So Far

A brief progress report:

Life in Oakland is off to a good start. After a week and a day, the job is exactly what I expected it to be. I am doing the kind of work I wanted to do, which is what they told me they needed. The people are good-hearted and smart, the staff is extremely capable, and the firm management is, refreshingly, competent (high praise, considering my most recent experiences).

Although I am back in the Bay Area on a permanent basis for the first time in nearly 20 years, it doesn't really feel like home, since I did not spend much time in San Francisco as a kid, and never went to the East Bay back then. I only entered mind-warp territory when I met Andy for dinner in San Jose, although so much has changed there that even that area didn't feel too much like home.

Some random observations based upon my first few days as a returned Bay Area resident:

There is weather here. Clouds, which sometimes make an appearance in SoCal on a quarterly basis, are a fact of daily life around the Bay, even if they burn off completely by the afternoon. Plus, the daily temperatures are about 10 percent cooler (not counting San Francisco itself, which is a microclimate unto itself).

I still unconsciously pat my pockets as I approach the office building, my muscle memory recalling that I used to be required to run a key fob over a security sensor.

I have to remind myself from time to time that I am not hearing by former boss's voice in the hallway outside my office.

Northern California drivers, at least those trying to cross the Bay Bridge, are the most aggressive shoulder-drivers I've ever seen. If there is a patch of open asphalt as wide as a car, they will use it, regardless of whether it is actually a lane.

Kin of the computer that gives Stephen Hawking his voice have found work as platform announcers in BART stations. One might reasonably think that in this area of the world's greatest technological leaps forward, state of the art computerized vocalization would have advanced past the garbled Casiotone level.

The NFL is not just a theoretical proposition here. Of course, SoCal is not without professional football. USC could probably give the Raiders a pretty good game.

I love the buzz of working downtown, even if the downtown is Oakland. My office is one of several such buildings in a large complex across the street from city hall, with restaurants and shops in abundance.

So far, so good.