I like grey, post-industrial cities. I like their rough edges and brick houses. I like scowls and efficiency and please get the hell out of the middle of the sidewalk if you aren't going to go anywhere. I like being a hater.
But I have to admit that sunshine, comfort, and gorgeous fruits and vegetables are pretty good too.
"These avocados are really nice," a woman near me said to the man selling them at the farmers' market. "Do you have them all year round?"
"Eeeeehh yes, but..."
"I know," she said. "Some times are better than others."
"Yeah, in December they get a little blah."
There is no denying that it is extremely pleasant to be able to walk with ease to two farmers' markets bursting with produce, an excellent cheese shop, a sweet little bakery just around the corner with quite decent coffee, a slightly further away cafe with really very good coffee, multiple superlative taquerias, et cetera, all in the nicest possible weather and terrain for walking in. There are also several venues for frozen yogurt, if you are suddenly seized with the need for some. I haven't been, but you never know.
At the same time, it's all a bit obscene, isn't it? At least the Tuesday farmer's market is laid out cruelly and has a horrible thicket of people who need to learn how to get the hell out of the middle of the sidewalk standing between oneself and the lovely food. And there is no shortage of horrible marvellous aroma types to kindle a hot little bonfire of mingled self- and other-loathing in my breast. Still...
When we spent the night in Tucumcari, New Mexico, I woke up in the morning, stepped outside, and said "Oh! I see! This is why people like to live in this part of the world." It wasn't midday hot yet, and the air was soft and dry. It smelled wonderful in a way that is nothing at all like other places.
From the day I was born until I went away to school, I lived in just one city. Since then, this will be the fifth. It will be good to have a year of saying Oh! This is why people like Southern California!
Also, no doubt, Oh! This is why everyone else in the world hates Southern California.
Here is something I like without reservation. It is a water machine. It lives near our house, outside a convenience store just down the block from the garage where the Spanish-language AA meetings happen.
Final polishing step is exposure to ultra-violet light.
There's a soothing cadence to the slight failure of parallel structure, isn't there? This is why people BEVERAGES COFFEE COOKING ICE PLANTS Southern California.
It's actually "Tucumcari"; normally I wouldn't nitpick but it's just such a great name.
Posted by: A Nonny Moose | 07/28/2010 at 01:53 AM
Hey! You're here? Welcome!
Posted by: K-sky | 07/28/2010 at 02:09 AM
Ooh, thanks. I'll fix it now!
Posted by: redfox | 07/28/2010 at 11:07 AM
Cool -- do you bring containers to be filled up by the water machine? I'm picturing a line of young mothers carrying buckets and pitchers to the village well in an old Goytisolo short story.
Since then, this will be the fifth
Suddenly last year, I had been living in a house for longer than I lived in the house where I grew up. That was pretty startling.
Posted by: The Modesto Kid | 07/29/2010 at 11:47 AM
LADWP water is very, very good. If it tastes bad then you should have your pipes checked out. The water machine is a cynical ploy to market water to people from countries where they could not count on reliable water.
Posted by: K-sky | 07/29/2010 at 07:24 PM
Oh dear. I wondered what it was for -- I thought maybe it was just left over from an earlier time when... something. We're actually in SB, but the water here is perfectly good too.
Posted by: redfox | 07/30/2010 at 12:35 AM
I live in a different part of London to Ms Whoopee so have a different variety of marvellous aroma types - equally obnoxious mind. I'd rather have the types with permanently nice weather though!
Posted by: Betty M | 07/30/2010 at 03:39 AM
I'm surprised you find the tap water in SB to be decent*; LA's water is great because they have access to mountain water, whereas generally water on the southern coast (I was born in SB and then moved up to Pismo) is awful tasting. We used those water machines every week.
And hurray, for enjoying the luxury that is the central coast. It's really a marvelous place to live.
*Then again, it's been a long time since I've had it.
Posted by: Parenthetical | 07/30/2010 at 12:53 PM
Welcome to your new home!
And OH thank you for the link the the Marvelous Aroma people. I hate everybody!
Posted by: Elsa | 07/30/2010 at 11:31 PM
Parenthetical, here is my revised review of SB water: it tastes... okay, I guess. Not great. Mainly it is VERY VERY HARD oh my lord, so hard. Everything is already slowly hazing over with the deposits, and we are afraid to make coffee until we get a Brita filter lest the machine become entirely rigid with scale instantly.
Posted by: redfox | 08/03/2010 at 02:28 AM
Sounds like SLO county - you pretty much have to install a water softener to save your small appliances, or do the bottled/filtered water route. And it tastes like you're always drinking out of a metal cup, which I presume means there is lots of good minerals in there for you, or something.
Good luck with it!
Posted by: Parenthetical | 08/04/2010 at 10:42 PM