Hey friends: On the road again. Oshunluvr begins an Expedition!

[oshunluvr]

BTW, Jerry, not making it to NE this trip either. It might seem I'm avoiding everyone - but not really! Maybe I'll get to meet Don at least.

[woodsmoke]

LOL as an aside, my nephew is also making a cross country trip even as I type this...and as Oshunluver is on his adventure...and my Facebook keeps getting pics and locations about every four hours!

Are YOU doing that Oshunluver! ? lol

woodsmoke

[SteveRiley]

I KNEW you were going to be butt-hurt over this! LOL.

Always happy to make someone's day

passing through Portland area July 12-14.

If I didn't have concerts on 12 and 13, I'd catch a puddle jumper down to Portland to say hi.

[SteveRiley]

165 mph?

1989 Ford Mustang GT convertible with the 225 HP, 302 cu-in. V-8 engine. I went through more tires with that car than any other...

[oshunluvr]

Yes, we'll updating Facebutt and Google+ during the trip. In my mind, this sort of thing is what Facebook should actually be for, not the ridiculous games and dumb apps. Anyone who wants to follow - PM me and I'll add you to my friends/circles. I really don't post much unless we're actually doing something worth sharing.

Steve, that car must have been geared well. Surprising a convertible could go that fast. Fastest I ever got was 132 in my 1986 Merkur XR4Ti from Topeka to KC on the turnpike. 60 miles in well under 30 minutes. It wasn't until after I returned to sane speed that I noticed I had the sunroof open. I might have been able to get another 10 MPH had it not been.

[GreyGeek]

One of the first things my dad did when he bought the 1957 Plymouth Sport Fury was to accept an invitation from my new brother-in-law to visit him at his cabin in the Ozarks. From Denver we got onto the Kansas State Turnpike, which was unposted at the time. With four people in the car dad could get the speedometer to climb just shy of 120mph. My bro-in-law was driving a brand new baby blue 57 Ford Thunderbird convertible. He passed us rather easily. (Later he said he could just make it to 130mph -- he had the top down). A few moments later we heard the horn -- beep! beep! The cab of a tractor-trailer (no trailer) went sailing by both of us. Dad guessed he was doing 140-150 mph. The noise coming out of the exhaust ports was loud! A few years later they posted the KS turnpike.

[oshunluvr]

Ah, the memories! We used to leave KC at 10pm to drive to Colorado to ski when I was a teen. We'd leave that late on Thursday, drive all night, make Idaho Springs CO by 6 am. Have breakfast at the Blue Bird Cafe and then be on the slopes by 9. I could do that drive and then ski all day - back then!

We'd drive overnight because the KHP didn't patrol I-70 after midnight to 6am. We'd just get past Manhattan and then push it to the floor. We'd always have to drive in the right lane because even the loaded big rigs would pass us! Of course, we were in a station wagon or van for those trips.

I remember one time taking the whole family in a big van for xmas holidays. My dad did the math and set our departure at 8:30pm thinking we'd get to Blue Bird at 7-8ish. Everyone else slept while my cousin and I took turns driving. We rolled in at about 6am! My dad looked at his watch - twice, paused for a moment, then glanced over at my cousin and me. He never said a word, but walked into the cafe shaking his head. The speed limit was 55 and he figured 65. We stopped for gas and still beat it by 2 hours!

BTW: Your dad had fine taste in cars! Awesome!

[DoYouKubuntu]

Have you given it to charity then?

No. Because my mom wanted her permanently disabled [by a brain tumor and other issues] daughter to have the security of a free-and-clear roof over her head. Last year when the title was transferred to my name, after MUCH discussion my relatives and friends convinced me that it's okay that I'm living in a 7 figure house that I didn't pay for, because that's what my mother wanted, and that it would be disrespectful to her if I gave it away.

A starter home for 1 million? What planet do you live on?

It's called SoCal. Starter homes here in my ZIP code go for over a million. What planet are you on?

Michael Anthony, the legendary Van Halen bass player, is from Arcadia.

Yes indeed. And Stevie Nicks attended [but did not graduate from] my high school, Arcadia High.

Between 2004 and 2007 I saw an amazing trend take place in the housing market, before the bubble burst. (I wrote the homestead software for the Nebraska Dept of Revenue and had access to all the data). Around 2004 I noticed a large number of folks moving from California to Nebraska. (I read that there were similar migrations to Colorado, Kanasas and New Mexico as well.). During that period of time software programmers who were making $100K/year were either living out of their car or van, or were commuting from distant suburbs to LA every day. The reason? Houses were so expensive in LA, and California in general. Folks were selling their houses for $500K to $1.5M or higher, and then moving to Nebraska and buying a similar, or better, home for $200K to $500K. They banked the rest. All that migration quit when the housing bubble burst.

When we bought our house in the Dallas area the guy who came to install cable happened to be from Huntington Beach. He told me that his friend had convinced him to move there after a bitter divorce, so he sold his house in HB for $300,000 (this was back in the late '80s) and bought a much bigger one in Dallas for $100,000 and pocketed the difference. THREE MONTHS LATER he couldn't wait to get the hell out of the south and head back to CA. He hated it there. (As I did, but circumstance was what it was.)

So, back before 2007, in CA, a "starter" home could go for $1M.

They still are, depending on where in CA you're talking about. The Bay Area is extremely expensive, as are certain cities/ZIP codes here in SoCal. The LA Times had a couple of recent articles specifically mentioning my ZIP code:

"In some corners of the Southland, it's as if the housing crash never happened.

Home prices in a dozen Southern California ZIP Codes have passed their peaks during the housing bubble, according to research firm DataQuick. Most are either in the San Gabriel Valley, a magnet for buyers from Asia, or on the Westside, where the technology industry is booming.
...
In Arcadia's 91007 ZIP Code, the median sale price for a previously owned house reached $1.33 million last quarter — 30.5% higher than its peak in 2007." (Housing prices surpass bubble peak in some Southland ZIP Codes)

"The overflow from China's economic high tide is transforming the housing markets of suburban Los Angeles.

Affluent Chinese home buyers are driving prices past boom-era peaks, spawning a subset of property brokers and mortgage lenders that cater to their distinct needs — and even dictate design details in new subdivisions.

The strongest magnet is the San Gabriel Valley, where Monterey Park became known as the "first suburban Chinatown" in the 1970s. Selling real estate there now requires familiarity with feng shui, the ancient Chinese principles of harmonious design.
...
Eva Chen and her husband travel between their homes in Shanghai and Arcadia, where they purchased a property near Santa Anita Park in October. They scooped up the second home as an escape from pollution and a shot at better schools for their two infants.

Compared with housing prices in China, the $1.27-million Arcadia property didn't seem expensive.

"The Arcadia house is cheaper," Chen said.

But it's getting more expensive quickly. Heavy demand pushed the median home sales price past $1.32 million last quarter in Arcadia's 91007 ZIP Code — 30.5% above its peak in 2007, during the housing bubble, according to researcher DataQuick." (Wealthy Chinese home buyers boost suburban L.A. housing markets)

Yup. And I'm moving to NC. 'Nuff said

I hear there's a hurricane headed up the east coast. Have fun! I did, when I lived in Florida.

[oshunluvr]

We're a little sad we're going to miss our first Hurricane! Looks to be a baby - only 2-4 feet of storm surge projected. Irene in 2011 topped at 9.5 feet. My surveyor told me at 12 feet above MSL I can get flood insurance!

[GreyGeek]

We're a little sad we're going to miss our first Hurricane! Looks to be a baby - only 2-4 feet of storm surge projected. Irene in 2011 topped at 9.5 feet. My surveyor told me at 12 feet above MSL I can get flood insurance!

But, look on the bright side. When the next (big?) one comes along you will be only 20 miles from the sea, and right next to the inlet into the bay.

[oshunluvr]

Looking forward to it! Earthquakes are for sissies. Of course, let's not forget who lives in Tornado Alley!

[oshunluvr]

Interesting stat: in 2013: 1 death due to hurricane, 55 due to tornado!

Although, over the last 10 years they're about even. Interestingly at 30 years, it's about 60/40 with tornadoes in the lead. USGS says 145 deaths due to earthquake in the 30 year period, which means the average is about 5 vs. 47 for hurricane and 75 for tornado. Also interesting is deaths by heat are the highest by 20% over the nearest (tornados), but NOAA only went back 10 years for heat related deaths. Likely many of those are border cross-ers in AZ, NM, and TX.

I remember when I moved from Olathe KS to SoCal in 1987 (weeks after the Whittier quake - death toll 9) my grandmother expressing her dismay that I was going to die in an earthquake. That same year there 47 deaths in the midwest due to tornado, not to mention the elderly that always died during the first heat wave of the summer in KC (many couldn't afford a/c or the electricity for it) and the unfit that die after the first large snowfall from heart attacks.

Really, everywhere has it's weather issues so why would anyone let that stop them from living where they like? One nice thing about hurricanes vs. tornadoes: One usually has lots of warning when a hurricane is coming. Tornadoes not so much and earthquakes nil. We'll just pile in the RV and take a trip far enough inland to escape the weather for a few days. You mid-westerners, on the other hand, better duck and cover!

[woodsmoke]

Yep.....the largest earthquake in the U.S. ( in the last 200 years ) was the New Madrid earthquake, not SF..


woodsmoke

[GreyGeek]

Looking forward to it! Earthquakes are for sissies. Of course, let's not forget who lives in Tornado Alley!

Who's afraid of tornadoes? I've been in seven of them. One from less than 1,000 ft. My son and I were standing there watching very dark, low hanging clouds when a huge wedge dropped out of the cloud and touched the ground. It made the earth shake so much our voices sounded like someone was beating on our chests when we talked to each other. Although the air immediately around us was calm, in the sky above us, about 100 - 200 feet up, debris was spiralling in toward the wedge ... insulation, shingles, branches and leaves, etc ...
Grand Island, June 3rd, 1980. Tore the southern part of town to shreds. Both sides of South Locust street for mile. That same day I had installed several Apple ][+ computers at the JR High school in Hastings. My son had come along to help. When we finished we drove back to G.I. So did the JR High principal, Ron, to do a little drinking at a bar on South Locust. When the twin tailed tornado struck the bar owner asked everyone to go into the beer cooler. Ron wave the bar owner of and remained at the bar, drinking and watching tv. The bar was leveled to a bare concrete pad, except for the beer cooler along one edge. Ron was found later, hundreds of yards away.

But one statistic that cannot be denied is that the human mortality rate is 100%. So, you might as well enjoy life as much as you can because you are not getting out of it alive!

[DoYouKubuntu]

I've actually had the tornado-vs-hurricane-vs-earthquake discussion many times in my life, and I prefer earthquakes.

Tornadoes scared the crap out of me, and I NEVER got used to them. It's because they're so random--one house can be leveled, then the one next to it untouched, then the next one and two or three across the street leveled, and so on. They can hop and skip all over the place, and even change direction and go back where they came from. Once I'd see the inevitable blackening of the sky, and feel/hear that stillness that precedes the torrential rain and hurricane-force wind, and/or the tornado sirens went off, I hated it.

A hurricane, on the other hand, gives you PLENTY of advance warning. Its path will be known for days ahead of time, and can be predicted with great accuracy, so people in its path have plenty of time to get out of the way, or get boarded up, or stock up on supplies, or whatever. My brother- and sister-in-law in Miami were displaced for more than a year after Andrew gutted their house.

Now, earthquakes, of course, are random in terms of when/where they occur. But for some reason--probably since I grew up with them--they're not terrifying for me. The biggest one I ever personally experienced was the Sylmar quake in '71; THAT was a big one. I remember that my uncle decided to leave for work later than usual that day--and good thing he did, since his hospital [Olive View] had collapsed buildings and some deaths. There hasn't been a big-ish one [near me] since I moved back here, but the few itsy bitsy ones I've felt just made me feel like..."I'm home!"