Not quite the exciting travel I was expecting...

Four weeks into retirement, and I’m starting this post sitting on a plane, heading to Denver. Home….at least for a good chunk of my life. I have probably done this round-trip between Denver and SFO/SJC close to 150 times, between various consulting engagements, and commuting back and forth when I joined Google. This trip is an exploration to see if we want to go home - we have really close friends there, and while housing is a bit expensive due to the influx of Californians (californification), it is still less than the Bay Area. The house prices may also be a result of the new found wealth in the weed business. Jeff Sessions and Donnny John may do something about that. I hear Sessions is thinking of doing a remake of Marijuana Madness. At any rate, Denver is still less expensive than California, is a ‘purple’ state, has great shopping, restaurants, and health care. And then there are the mountains….I still miss the easy access to hiking the fourteener’s, even at my advanced age. Yeah, I could move back here in a flash. We are planning a whirlwind tour of houses, meeting with friends, and visiting a few of our favorite restaurants. And, with a little luck, make the drive up Mount Evans to commune with the mountain goats. Ah, the memories. Some of which include extended stays in hospitals. Maybe I’ll take up golf again. Much safer.

This is a pretty quick turnaround from our trip to Chicago last week. That was for a wedding - daughter of one of our closest friends. It was fun meeting with friends, and the wedding was fun. We also stayed with our close friends who live in an active adult community way north of Chicago …..my wife and I had not been considering what we sometimes refer to as elder ghetto’s, but this place was a lot different from most of the ones we have seen. It’s built around what is almost a wildlife refuge - streams, ponds, and all kinds of critters, including Sandhill Cranes. Pretty cool.

So now we have another place to consider. The towns in that area have great restaurants, and we found an excellent wine bar as well. Lot's of great parks, and a good sized river for kayaking. Winters suck...and so do the summers come to think of it. Who knew this would be so hard.

I ran into (figuratively, not literally) someone I worked with the other day, and had a long chat about the SWE who was fired and is now suing Google after submitting his opinionated manifesto on diversity.  I’m staying out of the conversation publically, since there been enough press about it, and I’m sure that there have been countless meetings back at Google, not to mention memegen overkill. It’s really too bad this had to go public but much like the White House, leaks are difficult to control at tech companies. What I did realize though was that I’m not really that interested in what’s happening at Google anymore, other than the stock price. I think I made the right decision to leave.

I’m also now considering moving my blogs off of Google blogger and Google+ (which according to a friend, only dead people use).  Wordpress is more widely used and I have even started using Facebook again.
Gasp