks. I don't like bump stocks, and would never have one, but the pattern is too familiar: outlaw part of the gun business, and keep moving on other parts. First it will be bump stocks, then high capacity magazines, then military ammo -- the process is inexorable, and the results predictably ineffective at stopping mass shootings. Guard your guns -- the left wing is after them by whatever means they can find.

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    1. "The humidity can be unpleasant": a Welsh acquaintance of mine spent much of his life as an academic in NC. Loved the place, but spent the most hot and humid couple of months of the year in Cambridge, where the libraries were vital for his research. Or so he said.

      Good luck with the move, Mr Mad.

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    2. contrast that with the riser of 'maker' equipment, which will make create-your-own-gun feasible before long. liberal heads are going to explode in ways unimaginable.

      - reader #1482

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  14. CONGRATULATIONS! Enjoy your new home and all the guests...chiggers and skeeters! LOL Oh, and let's not forget the ticks.

    You'll seriously love NC - and folks aren't allergic to guns either.

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    1. When a tick is embedded, do not pull it out, the head just tears off. Rather, hold a lit cigar near the butt for a few minute, and grab it with tweezers when it backs out. I met one unfortunate who thought were saying to burn them out. No, just warm their little backsides up.

      Michael F Adams

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    2. heh... and I thought you were going to make a joke about progressives. Ha

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    3. No, don't do that. It causes the tick to regurgitate.

      Use the tweezers and yank the bastard off. Then burn it. Then place it in the garbage disposal and rip it to shreds.

      Oh, wash the bite area with soap, water and disinfectant.

      Barry, native Tar Heel and currently in state.

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    4. OR put petrolatum on it, so air hunger will force it to back out, then snag it with the tweezers, drop into a glass of water with mineral oil floating over the top. It's just that leaving the head buried beneath the skin is a serious source of infection.

      Also, if you get sick for no apparent reason, insist on several tests for Lyme disease. I am constantly appalled by doctors who overlook this possibility.

      MFA

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  15. Spent some time living in NC, a short drive from the Blue Ridge Parkway. Great place and great people. If you get a chance, you might want to mosey over to MerleFest sometime.

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  16. I grew up in Calif when it was the Golden State. Its immigrants were GI's who came through on their way to the Pacific, loved the place and stayed, and used the GI Bill to educate themselves into the middle class, or even tycoonship. The tycoons here were mostly movie/tv/music, defense/aerospace, real estate and agriculture. Their allegiance was to America The old studio system was still in place (although in its dying days), movies and tv were still shot here, and Calif. ranked #1 in education.

    I went away to New York for a few decades and came back to Mexico del Norte, plus the Tower of Babel. If I drive 15 minutes west or north west or southwest I am in Tiajuana but with black gangs battling it out for turf with latino gangs. Every piece of gov't and most corporate material now comes with notice of FREE translation into 15-20 some-odd languages.(I' m looking at a Bank of America retiree notice. 14 languages. Would you think a requirement for working at B of A was speaking English? I don't know. I actually worked for a company which was acquired by B of A. But come on. If you could work at B of A long enough to qualify for retirement benefits, why do you suddenly need - free - translation now? I recognize Spanish, French, Italian, German, Russian, Japanese, Chinese, Arabic. It's anyone's guess what other 6 are. Stanford includes Mongolian in its free translations for patients.)

    Callif is broke, broke, broke - but keeps on with fantastical plans. The governor pushes his unneeded, multi-billion bullet train and ever more draconian climate change regs. The legislature (dominated by hispanic members of La Reza) extended MediCal to illegals (Our schools already educate their kids.), and is now deciding to ban gas-driven cars. They may even decide to secede.

    Financial reality? Any kind of reality? Doesn't exist. Take Eric Garcetti, mayor of Los Angeles, who proudly identifies as Jewish...and Mexican American. Educated at Los Angeles' most expensive, prestigious prep school, then Columbia, son of a former District Attorney, his claim to Mexican is a grandmother born in Arizona of an immigrant family and a grandfather, son of an Italian immigrant to Mexico who lived as a child in Mexico before moving to the U.S. So great-grandfather and grandfather of Italian heritage who was briefly in Mexico. Assimilation model? Hell, Garcetti is stretching for his Mexican identity. This proud Mexican American wants to bring 10O,000 Syrian "refugees" to Los Angeles. Never mind that the LA papers are full of stories about the multitudes of homeless taking over public parks and even business streets. Where will Garcetti put those "refugees?" Well, as I said, reality is not Calif's strong suit.

    If the feds ever pass a flat tax wherein Callf's very high income taxes ate no longer deductible from federal income, will that force any reality? I doubt it. Although more middle class will flee.

    There is one piece of reality coming out of Calif, from Silicon Valley, which few policy makers are paying attention to: robots, automation and artificial intelligence. Silicon Valley is warning there soon will be no need for most workers, including the vast underclass of cheap immigrant labor we imported. The implications are staggering. This is a reality that should be planned for. But then Silicon Valley retreats back into Calif-think. Their solution: more immigration (Good for the economy, you know?), but after amnesty, a government guaranteed income for everyone. (Well with the earned income tax credit, maybe we are already there.)

    ----

    To Diplomad

    I understand natives in states like N. Carolina are complaining New York and Calif transplants are ruining the place!

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    1. You forgot that CA has little notion or care for water management or wildfire avoidance ... oh, yes, I almost forgot, free speech also gets short shrift.

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    2. George W. Potts

      I would need 1000 pages to write everything crazy here. If only one more thing were to go on list it would be making fertile farm land arid and useless - to save a smelt (tiny fish) which is possibly endangered and which wild salmon may possibly eat. I don't know whether this is true, but I'm told GOP never made a fuss because most of out-of-work farm workers were illegals. (So now we import the food from Mexico.)

      We have horrendous forest fires doe to greenies stopping controlled burns and developers building housing adjacent to dry forests. But both are true in all the Western states.

      We no longer believe in dams or reservoirs. But that might be true nationally. American Express for years ran an ad featuring the founder of Pategonia, an extremely high end outdoor gear/clothing company. This guy used his ad to talk about his passion for dam busting and returning the land and fishies to nature. American Express thought this was just fine.

      Free speech is under attack everywhere. It is of course ironic that Berkeley, home of the Free Speech movement, is now the poster child for controlled, lefty speech. I actually was at Berkeley that year. That didn't exactly start about "free speech" but rather as issue as to whether University could keep outside fund raisers for outside causes from soliciting money on campus. Well, close enough, I guess. That was resolved in about 6 months. I kept coming back to Berkeley from other schools for next 7 years or so. Every time I was here there was more protests (i.e.,riots) about something else. I got very good at distinguishing tear gas from pepper spray. I.e., the lefties were already at it decades ago. (Although in fairness, some was about Viet Nam War.I don't know how I would have felt had I been male and subject to the draft for a war I barely understood.)

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    4. imo, universities should move back to a 'no political activities' framework for students and staff. Keep politics out of campus, so people can focus on *useful* stuff!
      Yeah.. maybe the cat is out of the bag for now on that, but to me, that's where the demise of US universities started.

      SF bay area is *just* ridiculous. Nobody seems able to shut their trap about *any* liberal topic whatsoever. I've had people just casually mention how *we* are *all* appalled by conservatives. It has devolved to such a point that conservatives in the area are effectively persona non-grata in public if their views are known or suspected.

      It's Facebook telling everybody that they're going to make sure that our elections don't have any more 'mistakes' like electing Donald Trump. It's Apple telling the world that they will proactively discriminate against asian workers in hiring and termination. And the political climate of the bay area (the Stanford-Berkeley Axis Powers, if you will) is such that these things are lauded and appreciated by all who hear them (and make sure you clap loudly enough, or you will be internet-sullied until you can no longer work *anywhere*).

      And it's infectious... this has already spread to greater Portland, Vegas, and Reno, and continues unabated.

      - reader #1482

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  17. Congratulations on escaping the insanity!

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  18. Congratulations and welcome to the South!!

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  19. It shouldn't be too much longer before CA is so bad that we really ought to just give it to Mexico to own and run. It's already largely Mexican anyway. I say it could only be an improvement. For us US........

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    1. The problem is that outside the I-5 Axis of Liberal, California is pretty conservative.

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  20. Congratulations! I was born in L.A., got my B.A. from UCLA, moved to San Diego for grad school, worked at UCSD. California used to be the Promised Land. Now it's crowded and mismanaged and expensive and corrupt and broke and filled with ignorant lunatics. My wife and I moved to Oregon a dozen years ago and haven't looked back. (Alas, our state government is dominated by Portlandia and the People's Republic of Eugene, but it's still better than California's.) Most of our friends have decamped for Texas, Arizona, Nevada, and both Carolinas. Good luck!

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  21. Good luck with your move. We considered NC as a retirement destination, but visited and found it too provincial for us after spending our lives in major cities and amid so much diversity.

    Also, I'm allergic to Confederate flags. Ever heard tho old saw about the great public relations accomplishment of Austria? They convinced the world that Mozart was Austrian, and Adolph Hitler was German. That's kind of how I feel about the slave-states convincing 20th century America that Robert E. Lee and his fellow seditionists were great men "merely" serving a flawed but somehow noble cause.

    From what I've read, NC's state politics are almost as off-the-scale as CA, but of course it's your end of the scale, so that won't bother you.

    NC has so much natural beauty, and a decent climate except for coastal storms. We heard there about a class of newcomer named "quarterbacks". Northerners who had first moved to FL, discovered it inhospitable to human life 6 hot insect-ridden months of the year, and moved a second time, a quarter of the distance back towards whence they had come.
    best regards,
    DVEJr

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    1. Robert E Lee was an Abolitionist, who freed his inherited slaves on his 21st birthday, the first day that he could legally do so. He established a school to teach the slaves he later inherited from his brother, whom he could not free. Lincoln, by contrast, inherited slaves through his wife's family, whom he sold, and put the money in his bank account. Throughout the War, Lincoln tried to get the US Congress to pass legislation and enabling appropriation to provide for deporting free Blacks to West Africa. History ought to be more than just repeated propaganda slogans. That's the Left's game, and we are mostly Conservatives, around here.

      Michael Adams

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    2. Charlotte and Asheville are the NC epicenter of liberalism. The rest of the state is relatively sane, however you remarks about Lee lead to question your sanity, "spending our lives in major cities and amid so much diversity." rather sums it up.

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  22. Sad California native son here- and I'll be following you out of state sometime soon. Probably to Texas, where my sister is now.

    Like Msher above, I was born & raised in the Golden State, then went away for several decades- in my case to Australia. Then 9/11 happened, and I realized I was still an American and had to come back (the Aussie gun ban bothered me a lot too. Even California hasn't got quite that insane- yet.)

    Now I know how Rip van Winkle must've felt. Where is the world I once lived in? Gone forever, and it's not coming back.

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  23. Where will you live? Mountains, Piedmont, or Coastal Plain?

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  24. Congrats! It's closer than New Zealand. While New Zealand may have some progressive stooges as well, it has a very low population density, reasonable climate, and is probably a decent refuge from a large scale nuclear exchange... for what that's worth.
    Have only been to NC once and didn't really form an opinion.

    - reader #1482

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  25. Wonderful news! Look up Whitewall, by all means. So very happy for y'all. I've only driven through it a couple of times, but the smell of pine trees, as in East Texas and Virginia, is till with me after forty one years.

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  26. Oops! Michael F Adams If the registration would just believe my password, I would not have to be anonymous.

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  27. Good luck. Totally understand.

    We closed on our Cal-exit residence earlier this summer. Planning a gradual transition so my back isn’t as sore.

    Five years ago our story changed from “why would we ever want to leave” to “where shall we move”. Couldn’t stand the deterioration of SoCal any more.

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  28. My wife and I are gone first chance we get.

    So, yes, we get it. Boy, do we get it.

    -Blake

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  29. Congratulation on the decision
    My wife & I made the same dicision 10/11 years ago.The only downside to our location is that we are not out in the sticks any more! I recomend that you get your car tags changed ASAP. Most locals we have met are great as long as you don't refer back to SoCal.
    exsocal

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  30. Too humid for me there, but best wishes!

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  31. Congrats on the move, I expect y'all will love North Carolina (I could very easily see living in the mountainous west end of the state although I could handle an assignment in the vicinity of Goldsboro/Seymour Johnson AFB).

    I escaped from California on 8 May 1989, following my last two tours with the Navy in SoCal and 2.5 years with Lockheed in Beautiful Downtown Burbank. While I've gone back for visits a number of times (or TDYs), as I tell people, there ain't enough money on the planet to get me to move back. Shoot, as hosed as the state's become lately, I'm not sure I'm even in the mood for a visit anymore...

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  32. Is Michael Adams, above, trying to suggest that Robert E. Lee had no idea that the desire to protect the South's "peculiar institution" was the primary reason for secession, a rationale repeated again and again by all the principals at the time, including the new Confederate president and vice-president?

    Here's Lee, "abolitionist": "I think it however a greater evil to the white man than to the black race, & while my feelings are strongly enlisted in behalf of the latter, my sympathies are more strong for the former. The blacks are immeasurably better off here than in Africa, morally, socially & physically. The painful discipline they are undergoing, is necessary for their instruction as a race, & I hope will prepare & lead them to better things. How long their subjugation may be necessary is known & ordered by a wise Merciful Providence. Their emancipation will sooner result from the mild & melting influence of Christianity, than the storms & tempests of fiery Controversy."

    The "painful discipline they are undergoing" that "is necessary for their instruction as a race" is slavery. Heaven only knows when it will be time to wind it down. The abolitionists wanted slavery to be abolished...now.

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    1. If a man who claims to be an abolitionist frees, not your slaves, but his own, his claim may be taken seriously. The Lee's established a school for slaves on his brother's plantation, where Mrs Lee taught the slaves to read and write.

      If Marse Robert's words seem too politically incorrect, consider those of Muhammad Ali, on visiting West Africa for the first time "I'm sure glad they forced my people on those boats." There are a couple of good books available through the Abbeville Institute that might shed a wider light upon the subject, "Emancipation Hell" which describes the deaths of one third or more of freedmen in the five years after the war, and a Lecture, "Misreading Lee" which takes apart a pretty funny book titled "Reading Lee."

      Nobody I have met would argue that slavery was anything but a BAD THING. However, I began to discuss this matter by saying that history is not the simple repetition of older propaganda, but the analysis of the interaction of people and events, over time. Looking for villains is not analysis.

      General Lee was offered the command of the Union army, but declined it when Virginia seceded.

      The horror of a Federal Army invading one or more sovereign states was something that people wanted to avoid.

      Sure, there was a great deal of pro-slavery propaganda on the Confederate side, and a great deal of "Leave it alone" speechifying from Lincoln et al. It would seem likely that the intended audience of the slavery-defense propaganda were wavering about secession, and needed to be brought in.

      Doubtless you are completely unaware of the Free Blacks who volunteered for the Confederate Army, or of the various plans and schemes proposed, for allowing slaves to enlist, and thus gain manumission for themselves and their families. The speeches and editorials calling for approval of these plans insisted that giving up a little monetary value for the sake of freedom was a better-than-fair trade. I really doubt that you have read any of General Lee's letters insisting that Black Confederate soldiers be included in integrated units with their White comrades in arms, something that Harry Truman would only accomplish for US armed forces eighty eight years later.I repeat, history is not repeated propaganda, but analysis. The people in these stories are not cut-outs but real live human beings.

      Michael F Adams

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    2. Michael--I'm a history teacher, although I teach world rather than US history. I'd like the sources on free blacks in the Confederate Army. 1860's vintage, preferably.

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    3. Off hand, State archives in South Carolina and Va. The Abbeville Institute has a large bibliography. Certainly, if you mean primary sources as I mean them, the muster rolls, and pension applications are very enlightening. I know that my (White) great-great grandfather's very complex story is told in the pension archives in Mississippi.

      Newspaper write ups about Confederate Veterans' reunions include photographs of men in many colors.I don't have much info about an organization called "Sons of Black Confederate Veterans" but it did exist at one time. All of that material is early twentieth century, rather than 1860's.

      The Reconstruction State governments were not offering pensions to Veterans. But, they were younger men, wanted to get on with life, with rebuilding house and barns, or moving west to Texas. After Hayes was elected to the White House, the State governments started to pay pensions, and, a little later, to establish Confederate Veterans' homes. The one in Austin was on Avenue B, I think, and was later an over flow for the State Mental Hospital. My father lived on Confederate Avenue in Atlanta GA, named for the home built there. Daddy used to go down to the home and listen to the stories told by the old men on the verandas. (1930's)

      I give The Diplomad permission to share my e-mail address with you.

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  33. Welcome and Congratulations from a native and current resident.

    There is not a bad area in the state other than the prog inner cities.

    Nothing is perfect but we are Blue Heaven.

    Barry

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  34. Should've picked Tennessee. Just next door with lower property taxes and zero income tax. But North Carolina ain't bad. Much better than California in terms of affordability and rationality!

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  35. Congratulations! Welcome to the Real World!

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  36. I live in the DC area, where both my wife and I teach. NC has been a vacation destination of ours, and we think you'll probably love it there.

    However, it's too bad so many here grouse about translation into multiple languages. I've picked up a few moonlight dollars from Chinese-English document translation (including from business people who came to the shocking realization that dependence on computer translation will make them and their products look silly).

    I wouldn't mind living in a place like NC myself. However, my wife is from Taiwan, and thinks that the Maryland suburbs of DC can feel uncomfortably empty at times.

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  37. Hope you didn't buy a place in the Berkeley of the South, Asheville.

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    2. To give Asheville their due, there are conservatives there. Buncombe county went to Hillary, but not by the same overwhelming majority that Durham and Orange counties did.

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  38. Good for you. I left twice and returned once. When the beaches and parks began to suck and the then governor stated that the legislatures purpose was to ratify his dictats I realized it had become a communist lost cause. Good luck Dip, welcome to the land of refugees.

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  39. Congratulations Sir! Hope the move goes well!

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  40. Wonderful move! I recently made a similar move from the liberal hellhole of Brooklyn, down to NC. Found a beautiful 10 acre property with a home 3 times the size of my apartment, for one third the price. And the best part? Every one of my neighbors are conservative/Republican/Libertarian (except for one poor out-numbered couple of Democrats at the end of the road). And all LOVELY people. It never fails to amaze me how NICE conservatives are. Here you can have it all - quality of life and neighbors who won't look at you squint eyed for flying the American flag, (so long as you aren't in the middle of Chapel Hill or Durham), and stars. Welcome, sir!

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  41. If you end up near Black Mountain let me know and my brother, who h as been there for twenty years, would be glad to help you blend....

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    1. Black Mountain...you know you have an amazingly good band down there- the Lazybirds. We come down from NYC to see them whenever we can.

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  42. Welcome to the Old North State.

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  43. As a native North Carolinian who was raised in the country outside of Chapel Hill, lived on the coast and in Asheville, and will likely retire back to the mountains when the Foreign Service career if finished, I say welcome, and have a few words of advice.

    Never use the expression "ya'll." Anyone but a native southerner who uses it sounds fake ... very fake. People will not think you're trying to blend in; they'll think you're making fun of them. Be yourself, we'll accept you just as you are. You'll never love the humidity, but neither do we. That's why God invented central air. July and August really are awful, but spring and autumn more than make up for them. Oh, and never talk about California except in the negative, unless you're in Asheville or Chapel Hill.

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  44. Come to Butner and shoot long range.

    http://www.northstateshootingclub.com/newindex.htm

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  45. When was the last time someone sang "California here I come"?

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  46. Congratulations. I lived in California for 60 years and my wife is 3rd generation native but we moved to Arizona last January. My younger son is starting to make some noises. His best friends moved to Atlanta last spring. Tucson has some areas that voted for Trump and we found one. Property taxes are the same as CA.

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  47. Fascinating comments...so many of us had the same insights and experiences both in CA and NC. Personally, I too, an expat, graduated from UCLA back when it was the real enchilada, and left CA 44 yrs ago with the handwriting already on the wall. I have to go back periodically for family, and it's worse each time. NC is largely what everyone has mentioned....there's a place for every taste and people are NICE everywhere. We split our life between the big city half time....excellent symphony, museums, some night life for those so disposed.... and then half time in the softness of the sweetest rural mountain town I ever saw...full of kind, plain, but wise folks, my own ten acres and a fishing pond...the closest to the Blessed Life that I've ever imagined. Welcome to NC, for sure. If you show up in Polk or Henderson Counties....announce ahead of time and I'll guide you to some of the best BBQ in the South....to say nothin' of brown whisky imported from Kentucky.

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  48. When the barbarians came to Britannia, sub-Roman life managed to hang on in Wales and, in much attenuated form, briefly in the south of Scotland.

    You guys seem to be saying that American life might hang on in NC for a while.

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    1. Well...was settled by the Scots/Irish etc.

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  49. Good luck, sir, and welcome. We fled to NoCa from the People's Republic of Connecticut. NO regrets, but note that urban areas here tend to be infested with Progressives.

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  50. Welcome HOME for it will feel like that as soon as you arrive. MiLady and I left CA after far too many years of living there (3 times due to the US Navy) over 40+ years. Our choice was easy as I was born and raised in NC, living the 'Mayberry life' as a young lad in a small town north of Greensboro. Great people but what Richard said above is true.

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  51. Well ... there is decent BBQ in the Carolinas, as I have been told, although the Daughter Unit did take a couple of boxes of Real Texas BBQ sauces with her, back when she was stationed at Cherry Point.
    She's volunteering to spend some months of the year with my sister in CA, taking care of our mother, who is paralyzed and bedridden now. The Daughter Unit has confessed that CA feels horribly constricting to her now. Too many people, crammed too close together, the political and legal idiocy is horrific ...
    This is sad for both of us - I was born and raised in CA when it was a nice place to live, the Daughter Unit was assigned to Pendleton for some of her hitches in the Marines ... but the good parts of CA are now all out of reach of people with a regular job.
    Can understand totally why you didn't go for Texas. The brutal summer weather takes some time to learn to handle.

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  52. Good for you, best wishes, I appreciate your blog.

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  53. Could have written this three years ago. Couldn't be happier in Florida - Ormond by the Sea! Santa Cruz and the LAX area were home since 1964. How things change. My fault, to some degree, I guess.

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  54. Congratulations on leaving CA. Even though that coast from SF to Big Sur is one God's most beautiful creations, I wouldn't live there if they paid me...

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  55. A nice thing about North Carolina is that their Democrat Governor is doing his level best to create Trump supporters:

    "Dem Governor Ignores Hurricane Victims During Visit to Flooded Area" (http://bit.ly/2xyAXxy)

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  56. Welcome back to free America.

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  57. Your story sounds familiar. I was a Cal native, grew up in SoCal and left for Utah for med and grad school. Back to Harbor-UCLA for endocrine fellowship and then private practice for 14 years. Rodney King riot was too much and I decamped for Boise where I have lived happily for 24 years. Congrats on your move and best of luck.

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  58. I hear that CA wants to throw you in jail for calling Bruce Jenner "he"; and has decriminalized donating HIV-positive blood. It is truly the land of fruits, flakes, and nuts, and I don't blame anyone for wanting out.

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  59. Welcome to the greater sanity zone, Sir and Madam. There are still pockets of loonies about, but not endemically as in Liberlandia.

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  60. Nothing could be finer
    Than to be in Carolina
    In the mor.....ning.

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  61. There is an article at the Bee about California seceding.

    The comments are enlightening. There does not seem to be much sentiment for waging war to keep them in the union.

    http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/article178435876.html

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  62. I'll be a son of a gun, a Tar Heel!

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  63. Oh dear, Mr Mad. Have you seen this?
    http://nypost.com/2017/10/13/panthers-fan-sucker-punches-old-eagles-fan-runs-away/

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  64. Congratulations on your move. North Carolina is a good choice. I worked for a year in Banner Elk near Boone and enjoyed the mountains of western NC. I recently drove down RT 81 from Penn. south and it's a beautiful stretch of country all along the Appalachian Mountains. If I can extricate myself from Conn. that section of the country is where I would like to live. Best of luck in your new home.

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  65. Welcome Diplomad. Hope you didn't move to Raleigh/Duram/Chapel Hill. Filled with the same reality denial you'll find in Cali. If your wife wants the pulled pork head ti Lexington. You can't bee the BBQ at Lexington BBQ #1. Hope you make it out here to WNC.

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  66. Very good. Now, with Number 2 Daughter out as well, I can ask God to sink the shithole into the Pacific.

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