in reply to Nanook

I just moved to this area in early 2021 right in the midst of the pandemic hysteria. Tent cities the size only rivaled in my experience by Smell A. lol I lived in Van Nuys for a couple of years, in the 'Valley' just a few miles north west of LA.

I lived in an Air BnB in SW Portland for a several months when I got here and when I drove across Portland their were tents under ever single overpass, ever one. It's gotten much better now but gawddamn it was f'd. It was sad, it made you unhappy. I'm glad it's not as bad now.

in reply to Dwayne Parsons

@Dwayne Parsons When my wife retires I plan on moving, kind of looking at the Long Beach area. Visited there recently and loved it, no shit camps everywhere, people were friendly, beach open all night. Was there for the kite festival where people were flying kites lighted with LEDs at night, quite a site. Fresh seafood too, what's not to love? Yea I know if we have the Pacific Plate fault slip and a major tsunami we're done in but at 63 might as well live out the years I have left in relative peace. My hosting company has it's equipment co-located in a co-lo facility, I run it out of my home and can do that anywhere broadband Internet is available. Longer drive when I have to repair broken equipment but that isn't frequent enough to be a deterrent.
in reply to Nanook

Go a couple hours further South to Point Loma. Then eat at the best seafood restaurant on earth, or at least out of the one's I've had. I lived in Ocean Beach, which is north Point Loma, for seven years.

Blue Water Seafood - San Diego

Better fishing, people are waay more laid back, food is better, water....too many sharks for me, but plenty of people like surfing there for some reason. Jaws has ruined me and water. lol

in reply to Nanook

@Dwayne Parsons Also Sharks are very sensitive to electricity as they have organs to detect minute electric fields from the muscles of their intended pray. You can buy devices that put out a high voltage pulse into the water that repels sharks because it confuses their senses and they don't like it. The voltage is not enough to effect you but it totally overwhelms their sensory apparatus.
in reply to Nanook

I was joking. Lookup shark encounters on youtube. They are constantly swimming around where people are surfing and swimming. And they are typically juvenile great whites. The most impulsive, still they don't attack people.

The real reason... the water is freakin cold. WTF. I hear it's the 'Humboldt' current that comes in from Alaska, and comes close by the coast in southern California. They all wear full wet suites to surf there, not spring suits. I would prefer a dry suit but I'm not core enough for that. lol