Spring is very much upon us here in Toronto and as promised, I’m back in the saddle of a motorcycle again. Oh how good it is to be back on two wheels.

As some of you may remember, I used to ride a ‘98 Triumph Speed Triple that was unfortunately crashed when I foolishly let a friend someone ride it. That someone happened to be a close friend of mine, but after the event he apparently felt I was trying to take advantage of him when it came to replacement cost of the bike, and I haven’t spoken to him in about 9 months now. I’m not quite sure how exactly I was supposedly taking advantage of him, when I’m the one out $5,000 and 1 friend… but I digress. He won’t return my calls or emails, so needless to say, he and I are no longer friends. And to think, I actually scoffed at everyone who said that this would come between he and I. How naive I was. In the end, I sold the bike remains for all of $1000, and spent the rest of the winter wondering what I’d replace her with.

Purchasing a motorcycle is very much an emotional decision. For the most part, the bikes themselves are all very similar (especially when you’re comparing Japanese bikes). I had no interest in a sports bike, nor a cruiser… so I immediately limited my options, and more or less eliminated the Japanese manufactures. I highly considered getting another Triumph, but in the time since the aforementioned incident, the only dealer in the city closed up shop. So with the Japanese and the British off the list, I had but only the Italians to gaze upon. And my new love would come in the form of a 2007 Ducati Monster S2R.

For those who know anything about motorcycles, I’m sure you’ve heard of Ducati. And I have to admit, their reputation is well deserved. The bike rides amazingly well and, quite surprisingly, similar to the Speed Triple. The Ducati rides smoother, has better brakes, suspension and overall better technology – but the S3 was close to 8 years old, so that’s to be expected. What surprised me the most however, was how much lighter and smaller the Monster is. It also has a smaller displacement (800 vs 955), but I can’t tell the difference whatsoever. It’s just as fast and responsive as the Triumph was – which is to say, faster and more responsive than I would ever need it to be.

This weekend proved to be the perfect weekend to take her out for a nice long 2+ hour ride. And with Google’s latest addition to their Maps tools, I’ve mapped out the route for those interested in going for a beautiful spin in the country.

I’ve been doing a lot of traveling recently. Toronto to Chicago, Chicago to Toronto, Toronto to New York, New York to Toronto… my very own international ferris wheel. Exciting, I know. Anyway, I’m actually in Chicago at the moment, and having just returned to my hotel I thought I’d let everyone in on a little ritual I have while traveling.

I’m not quite sure when it started, but every time I get in a rental car I roll down the windows (weather permitting), pop in a CD and crank the stereo. On the surface, I suppose it’s really not all that unusual, but when I travel, I carry only one CD with me. And that CD is Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon.

With the exception of Sirus, I don’t typically enjoy the radio. I don’t like it when I’m at home, and I especially don’t like it when I’m in a rental car – aimlessly flipping from channel to channel (or commercial to commercial as it usually is). During one of my previous visits to Chicago, I remembered that I had a copy of Dark Side of the Moon in my bag. Having made my way around the dial a few times and tiring of the crap on the radio, I fished it out and popped it in. And since then, it’s all I listen to.

Without a doubt, Dark Side of the Moon is one of my favorite albums of all time. It’s one of the few albums I own that I enjoy listening to in its entirety. I’ve listened to it so many times, it makes me feel right at home. Even when cramped in a shitty rental car, attempting to find my way around a foreign city.

And to be honest, I must admit – it’s not unusual for me to sing along to every song… except The Great Gig In The Sky. I can’t touch that one.

Let me check my calendar… yep, it’s been well over a month since I posted last. The horror – I know, I know. I love the idea of blogging, but the reality is that it takes a lot of time to do it right. I suppose I could spend a few minutes each day to spit something out, but I find myself spending an inordinate amount of time trying to shape my thoughts into something meaningful. And with said shaping comes the occasional stint of blogging drought.

Things have been mildly busy since I arrived back in Toronto, especially the last 6 weeks. I’ve been traveling to Chicago on a weekly basis and in between the travel, I’ve been busy preparing for the various presentations/meetings, or attempting to unpack and move back into my house.

Jess and I finally managed to accomplish the move-in. Everything is more or less unpacked, but there are still suitcases sitting in the hall, which means we’re not done yet.

But I suppose they’re going to stay there a few days longer, as I just found out that I may need to travel back to Chicago again this afternoon – so… for the time being, I’ll be crawling back under the proverbial rock from which I just came, and I’ll attempt to post something of actual substance in the coming days. Or at least that’s what I’d like to believe.

Now here’s a little nugget of goodness I discovered yesterday afternoon – It appears that motorcycles and scooters can now park for free on the streets of Toronto! Yep, that’s correct – you can slot your bike in any spot where there’s a meter or where you’d need one of those stupid Pay & Display tickets, and you can do it for free.

Free parking, awesome gas mileage, cheap maintenance… if only it didn’t snow here.

Ok, I think things are starting to settle down a bit. Now that the dust is starting to settle, I figured I’d post a quick update… Needless to say, it’s been a crazy few weeks.

About 2 weeks ago, Jess and I made our way up to Napa to celebrate our 1 year anniversary – I can’t believe a year has passed already! The weather was horrible, but the area was stunning regardless. We stayed at a bed and breakfast, toured the Opus One winery and enjoyed a number of outstanding meals. We only had a few days, but I’d like to go back a bit later in the season when everything is in bloom.

After Napa, we headed back to SoCal to prepare for the pack. Our car was picked up on Wednesday night, the rest of our house was packed and shipped on Saturday and we departed on Sunday. And this is when the fun starts.

After arriving back in Toronto on Sunday around 12:30 am (I guess that’s actually Monday), I started my first day at Blast in the morning. After a full day of meetings, greetings, and orientation I headed to the airport and flew to Chicago for a few client meetings. The meetings lasted 2 days, and just before midnight on Wednesday night, I arrived back in Toronto. Thursday was another full day of meetings, greetings and orientation, and Friday was a day off! Thank God for Good Friday ;)

So, now that we’re officially back in Toronto for good, I suppose I need to change the name of this blog… It was definitely sad to leave California, but I’m happy to be home.

I guess I should wrap up this “look back” series… and maybe I’ll attempt to write a shorter post this time? Yeah, I think so.

Part 3 – Goodbye

It’s been an interesting year to say the least.

Jess and I got married, moved to foreign country, started new jobs, got a few new vehicles, traveled to the other side of the world twice, visited Sin City twice, and enjoyed almost every minute of it. Oh, and Jess got a taste for In-N-Out too (See Exhibit A to the left)!

And after all that, we’re moving home. Yep, the rumors are true – Jess and I are moving back to Canada. When people hear that we’re moving back, it seems the common response is “what?” in that, you know, “you’re joking, right?” tone. Nope, we’re not joking. We’re trading in the warm winters for snow and ice, HBO for TMN, and Bush for Harper.

There were a number of reasons for the move back, but the primary reason was that we simply weren’t happy down here. There are a number of things I like about living here, and a number of things I don’t, but in the end we decided that Toronto was the place we wanted to be. So, off we go… back from which came.

I’ve accepted a job at Blast Radius in Toronto, and will be starting April 10th… so we’ll be back in a few short weeks. But in the meantime, let the crazy whirlwind of packing & moving begin!

Jess is currently asleep on the couch. It’s kind of her thing really. Around an hour after we eat, we usually find ourselves watching something on TV. Perhaps it’s something recorded on our PVR. Maybe a movie from NetFlix. On the odd occasion, it’s something live on TV. But it really doesn’t matter what it is, because whatever happens to be playing the TV is nothing but a lullaby for my wife. Gun fire, explosions, yelling, screaming, crying, simple dialog – it matters not, and it’ll put her to sleep. By my estimations, I’d say Jess sleeps an average of 10 hours a night. 7 in bed, and 3 on the couch. The funniest thing is when she wakes up. “Disoriented” is by no means an accurate description. She stumbles around, eyes glassed over, speaking in broken sentences – “I Sleep Now” – and has what I like to call “hair explosion”. And as if these words disturbed her current slumber, she literally just sat up, proclaimed something in what I think was english, took off her glasses, slumped back over and kicked a leg out from under the blanket.

And I wouldn’t have it any other way… I think it’s one of those things you come to love about a person the longer you’re with them.

Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, I was reflecting.

Part 2 – The Cost of Living

In response to Drew’s comment, I thought I’d address the cost of living in California.

On the surface, I’d say it costs a lot less to live in Orange County when compared to Toronto. Now, that doesn’t necessarily mean that we’re actually spending less – if anything, we’re spending more. So let me explain.

The only thing that appears to significantly cost more is real estate. The market here is out of control. If I’m not mistaken, I believe the median price for a home in OC was somewhere in the neighborhood of $710,000 – that puts us at number 2 on the most expensive list. The coastline is more or less spoken for with every viable piece of land (and some not) under development, and it’s quickly moving further inland.

But if you can look past the real estate inflation, you’ll quickly see inexpensive underbelly. For example, I currently drive an Infiniti G35 Coupe 6MT which in the US retails for $37,650. In Canada, the same model will run you $51,972 – that’s about $7,000 difference once you do the conversion.

Some other examples would be the weekly necessities. We shop almost exclusively at Trader Joe’s for our groceries, and as far as I’m concerned, it’s by far the best and cheapest grocery stores around. Target is a favorite of Jess’ – I don’t have the deep-in-my-soul love for it like she does (but I much prefer it to Wal-Mart). Costco may be available in Canada, but down here you can buy massive bottles of vodka for a fraction of the cost… which has to count for something. Hell, even Starbucks will sell you a Grande Latte for less.

Taxes are obviously lower, but that was to be expected. Hydro, gas, water, etc. are all about the same I suppose. Internet and cable are competitive too (with the must-have-all-services-with-one-company bundle). We signed up for Vonage when we got here (in hopes of keeping our old number), which is much less than Bell was back home.

Looking at that, you’d think we’d be saving a ton down here. But that’s not the case. Being that this is California, my take on it was “enjoy it while we’ve got it”. And that’s what I set out to do. So I got the sports car. And the motorcycle. We rented a much larger place down here which costs more than our place in Toronto. We’ve done some traveling (admittedly, a good chunk was covered through work), and if we go out for dinner, we go out! – I think that’s our of our weaknesses really. We both enjoy a good meal.

In the grand scheme of things, I’d say the cost of living is more or less the same as Toronto when you work real estate into the equation. I suppose you could get away with paying less if you decided to live about 20 miles inland, somewhere along the 71 in Chino – but anyone who’s watched the OC knows that’s not the place to be when you’re living in Orange County. There’s a reason MTV picked Laguna Beach.

As of Monday, I have been down in California for exactly 1 year… and I’m still amazed how quickly that year has passed. It’s definitely been an interesting year for Jess and I – a year of firsts really. From our first year of marriage to my first time on a motorcycle, a lot of ground has been covered. So to commemorate the event, I figured it would be fitting to do a multi-part series reflecting on this passing year.

Living in California

A common question I get is “what’s it like living in California”? It’s really not all that different than living in Toronto, but there are some obvious differences – the weather being the clearest standout.

Southern California has unbelievable weather. It’s warm year round, and being close to the coast, it’s usually very consistent – 72° and sunny with a cool breeze. It’s been a bit cooler in the “winter” months, especially at night where we’ll easily see a 30° swing in temperature. But I can’t really complain because last I checked, there’s no snow (although sometimes there is frost).

Living in Dana Point and working in Laguna Beach has kept us close to the ocean. It’s not uncommon to have lunch or meetings down at the beach, and my commute to work is a 15 drive along the coast. The irony is that it appears that Jess and I really aren’t “beach” people now I look back on it. It’s one thing to go and sit on a bench at lunch, but it’s something completely different to fish the sand out of your ass after spending an afternoon lounging on a towel. And lest I forget that I almost stepped on a stingray when I last ventured out into the water. Like I said… we’re not beach people.

Laguna Beach is an interesting little town. For the most part, it’s nothing more than a small shopping district that surrounds a small beach (Ocean Ave and PCH). There is always an interesting cross-section of people down in Laguna, often a healthy mix of tourists, locals and the homeless. You’ll often find at least 1 homeless guy gazing upon the ocean, just taking it all in; A cluster of genetically-perfect men and women playing beach volleyball or lubing-up to bake in the sun; Or a small family of tourists working on their awkward tans despite the overcast skies, choppy waters and cool tempratures. People, please – if you’re on vacation and find yourself alone at the beach, it’s probably because it’s a bad beach day. There’s no shame in waiting a few days and coming back when the weather is better!