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We last visited the Bay Area in October for me to say goodbye to my coworkers and for us to see friends and family. We thoroughly enjoyed our time up there, but we thought it would be longer before we visited again. However, last week we found ourselves visiting again.

The main reason was to go to my uncle and aunt's place to retrieve our guitar and keyboard, which they had graciously let us store there during our move. Priscilla needed those to practice since we're starting to help out with worship at our church, with Good Friday being our first time serving in this way. We always had a feeling that we would reprise our roles playing piano (her) and drums (me) for worship after joining a new church.

So the previous Friday, after our morning gym session, we drove up the 101, stopping at our new halfway spot in Atascadero for a short break. We got to Mountain View in the afternoon and I joined up with Frank to go running. We ended up running 8 miles on the Stevens Creek Trail like old times.

We stayed up in the Bay for four days, which gave us plenty of time to see people and get stuff done. We stayed two nights with the Chans, having breakfast with them on Saturday, then two nights with the Leongs, having breakfast with them on Tuesday. We also caught up with the Yehs for a late-night hangout, did lunch with Albert and Ruth, dinners with both pairs of my uncles and aunts, and dinner with Tracy at Google. Plus talking to a lot of people at church for 3.5 hours until our voices were sore. Whew. Thankful for all the people we've gotten to know and their generosity in letting us crash at their houses (several families had previously offered).

We also had time to get the prongs on Priscilla's ring adjusted at Shane Co, and also hike Mission Peak on Monday. Hiking Mission Peak once a year has been our annual tradition, so we (I) thought it would be cool to do it again this year during our trip. Will we keep up this tradition going forward? I guess we'll see. Priscilla is as thrilled about it as I am about traveling in general.

We've also been busy helping parents, both remotely and in person. The cadence for now is to visit Priscilla's parents about once a month, and we saw them yesterday and fixed a lot of things around the condo.

Her dad's dementia is getting progressively worse, and during the last visit we helped them fill out and get notarized a Durable Power of Attorney and Advance Health Care Directive for each of them. We also bought her dad a medical ID bracelet which he lost within a day. We also ordered a bracelet with a tracker that's difficult to remove, so hopefully that will be better. There's the doorknob cover to prevent him from wandering that I mentioned in a previous post, and yesterday I installed a keyed lock for her mom's bedroom to help prevent her dad from going in there and taking things. He's also been breaking things around the condo because he can't figure out how they work. He seems to have clarity less than half the time, and usually when he talks, his communication is all over the place and nobody knows what he's trying to say. It's sad seeing him decline and not be able to do a lot of the things that he used to, but I have to remind myself that this happens to just about everyone as they age - whether it's our bodies or our minds breaking down. I myself have been having a lot more aches and pains in the last few months, so I'm getting to experience things through a new perspective.

Things are the most difficult for Priscilla's mom, of course. She feels like she's being driven crazy daily due to his actions and him frequently talking about seeing/hearing people in the condo. Priscilla and I have it easy, relatively speaking, though I'm sure that will slowly change as we start helping them more. We have to remember that we're here to love and support them, and this is what we signed up for when we decided to move back down.

Because Priscilla constantly has the travel itch, and because she keeps forgetting how much land sickness she gets after a cruise, she signed us up for another cruise to Ensenada last month. This was our third time cruising there, the previous time being in 2020 a month before the world shut down. How things have changed since then.

We stayed at Jo-Ann and her sister's condo in San Pedro overnight, and they kindly brought us to the Long Beach Cruise Terminal the next day. After waiting in lines for a good while, we boarded our ship, the Carnival Firenze. This is a newer and larger ship compared to Carnival's Fantasy-class ships that we've sailed on previously.

We went straight to the Lido Marketplace for lunch, avoiding the crowds that were mostly checking into their muster stations. After lunch, we reported to ours, but they just asked if we had sailed before and knew how to put on a life jacket, and then they signed us off. I don't know if they were supposed to bypass the safety briefing like that, or maybe they figure that people don't pay attention to or remember the briefings anyway.

We had time that afternoon to do the adventure course on the top deck. It wasn't as exciting as the treetop courses we did at Go Ape and Highline Adventures, but it was still cool to see this new addition. Here, your harness is tethered to a rail system and you're able to change freely between an easier side and a harder side at each platform. Kudos to Priscilla for pushing through her fear of falling and making it to the end.

The next day was supposed to be Catalina Island, but it ended up being our day at sea due to strong winds that made docking infeasible. Unfortunately, the wind also made for some choppy waters, and the ship was swaying a lot. I had to go back to our stateroom and lie down, but that day we still managed to eat a lot, work out, walk around the track on the top deck, and watch the Color My World music show which was beautifully done. We had dinner at the upscale Michelangelo Restaurant, and the prime rib and molten chocolate cake were divine.

Fortunately, the wind had subsided the next day and we were able to go ashore at Catalina (Avalon). We hiked 10 miles around the town, the Wrigley Memorial & Botanical Gardens, and the Trans-Catalina Trail. I did a couple bonus miles and hiked to the Lone Tree Point on the south side of the island, where I was treated to breathtaking views of the coastline below. The trails this far out were also fairly devoid of people.

Ensenada was the following day, and this time we just did a zip lining excursion with Desert Nest. A bus brought us to their basecamp outside town, and then two vans took our group of a dozen people up to the nearby hills. There are five successive zip lines and the views were decent. I have to admit that zip lining was not as exciting as I was hoping, but I guess the experience is more about the views than the inherent thrill of the ride. Maybe also because we were not permitted to do it hanging upside-down like our guides were doing.

After we got back to town, we walked a mile around the Port of Ensenada but otherwise didn't have too much time or inclination to do much. We don't care to eat in town because there's plenty of food already paid for back on the ship. When we were walking along a street with merchants trying to get tourists to eat at their restaurants, I even said "ya estamos llenos" ("we're already full") to a lady, which was true because we'd eaten a big breakfast. I guess we like being boring when traveling.

There were a couple things that had changed this time around. One our first cruise in 2009, all the pictures being taken of people got printed out and hung on the wall to nudge people into buying. I always thought this was wasteful. I'm not positive but I think even in 2020 they were still doing this. Now, to cut down on costs, you just view your pictures through the Carnival app and purchase prints there. I don't think there's an option to purchase digital versions of the pictures, though. Maybe in a few more years.

The other difference we encountered was that reservations to the restaurant are now made through the app. They also don't give you a printed menu by default (though you can request one), instead making people pull up the menu on their phones. A little less personal, but it again cuts down on costs and is better for the planet.

Priscilla ended up having land sickness for a few weeks after the cruise, while mine was minor and lasted only a few days. The trip was fun enough but I was reminded that I'm not really a cruise person. Priscilla, on the other hand, enjoys being able to try different things and having all our needs taken care of. I don't think she's really itching to do a multi-month around the world cruise anymore, though doing another short cruise in the future seems to still be on the table.

I've been thinking a lot about purpose lately. It's now been four months since I left my job with Pure, and being free of a job has afforded me time to actually do things like think.

But kidding aside, in some senses I've been busier than ever. I've definitely had my hands full with fixing things around the house, doing things for parents, working out, researching health, relearning science concepts, and fellowshipping with people at church and in our small group.

I reckon that most of us won't find our "grand purpose" in lofty ideals like changing the world or becoming the top ranked in something. But, to loosely paraphrase Theodore Roosevelt, we can all do a bit of good where we are, with what we have.

To say that life is more about finding purpose in the day-to-day rather than living out some "grand purpose" is helpful. But, for followers of Christ, I think that doesn't capture the whole picture. We are called to a higher purpose, and that is to glorify God and find joy in doing so. Our purpose should be the one that He has set for us. Nothing more, and nothing less.

So we continue to live each day - learning, laughing, and loving. Finding small doses of purpose in enjoying life and helping others do the same. All the while, allowing Christ to work in us and wanting the same for others. That, I submit, is our grand, glorious purpose.

It doesn't feel like it to me, but it's now been over six months since Priscilla and I moved back to SoCal, and over three months since I left my job with Pure. Where does the time go?

This has been an eventful time for sure. We've seen my parents on 11 occasions, her parents on 5, and Aaron and his family on 8. The most recent time was just last Sunday when we saw my family to celebrate our nephew's 5th birthday. Wow, he's 5 already?? Time really does fly.

Back in August, we signed up for lifetime memberships at our local gym. We go 1-2 times per week, depending on Priscilla's schedule. I'm usually lifting while she goes to the Pilates/yoga and Zumba classes, though I might be going to Pilates/yoga with her more often (I've already gone once) since my back has been acting up and I need to strengthen my core. Gary from our church usually joins me at the gym biweekly since he gets every other Friday off from work.

We've committed to the church in Thousand Oaks that I previously mentioned, and we submitted membership applications in November. We're still waiting to be approved, as applications are supposed to be reviewed at the next elder meeting, but this is just a formality and we're already somewhat involved in church life. We visited four fellowship groups and ultimately joined one that has people similar to us in life stage. There are usually 8-10 people in the group and we meet weekly, with one week per month set aside for an outing to a restaurant (we haven't always gone to those). We value the discussions and getting to know people in the group.

Despite not having a job right now, I feel as busy as ever. Since 2013, I've been using a spreadsheet to track my notable daily activities, but last October I started also using Google Sheets to track a breakdown of my activities in five categories: Mind, Body, Spirit, Others (i.e. other people), and House. I don't always do something in each category every day, but it's a good goal to have. When I feel like time has gone by without much to show for it, I can look back at the sheet and remember that I did do meaningful things, even though each of them might've been fairly small. I've learned that life is less defined by grand acts and more by small but cumulative actions. I gave the sheet the title "The Next Right Thing", the name of a song from Frozen 2 - not a very memorable movie, but the song has a powerful message about just putting one foot in front of the other, especially when things are hard.

We've spent a good amount of time with family and friends (both new and old). We've met most of our immediate neighbors, though our relationships haven't developed past the quick hello on the street yet. We've gotten half of the house set up the way we want; the gym and master bedroom still need to be done. I've been brushing up on various topics like chemistry and biology, and every time I learn something, I put it on the sheet and highlight it for easy reference. Fitness has been okay, but there's still a lot of room for improvement and I still have my near-term goals that I want to hit. I haven't quite found my "grand purpose" and perhaps I never will, but I've been getting little doses of purpose in daily life. Maybe that's enough.

We also had a memorable time in November when evacuating due to the Mountain Fire (as I talked about in a previous post), and this month there have been a lot of wind-driven fires in SoCal, most notably the hugely destructive Palisades Fire and Eaton Fire in LA. Challenging times ahead.

Speaking of challenging times, Priscilla's dad's dementia has been slowly getting worse. He seems somewhat okay during the day, but past the evening his clarity diminishes and he gets more confused - this apparently is known as sundowning. Priscilla's mom asked us to buy a door knob cover so that he can't leave the condo late at night; he had already wandered out twice. Two weeks ago, we stayed three nights at their place to help them with various things, and it was somewhat challenging. We're going to stay with them one night next week in order to help them with more things, including driving them to a doctor's appointment 45 minutes from their place. A sign of things to come, but this is what we knew we'd have to deal with when we decided to move down.

Overall, we're glad that we moved down and still glad that we settled down in Camarillo, even though it's an hour drive, give or take, to get to parents. It's nice to have a little bit of separation, and we like our house, neighborhood, and city. Retaining a bit of comfort will be critical when we find ourselves helping parents more. But we'll deal with that as it comes, one day at a time. Doing the next right thing.

In my last post, I mentioned that the Mountain Fire was raging in Camarillo Heights and areas to the north. Our neighborhood was evacuated that Wednesday. Fortunately, Priscilla and I were able to go stay to my parents' place far from the fire (one of the benefits of not living too close to parents). The power at our house was cut in the morning but was restored 7 hours later, so we had a limited view of our street from our Ring Doorbell camera.

The first day was excruciating, not having much information and fearing the worst. The fire map showed that the fire was 2,000 feet from our house. At least two of our neighbors decided to not evacuate, and in the evening one of them sent Priscilla a picture showing the sky glowing orange just over the ridge in front of our house. Fortunately, the 60mph winds that fanned the blaze started subsiding that evening, returning to a normal light breeze the following afternoon. Had the heavy winds continued for longer and in our direction, I could imagine the fire, or at least embers, coming down the hill and reaching our house. The 182 structures that ultimately burned were in the mountain area north of us where there's more vegetation and where there aren't as many direct roads into the area, but I think it could've easily been a lot worse. We're thankful that our neighborhood was spared.

After the first two days, the fire perimeter was kept from expanding significantly more thanks to the tireless work of the fire crews. We returned to our home on Friday, and the evacuation order in our area was downgraded to a warning later that day. We're also grateful that we receive city water and didn't have the water quality issues that some other Camarillo residents had. Many of the outlying areas are unincorporated and have their water provided by local companies, some of which had issues with contamination due to toxins and firefighting chemicals seeping into the water supply.

As of today, the fire has burned 19,904 acres and is 98% contained. Life in our area pretty much returned to normal that weekend, just 3 days after the fire started, though air quality was noticeably impacted for the first week or so. There's still a trace of smoke at night, but it's so much better now.

This ordeal made me and Priscilla think about our priorities. We didn't bother getting fire insurance when purchasing our house because it seemed pricey and the fire risk in our area seemed low. Our next-door neighbors don't have it either, and apparently neither did some of the people who actually lost their homes. Our neighbors who have lived here for 13 years told us that a fire has never gotten this close to our area in that time. But we're considering getting insurance now. Premiums will probably increase due to what happened, though rates in California are still being kept artificially low - that's why a lot of insurance companies are leaving the state. We still think that our house will probably be fine, but it's good to have peace of mind. And I think of it as a way to help subsidize insurance for people who need it more.

But moreso than insurance, we've been thinking about the things that we treasure. Seeing how anxious we were about our house, and thinking about how devastated we would feel if we lost it, made us realize that we don't have enough of a stewardship mindset. Ultimately God owns everything, so if it's His will that we should lose something, then we should be able to say like Job, "blessed be the name of the Lord." Easier said than done, of course. Lord, increase our faith and our dependence on You, and let us act as stewards over all you've given to us - our home, money, time, and relationships.

We're not even a full week into November and already this month has turned out to be one for the books.

Last Friday, Priscilla and I visited my parents and then her parents. We stayed two nights at her parents' place so that we could drive them to the memorial service at CCAC for Priscilla's uncle William, since her dad can't drive anymore and her mom isn't comfortable driving far. It was a nice time seeing parents and the memorial was really touching. We didn't know Uncle William well, but we learned about his great faith and his love for others and desire to see them come to Christ. He had a quiet spirit but such a profound faith in the Lord. His words of "Be a Christian on the inside," as recounted by his granddaughter, were such an encouragement to us all.

On Sunday, we drove over to Hollywood and stayed at the Lexen Hotel. We joined Gina, Weber, their parents, and Gina's friend Sally at the Hollywood Bowl for the concert for David Foster's 75th birthday. A lot of the songs were too old for us to recognize, but it was cool to hear and learn that he had produced songs like Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You," Celine Dion's "All By Myself," and Josh Groban's "You Raise Me Up."

Fast forward to this morning when news broke that Donald Trump had won the presidential election in a landslide. I consider myself a moderate, and my views on various issues generally fall closer to the middle than towards either end of the political spectrum. That said, in terms of character and moral fiber, I think Harris would've been the better person by far to represent this country, and had I lived in a swing state, I probably would've voted for her out of fear for what Trump's presidency means for the country and for the world. I really hope that Trump will serve with integrity, humility, and fairness, and that he will submit to the perfect Judge who gave us the ultimate example of love.

With a Republican majority in the Supreme Court, Senate, and possibly the House, I'm concerned about issues like the environment. But regardless of who's in power, I think massive repercussions of climate change will be inevitable. Society is just not willing to make the drastic lifestyle changes needed to avert a crisis, and by many accounts it's already too late. As followers of Christ, we know that this world is temporary and will eventually pass away. The book of Revelation talks about hail and fire and a third of the earth being burned up - metaphors for climate disasters and nuclear warfare, perhaps? It saddens me how many people, some Christians included, don't seem to act like stewards when it comes to taking care of this world. Nonetheless, our ultimate hope must be in Christ, knowing that only what is done for Him will ultimately last.

And on that note, I'll finally mention that there's currently a wildfire blazing in parts of Ventura County including Camarillo Heights. We lost power this morning when the power company shut off power to tens of thousands of residents as a precautionary measure. The Mountain Fire, as it's now called, quickly grew to over 10,000 acres due to the strong winds that are expected to last until tomorrow afternoon. We had to leave around noon when the evacuation area expanded to our neighborhood. On the fire map, the fire boundary appears to be 2,000 feet from our house. Supposedly, many homes to the north have already burned, but that area seems a little more remote with more vegetation. Some of our neighbors stayed behind and one of them just texted a photo showing the sky lit up in orange behind the hill that's close to us. Power was restored around 3:30pm, which is encouraging. I have confidence in our fire crews and I know they're working tirelessly to contain the fire. We know that the Lord can (and does) give and take away, and that He is sovereign over all things. It's hard to not be anxious, though. And I don't think that anxiety will just go away. We just need to trust, and pray. In all things.

This past Friday was my last day with Pure. Since moving to SoCal, I've been fortunate to have been working remotely for 3 months. But alas, the company denied my manager's request for me to be permanently remote, as the executives have been pushing to have everybody back in the office and are apparently not granting any new requests for permanent remote positions. We knew that this would be the most likely outcome when I decided to move.

I could've stayed and made them fire me, but I didn't want to make life difficult for my manager, and I gathered that they probably would have fired me with cause due to non-compliance, so I left voluntarily. This means that I don't get severance or unemployment, but I do get 90 days to exercise my stock options. A dismissal with cause would've meant losing my options (as well as no severance or unemployment).

So for my final two days, I visited the office in order to see my coworkers one more time. Priscilla and I drove up Wednesday, this time taking the 101 because it's now the most direct route for us, and the drive wasn't too bad save for a couple places where there was construction.

I had lunch with some team members on both Thursday and Friday, and my manager arranged a farewell get-together with our combined team Thursday evening. Some team members even came into the office when they would normally be working from home, just so that they could say goodbye. It was great to hang out with people one last time, and people were really kind and encouraging. Our team has been the best part of working at Pure and we've always supported one another. I'm going to miss everyone but I hope to visit again.

When people would ask me how I'm feeling, I would say that I'm wistful but optimistic. I've been with the company over 11.5 years and have been part of its culture and growth. There's so much that I didn't get to do that I wish I'd had the time for, and there's so much more that I did get to do that I will treasure forever. I enjoyed the ski trips, holiday parties, board games with my team, foraging for leftover lunches with fellow-minded teammates, the fun antics, mentoring 8 people, and being part of the amazing work that my team has done to make the rest of engineering more productive.

At the same time, I've been feeling somewhat burned out for the past several years, feeling like the work that I do often doesn't really matter. I'm planning to take at least a few months off before thinking about finding another job. It will be nice to finally be able to sleep more, train more, and have time for all the things that I've been wanting to do. Work would often leave me drained by the end of the day, lacking the energy to do things requiring much effort. I have a lot of things that I want to do now that I have an extra 30 to 40 hours a week.

We're fortunate to have reached our goal for financial independence, largely thanks to my job at Pure, and we're incredibly grateful for that. I'm hoping that I will be intentional with how I use my time and that it will be not just for bettering myself but also serving others. I don't know for sure that I will actually want to find another job, but if I do, it will be because I want to rather than because I have to. If I do find another job, I'm hoping that it will be at some sort of Christian/humanitarian non-profit, ideally still doing software development, where I feel like I'm making more of an impact in people's lives. Regardless of what I end up doing, I hope that it will be purpose-driven. If it's not working at a job, then that time should be spent doing something even more purposeful.

While I was working on Friday, Priscilla hung out with old church friends. Saturday, she had lunch with old coworkers and then we brought dinner to my uncle and aunt. And yesterday we visited our old church, caught up with people there, had pho for lunch with Randy and Eva, and then brought dinner to my other uncle and aunt and picked up some stuff that we'd left at their place.

It also seems like we're entering the season of helping parents more. Priscilla's uncle passed away last week and the funeral will be at CCAC later this month. Priscilla's dad can't drive and her mom isn't comfortable driving that far, so we're going to be staying with them for two days so that we can all go to the funeral together. Eventually they will need more help more frequently. So part of living purposefully will mean being more involved in parents' lives, particularly through the hardest times.

We'll have a lot to figure out. But for the first time in a long while, it feels more manageable now.

For the second time in our lives, our new house is beginning to feel like our home.

It's been 1.5 months since we moved in, and we're taking our time getting settled so as to not feel overwhelmed. We're using the corner room for our sleeping quarters and for my office. Eventually, after we get a couple more home improvement things done in the master bedroom, we'll probably want to buy a bigger bed and start sleeping there.

So far we've spent a combined $17k on termite treatment and repairs, a water heater repair/repiping, sewer lateral replacement, and installation of roof vents. The outlets in three bedrooms need to be grounded and the master bedroom needs to be painted a color that doesn't burn the eyes. I also need to drywall over a couple outlets which were placed in a weird spot halfway up the wall in the gym room before we can have a full-length mirror put in there.

The first week in the house, we bought a washer and dryer and a dining table with 6 chairs. Next was a sectional sofa, 3 small bookcases, a large coffee table, and finally now a TV stand. I just finished building most of the TV stand and we finally set up our PlayStation 3 and watched a DVD that we had borrowed from the library - The Money Pit. My coworkers had mentioned it when I first mentioned buying a house. The movie was a little weird but had its moments. Our house is a bit of a money pit, but fortunately nothing like the house in the movie!

There are a lot of small things that need to be done for the house. I cut down one of the giant bird of paradise plants that was growing too tall next to the house, and I've been repairing various leaks which are present in half of the 13 irrigation zones. In a month, I'll have more time for these things. My company is not approving any new requests for people to be permanently remote, so I'm going to have to leave after September 28 when my 3-month transitional period comes to an end. I could refuse to leave and have them fire me, though if they fire me with cause then there would be no severance, but I'd rather leave on good terms and not make life difficult for my manager. I should be able to give 2 weeks notice on September 28 which would allow me to remain employed for the first two weeks of October. That way, my 90-day window for exercising stock options will extend into next year. I'd rather exercise them next year since we have too much income this year, though our stock has fallen $20 in the time that I could've exercised this year, so was that really the right call?

I've been working for 16 years, 11 of which have been at Pure, so I'm feeling overdue for a change. It's been good here overall, but lately I've been feeling like the work that I do doesn't really matter. I'm planning to take several months off before deciding whether to find a new job. I'm looking forward to having more time for the things that I want to do, and I'll also need to help Priscilla's parents understand their finances. We probably have enough to be financially independent, assuming the stock market doesn't crash, so I don't need a high-paying job anymore. If I do get another job, I'm hoping for it to be with a Christian non-profit where I feel like I'm making more of a difference in people's lives. But in whatever I ultimately decide to do, I hope that I can live with purpose.

Being down in SoCal has allowed us to see family more frequently. They came over the first week and helped us unload the pod, and Aaron came by one day to mount our TV and another day to bring my bike which I'd been storing at my parents' place. We visited Priscilla's parents during a weekend when we went to Arcadia to see Sharon who was visiting her daughter there. We got together with my parents and Aaron's family earlier this month to celebrate birthdays. And we'll be staying at Priscilla's parents' place again next week in order to keep her dad company while her mom is helping out at a church retreat during the week.

We've also visited a few churches, two of which are in Camarillo. But we feel the most comfortable at a church in Thousand Oaks due to the worship style being close to what we're used to and the people being similar to us demographically. Church community should not be constrained by demographics, but I can't say that they don't matter at all. We haven't committed definitively to the church yet, but we're hoping that it will be a place where we can grow, serve, and build deeper relationships.

There's no shortage of things to sink money, time, and effort into. Some of it is meaningful, some of it less so. We have a lot to figure out, but one step at a time. Do the next right thing.

This is going to sound silly to everyone (the wife included), but since I do a lot of Yelping, I also like to check in on Yelp for every place that I visit. Partly to rack up dukedoms (awarded to the person with the most check-ins to a place within a certain period of time), and partly to keep track of where I've been and how many times I've been there.

Upon moving away from the Bay Area, I collected the stats on my total check-ins to the places we've visited most frequently. They kind of provide a high-level snapshot of where we've been the most during the past 12 years. They are as follows:

Church:
CCIC: 616

Cities:
City of Mountain View: 1,839 (I checked in basically every day I went to the office)
City of Santa Clara: 639
City of Sunnyvale: 440
City of Cupertino: 68

Recreation and fitness:
Central Park: 445
San Tomas Aquino Creek Trail: 191
Rancho San Antonio: 105
UFC Gym: 53
Monte Bello OSP: 33
Mission Peak: 28

Restaurants:
Mediterranean Grill House: 99
El Pollo Loco: 43
Yiassoo: 30

Other commercial:
Mariposa Shopping Center: 188
Santa Clara Town Centre: 154
CVS: 115
Chase: 109
Sprouts: 95
Dollar Tree: 65
Safeway: 62
Home Depot Santa Clara: 50
Home Depot Sunnyvale: 35

It's only been 10 days since we left the Bay Area, but we're already starting to adjust to life down here in SoCal. We of course miss our friends and our old church, but hopefully absence will make the heart grow fonder and we'll keep in touch and have a sweet time with people when we visit.

We drove down July 4 and stayed a couple nights with my parents and a couple nights with Priscilla's parents. We then stayed 5 nights at the Bella Capri Inn in Old Town Camarillo, and now we're in an Airbnb in Santa Rosa Valley for a week, and then finally we'll be in another Airbnb in Camarillo Heights for 1.5 weeks. The idea was to be in town so that we could look at houses, but we're actually closing on a house in two days!

We liked the house in the west part of Camarillo Heights that I'd previously mentioned. We had an offer in the pipeline before our move, but the sellers wanted us to see the place in person to verify that we actually liked it. So we saw the place the day after our move and submitted a stronger offer that day (same price but even faster close), and the sellers accepted it the next day. They interestingly had no other offers. Our agent said that the market had slowed down, and it also helped us that the house was shown for just one weekend, with the next weekend being a holiday weekend. And another thing that probably helped was that the house was in a price valley - higher than most other houses here but lower than the really expensive houses that people with a lot of money can afford. But the market is picking up again now, so we bought at just the right time. We're grateful for God's providence, for our amazing agent who'd been sending us listings for nearly two months and finally found this place when it was off market, and for having enough funds from selling our Bay Area house to make a cash offer.

This new house basically checks all of our boxes except for walkability - there's a Ralphs a mile away but nothing else within reasonable walking distance. It's a single story house and is over 2,700 square feet, which will be ideal if we ever have parents living with us. The lack of stairs will be ideal in terms of mobility, for them as well as likely for us someday. Priscilla has her big kitchen and I have my gym room - the one bedroom that's on a slab foundation; the rest of the house is on a raised foundation. There are 4 bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms, and also a 2-car garage. I wish the garage was slightly wider; one side of it has some cabinets that protrude a little into the space behind the garage door, and I think we can fit two cars and a couple bikes in there, but it's going to be a squeeze. Other than the garage, there's a lot of space everywhere since it's also a corner lot. The place has been kept pretty well and the backyard is nice. The plants are all on drip irrigation, and the backyard features a large patio, a patio cover, and a hot tub. I really like that the backyard is completely private, unlike most other houses that we've seen that have a neighboring house with a view into the backyard. Priscilla is planning to spend more time there compared to the backyard at our previous house.

God really paved the way for us to get this house. We weren't crazy about it due to the location, so we were committed to offering $45k under the asking price and not going above that. Our reasoning was that if it was God's will for us to have this place, then we would get it. And sure enough we did, and without anyone else bidding. Our hope is that we honor Him with this house and everything else that we've been given.

And now that the question of where we're going to live has been settled, we now need to find a good church to call home. Last Sunday we visited Priscilla's old church in Woodland Hills, and today we visited a church in Thousand Oaks that would be 18 minutes from our house. We talked with a few people today and they were very welcoming. And one couple and another guy also live in Camarillo! We'll probably check out a local Camarillo church next week. I think these are all good churches and great people, so it might be a difficult decision. But we trust that God will lead us to where He has planned, like He's done for everything else thus far.

Well, it finally happened. This afternoon, Priscilla and I moved out of our house and out of the Bay Area. I'd been living in this area for 16 years, and she'd been here for 12 after we got married.

This past week has been crazy with loading the pod, tidying up the house, and packing up our cars to conclude our move. Packing and loading was a huge ordeal, and suffice it to say that I should've had us hire movers at least to load the pod. We had such a stressful time doing everything ourselves, and Priscilla made me agree to let us hire movers when it comes time to unload the pod when we have a new house.

Saying goodbye is hard. During the past weeks, when people asked how we were feeling, I'd respond by saying that we were feeling mixed emotions and it's a bittersweet time. Today, however, there was no sweetness, only deep sorrow. Sorrow over leaving this house that we've been in for 10 of the last 12 years of our marriage, leaving our wonderful neighbors and neighborhood, leaving our church and the so many people we've gotten to know there, and leaving the Bay Area which we've come to love. I'm a pretty emotionally stoic person, and I think the last time I cried was when I moved up to the Bay Area and my dad had just left after staying with me for a week to help me get situated up here. But today I was sobbing involuntarily when getting the final things ready for us to leave the house for good. Priscilla, the less stoic one, was in tears as well. There's something about a sense of loss that really cuts to the soul.

Indeed, there's so much we're giving up as we begin this new chapter of our lives. The last chapter can be defined by growth and accumulation. It was our first years of working after college, building adult relationships for the first time, cultivating relationships in the church, and building a life together after marriage. Now we are starting over, venturing into the unknown both in terms of life events as well as community. The main reason we're moving down is to be closer to family, and our parents are getting to the point where they're going to need more help with things, and their health will only just eventually get worse. We've been fortunate to not have really had to deal with significant trials in this past stage of life, but the next stage will undoubtedly be marked by them.

But as Priscilla's coworker said to her, it is a privilege to be able to spend time with parents, whether they are healthy or otherwise. God has gotten us this far in life, He's given us strength and many mercies during this move, and He will guide us in the future from now until the rest of our lives. Our hope is that we honor Him in all that we do, in where we ultimately settle down, and in the relationships placed in our lives.