Our trip to Silicon Valley
 

The wife and I had to go to Stanford Medical Center on friday for an appointment with a specialist. (She's okay, just an allergy thing) 375 mile round trip.

Two things stand out from the trip.

1. To kill some time, we walked around the Stanford Shopping Mall. I paid $4.50 for a single (small) scoop of ice cream in a cup.

2. I saw an Uber car that was a Jaguar SUV.

I work in Santa Clara, and I know what you are talking about. You don't see any cheap cars. You also see a lot of Tesla's driving around with other electric cars. Most places that you work at have charging stations.
It really is a crazy place to work. If you got laid off, it would be very easy to find another job. I've never seen so many companies in one location and the general area.
https://advanton.com/silicon-valley/

How did you manage to drive through SanFran without puncturing your tires on used needles or spinning out on human feces? The mind boggles.

Even in the 70s and 80s when I lived there running printing presses I could tell my boss to shove this job up his ass and by noon tomorrow I could have my choice of three jobs.

When I wanted a raise sometimes I would secure another job at the pay rate I wanted to be raised to and tell my boss "On Monday I will be making $x per hour. It's up to you whether I will be doing it here or somewhere else."

Those were the days.

Another observation I always make when checking out a new place to live, new job, etc is what I call the smile ratio. That is, how many people are smiling there?

I walked around a mall for two hours in one of the richest areas of the country. People were very well dressed, lots of pricey cars in the parking lot, etc.

People were courteous and friendly, but no one was smiling. I mean no one. This seems to be common in affluent areas, at least according to what I've observed.

I live in a blue collar retirement community and there is laughter and smiles everywhere I go here.

my staff informs me that a 1/2 gallon of quality ice cream costs about $5 locally. :slap: quite the markup if you can get $5 a scoop. :faint:

Holy smokes, I don't think that I would ever need ice cream that badly.

:leaving:

I would venture a guess and say that has more to do with those retired people not having any pressure rather than a certain level of affluence.

:cert:

That is certainly part of it. There is plenty to be stressed about in Silicon Valley. It's why I left there 28 years ago. I sure as hell didn't do it for money. The doctor we saw at Stanford said it takes her an hour to commute 15 miles.

At least it was good ice cream. There was a small boutique grocery store there that sold high quality meat and produce. Also some normal items you would see in any store. Pretty much triple the prices you are used to. I specifically remember New York steak for $29.99 a pound.

When I travel, I've always liked exploring the local grocery stores, especially overseas. I guess that's kind of a weird quirk.

When my late dad would travel, when he got hungry, he would fill the car with gas and ask where a good place to eat was.

The locals know what's good and would share. He ate a lot of very good places he would have never stopped at.

I do that too! I like to eat!

For me it's a curiosity about what it would be like to live there. Of course I already know what Silicon Valley was/is like. I went to a grocery store in Catalina when I was there and pretty much everything was priced about double the mainland. When I was a printer I used to check out the local print shops. I went to one in Jamaica and the guy was very friendly and showed me around. He was quite proud of his equipment, most of which looked like something we would have junked years ago. But he was making a living with it.:yesnod:

I always talk to bartenders. You'll get better info from them than the Camber of Commerce Visitor's Center.

What is really crazy is I only go in 1 day a week, Mondays, and the rest of the week I work from home. I take the Amtrak train in from Davis to Santa Clara Great America. It's a 2.5 hour drive in the train due to all the stops.
What is really interesting are all the people that get off at Richmond, Berkeley, Emeryville, and finally Oakland Jack London. The majority of people get off at these sites (excluding Richmond), and take the Bart to SF. Then you have the folks that take the ACE train from central CA to Silicone Valley. There are hundreds of them that get off there in Santa Clara Great America.
The good news is I'm counting down the months left before I retire. I told my boss that February 24, 2020 will be my last day. I have to burn off most of my 6 weeks of vacation, so I won't be in much come mid December.

I do the same thing. I worked for eight years in a grocery store and started doing it back then. I will even check out a Kroger if I am on the other side of the state since we don't have any in West Michigan.

Don't ever go to Disneyland then - the blue milkshakes are 8 bucks. :lol:

My son, the surveyor, was on the way to SF this AM when he called long about 11 my time 3 hour trip, company truck, to survey some 30'x50' lot.....and I of course said the markers he had to locate were under a pile of shit in the sidewalks......he said he would note that he could not find them for shit.....


:issues:

so I gotta ask him if he used his shit shovel yet.....

:issues:

Well, OK, but watching a smackdown in Toontown is free:

https://www.click2houston.com/news/v...lands-toontown

Video at link.