Life is a voyage…

Sounds like a cliché, but for me, it’s particularly true today, as I’m about to embark on a six-month Leave-Of-Absence from IBM, where I’ve been working for now almost 6 years. After 20 years in the Software Development business, I feel like I need to take a break and reflect on my life and career, passed and to come…

So, I took a leap of faith and sold my house (I’m moving to an rented apartment later this month). For the next few months, I’ll be travelling in and out of the US, going back to places I like particularly, or discovering new ones, visiting old friends and family I haven’t seen in a while, or meeting new people.

I’ll try and keep this journal current, and welcome your comments.

Vincent

and it’s really starting to sink in… I’m “on vacation” for 6-months. Yeah !

I’m still pretty busy though, going through my closets and packing the stuff I had just hidden away for the open house… And the weirdest thing is, I keep getting up early, before the alarm clock goes on, even though I no longer “have to” get up early. On the other hand, I can use the time so it’s not such a bad thing.

I’ve got one more week to go before the big move, which is happening on the 31st. I’ve rented a big truck, and since most of my stuff is already piled up in the garage, loading the truck should go pretty fast, and hopefully we can do a round trip in the afternoon.

Gotta get back to sorting out my shirts & t-shirts…

TTYL,
Vincent

Saturday (3/31) was the “big day”. With the help of several friends, we managed to empty my old house into the big truck on the picture (26 feet, the biggest one can rent w/ Penske) and I moved to my new appartment, in Sunnyvale, not very far from where I used to live 5 years ago…

People were getting really tired by the end of unloading everything into my new place, partly because I live upstairs, but mostly because of the huge amount of stuff I keep lugging around with me… Must have some pack-rat genes in me

By the time we finished, it was night time, and we enjoyed diner (pizza, sushi, cookies & ice cream) before collapsing on makeshift beds. Seven people did manage to sleep in the middle of furnitures and piles of boxes. Sunday morning, coffee greeted the parents, and cereals for the kids, accompanied by some croissants, eggs & bacon. Louise even rewarded me with a “Pretty good breakfast for a camping trip!”.

Went back to Campbell yesterday to finish cleaning up the house, and I’m going back this PM and tomorrow to deal with the garage (it will probably take a trip or two to the storage place, and another one to the dump). This morning, Comcast is coming to hook me up with cable & internet. So far, I’ve been using MetroFi (free WiFi provider in Sunnyvale), but the ads are somewhat annoying, and I can’t setup my router and deploy my Home Network…

Door’s ringing…”Cable guy !”

Gotta go,
Vincent

 I went sailing yesterday evening.
I joined Stuart, Candy, Gene & Katy in the first Beer Can Race of the season, at the Richmond Yacht Club. It was a short race, but being on the water was a nice break from “dealing” with the junk in the garage…

Back in Campbell today, to finish cleaning up the garage, preparing tomorrow’s trip to the “dump” and cleaning up the fridge…

I’ve just spent the weekend (a long one, since it ended Monday afternoon) on the water, sailing the Monterey Bay.

We left Santa Cruz for Monterey, CA on Saturday, then sailed to Carmel, CA on Sunday, where we spent the night, anchored in the middle of Stillwater Cove, surrounded by the kelp. We finally sailed back to Santa Cruz yesterday, even though we had to rely on Vessel Assist to give us a “jump-start” a couple of miles off the Santa Cruz harbour, due to a dead battery on our beautiful Hunter 36… On the way, we saw several whales, swimming across the Bay.
Just before this, I spent 2 days in Death Valley, CA, camping with Xavier (my ex-roomate) at some Hot Springs in the Saline Valley. We left Tuesday afternoon, spent the night at some friends cabin in Truckee, CA, and then drove down the beautiful US 395 all the way to Big Pine, CA. There, we turned eastward and quickly got off the black top, driving down the Saline Valley Road, towards the Hot Springs. We got there by 6PM, installed our tent and enjoyed the evening, in spite of a violent wind.

The next day, we hooked up with Chuck and Marie-Claire, which I had just met during my morning “soak”, and we drove 9 Miles up the Steel Pass trail, before hiking another 2 miles up the hill, to some indians petroglyphs that Chuck had been told about. We eventually found several sets of them, took many pictures and hiked our way down, before driving down to the camp, where we enjoyed a great diner with Marie-Claire, Chuck and his bottle of wonderful tequila…

Friday came and we had to leave, not without one last soak in the Sunrise pool, exchanging emails with our new friends. We made good time, and arrived home right before 9PM.

Just spent a month in France !

Didn’t drive as much as I usually do, but chose instead to stay longer with each people I visited with. We had a wonderful family reunion (120+ people), where I got to see some relatives I hadn’t seen in quite a long time, and even though the weather was rather inclement, we had a very good time.

Other highlights included a diner at “L’atelier de Joel Robuchon“, in Paris, and a lunch at “Cafe Lavinal“, in the village of Bages-Pauillac.

When I flew back to SFO after 30 days, it felt like it had only been a week, and I wished I could have stayed longer…

In December 2006, I spent the Christmas week at my cousin’s, in Freeport, Grand Bahama. I enjoyed that stay very much, in spite of a rather inclement weather (from a scuba-diving point of view). So, I decided to give it another shot, and trying to beat the hurricane season, I flew back there for an extended week, early July.

This time again, the weather wasn’t ideal, but I got to go out diving 4 times in the ocean (for a total of 8 dives), and one time in Ben’s Cavern (a fresh water site, inside the island). I also had the provilege to introduce my niece and nephew to scuba-diving, after having introduced their Dad to it, about … 15 years ago.

More pictures are posted in my Gallery.