There used to be a car commercial back in the 80's or early 90's. It was for Mercury I think or one of the Ford products. It had an older couple who came to San Francisco to see their kid and they had on the Hawaiian shirts, shorts carrying all the beach toys, etc. only to find it foggy, cold and miserable. I'm not sure how that tied into selling cars but it was kind of humorous and sometimes true. The CA marketing department definitely does a good job of creating an image.

When I talk to my wife's relatives in PA they have images of palm trees, coconuts and sandy beaches. Another thing they ask about is seeing celebrities. When I tell them that I once saw that really tall ogre guy from the James Bond movies, Butch from the Little Rascals and Bubba from Heat Of The Night they seem really disappointed. They have no idea that it is more like TX or OK here on the valley floor with a nearly 15,000 mountain range just a few miles to the east.

I think I'm going to try some carpet in my garage. Not the whole thing but at least the area where my main workbench is.

Another challenge is keeping it cool in the ridiculous valley summers. I'm going to try and finally get some sort of evaporative cooler out there this summer. We will see.