Notes from California

07 June 2024, 11:30 AM

Steve Miller

We’ve been here a week. Attended a celebration of life gathering for my friend who died last year, visited a bunch of friends and revisited some old haunts. My impressions:

* Traffic was bad when we left. It’s nearly impossible to get anywhere now.

* We rented a Nissan “Kicks”. What an awful little car.

* Ate Mexican food every chance I got. I think I’ve identified what’s missing in so much of what we can find in Ohio - Mexican Oregano. Ordered a jar that should be in the mailbox when we get home.

* Spirit is the only airline that flies non stop. We’ve flown on it several times and we don’t mind it.

That is changing. They’ve installed an automated bag check system at LAX that didn’t work 2 years ago and doesn’t work now. There’s a small army of people surrounding the machines trying to get them to work. If my bag makes it home with me it will be a miracle. Glad I put an air tag in it.

* Regular gas is $5/gallon. No one is quite sure why and they’re not supportive of plans to raise the gas tax again.

* I think they may be giving away Teslas at CA dealers. I’ve never seen so many. Rivians and Cybertrucks too.

* It doesn’t feel like home any more. I’m glad to be going back.

07 June 2024, 12:13 PM

Doug

I fly into LA once a month for a board meeting and I have to say I have pretty much the same reaction.

you probably don’t drive into lovely mid-downtown LA like I do. there were always a lot of homeless, but every time I go there, the size and spread of the homeless encampments has expanded.

so no LA doesn’t feel like home anymore and I have no desire to move back. Which is good because I don’t think I could afford it anymore…

07 June 2024, 01:02 PM

ShiroKuro

Interesting, Steve. Remind me how long ago you moved to Ohio? More than a year?

A few times there have been jobs in CA that I could have applied to. One was at UC-Santa Cruz and the other at UCLA. The UCLA one was deemd quite prestigious, the UCSC one that sounded like someone was looking at my CV while they wrote the job ad.

I was adamant that I wouldn't even apply bc I didn't want to live in CA. I later heard from someone that the UCLA dept. is a ghost town all the time because traffic (and housing) is such a problem that profs there live far away and they schedule their classes so they only have to be on campus once a week. Everything else is done remote. I didn't become an teacher/academic in order to avoid working on campus. :/

So anyway, I never applied. Your post, from someone who lived there many years, tells me that was the right decision.

07 June 2024, 03:39 PM

RealPlayer

quote:
Originally posted by Steve Miller:
* Ate Mexican food every chance I got. I think I’ve identified what’s missing in so much of what we can find in Ohio - Mexican Oregano. Ordered a jar that should be in the mailbox when we get home.

I would also suggest buying a couple of young plants of true Mexican oregano and planting them; even in Ohio they should grow easily. I have a Greek variety, now on its third year, and I dry a batch of it each year. It's pretty spicy. This year there's already more foliage than I can use. Maybe that means it's time to divide or replant.

07 June 2024, 04:27 PM

Mikhailoh

When I moved back I discovered that at that time the missing ingredient was cilantro. That may have changed now that it's more popular.

08 June 2024, 12:18 AM

Steve Miller

Cilantro is pretty easy to find in my area, even at local chains like Hillbilly Marc’s. I’m even growing it.

My tenants grew Mexican oregano and it’s pretty much a weed. I tasted it a few times and never figured it out but now I think I get it. It’s very different from the Greek variety.

08 June 2024, 02:05 AM

Daniel

I love cilantro. I have to make a shopping list and am putting it off. I hate shopping.

08 June 2024, 06:15 AM

Daniel

I used to visit my aunt in Los Angeles, flying from New York or Tampa, and later would stop there between Hawaii and Tampa.

The triplex apartment in Burbank where she lived for more than thirty years and her neighborhood were beautiful when she moved there and run down by the time she had to move home to New York because she was dying of cancer.

One of the many things I admired about her was she had the guts to follow her dream moving from a small town to the big city on the other side of the country keeping a roof over head for so long.

My impression of California right or wrong is that it was a good place to live in the early part of the 20th century through the '70' but started sliding downhill at some point much like practically everywhere else.

I was born too late to live there in my view and feel I have visited enough.

It has a mystique about it but a dark side in addition imo.

08 June 2024, 11:47 AM

big al

quote:
Originally posted by Steve Miller:
* Ate Mexican food every chance I got. I think I’ve identified what’s missing in so much of what we can find in Ohio - Mexican Oregano. Ordered a jar that should be in the mailbox when we get home.

The Giant Eagle market in my nighborhood has McCormick Mexican oregano. It's pretty expensive at $5.39 for a half ounce bottle. We normally have all the Italian oregano we want because it grows in a planter near our back door. It also self-propagates and we harvest it for drying from nearby flower beds.

Big Al

--------------------------------
Money seems to buy the most happiness when you give it away.

Why does everything have to be so complicated, all in the name of convenience. -ShiroKuro

A lifetime of experience will change a person. If it doesn't, then you're already dead inside. -MarkJ

08 June 2024, 12:16 PM

wtg

The Spice House is our go-to for all things herbs and spices.

https://www.thespicehouse.com/...ucts/mexican-oregano

Not the cheapest place, but their quality is top notch. The owner is part of the Penzey family. More than a bit of competition goes on between Spice House and Penzey's.

We do the flatpacks. Free shipping.

08 June 2024, 01:34 PM

big al

I've bookmarked the Spice House. We grow a few herbs and I buy most everything else I need locally, but it looks worth knowing about.

Big Al

08 June 2024, 05:55 PM

Steve Miller

The Mexican oregano arrived today. Got it on Amazon but probably could have gotten it at Giant Eagle like BigAl.

It’s exactly right! The flavor I’ve been craving! I added some to generic ALDIs salsa and - boom!

There’s a taco truck in my kitchen!