[pea-jay]

For those of you know me and my history as a planner trying to deal with Peak Oil in a county hopelessly addicted to the SUV mindset, you'll know what I am talking about.

For those of you who don't, I was a planner for a county responsible for long range resource planning. When I found out about Peak Oil in early 2004 (I cant believe 2 years now) I presented my findings to my superiors and was promptly instructed NEVER to talk about that again.

Read about that here:
http://unplanning.blogspot.com/2005/05/ ... enial.html

and:
http://www.peakoil.com/fortopic9426.html

With that in mind and my wife's getting a job in OR, we ditched CA for the Northwest. Since I am not independently wealthy and could not afford purchasing our own spread (or anything else for that matter) we lived relatively simply this past year on the coast. I got involved in the community (which had a more substantially progressive outlook) on a volunteer basis and even sat on the city's sustainability committee. Unfortunately that didnt pay the bills. So I went looking for planning work--and got turned down for EVERY job I put in for.

So now I am gonna eat some crow, I guess. I am moving back to CA.

Yep, you read that right. Hello CA.

I got (past tense!) a job with another county in the state, this one with a substantially stronger environmental record and progressive out look and active grass root Peak oil preparations. Heck, one of my INTERVIEW questions REFERENCED this issue! As was the case with the last place, I am gonna refrain from posting the name online for the time being.

I am hopeful for a change. I will have long range planning responsibilities in a county where a good number of individuals are cognicent of the issue and the leadership is inclined to provide the necessary leadership on the matter.

I start at the end of July.

[Jack]

I'm sorry to hear you had to go back to CA, but congratulations on the new job! I'll look forward to seeing your future posts.

[Specop_007]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Jack', 'I')'m sorry to hear you had to go back to CA, but congratulations on the new job! I'll look forward to seeing your future posts.

[Pops]

As a fellow Cent CA refugee, you have my condolences Pea-Jay. But it sounds like you have found a somewhat less provincial area where you can make a valuable contribution – so congratulations as well.

How is your wife taking the whole situation?


Ah money! The last 5 or 10 years in CA I was making pretty good bucks for an uneducated yahoo – I made about a fifth of that income last year and am on about the same track this year. Luckily we were paying lots on the mortgage principle and of course the big run-up in prices helped us to buy outright here. If I’d ever though I could actually talk my wife into moving 1,500 miles from her Mom I would have been socking it away!

But achieving our particular brand of Powerdown is an adjustment, we can’t just run out and buy a new tool, curtain or pair of sneakers any time the urge strikes. We’ve started measuring our expenditures in calves; "We can insulated that room and replace the windows for about 3 calves" – the problem is getting enough calves!

Although we’ve only been gone a little under 2 years, CA already seems foreign to me. But the hardest thing is that we are still feeling our way around here - not knowing where the plumbing supply house is that carries everything, where the good fishing holes are, the shortest route from here to there, etc. You could have plopped me down just about anywhere north of Bakersfield and I would have known exactly where I was and how to get home – I can get lost here 10 miles away!

Still, I told my wife I’d only make that trip across the desert one more time – in a box.

Anyway congratulations again on the new position, looking foreword to progress reports.

[pea-jay]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Pops', 'A')s a fellow Cent CA refugee, you have my condolences Pea-Jay. But it sounds like you have found a somewhat less provincial area where you can make a valuable contribution – so congratulations as well.

How is your wife taking the whole situation?

[pedalling_faster]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Specop_007', 'I') dont think theres a job in the world that would get me to move to Cali.