I have changed venues all of a sudden, going from the high-end luxury world of wine to a university town, Palo Alto. A high-end luxury university town, sure, but it's still a big change.
In September, I'm going to be starting a one-year MA program at Stanford's CCRMA, where I'm going to learn a whole bunch of (hopefully valuable) stuff, and hopefully make some music as well.
Also new: bicycles. I bought a couple of kickin' older bikes for Brett and myself: for her, a Peugeot City Express, a sturdy hybrid bike from the '80s, and for me, a Miyata Triplecross hybrid. We're not exactly going spandex and carbon fiber here, but it's actually really nice to use a non-polluting human-powered vehicle to get where you're going. We have kept one car (my SAAB blew its head gasket and I sold it for $400...just about what we spent on the bikes plus accessories) so we're not exactly carbon-neutral, but it's a start. Bikes are incredibly efficient (5 times as efficient as walking) and actually don't cost much, if any time, compared to cars for our commute. Also, keeping up an aging European bike is still far cheaper than maintaining an aging Euro car. We'll see how we feel when it rains, but for now it's really great.
