guzziguy

Santa Barbara COLI for 2008 was 142.1 according to this source. So maybe SB will look like a bargain to you. If so, you'd be hard pressed to find a nicer small city in which to live. Of course, if you insist on having winter, you'd have to settle for being able to drive to it. Maybe you could work with Frank Cooter to develop a new line of amplifiers?

You are also constrained to a small area and habitats. As a motorcyclist, that would bother me. I get to see everything from coast to desert to riparian to alpine, etc. on a day ride. As much as I love visiting the tropics, living there full time is not an option for me. I lived on Guam when I was 13-14 , so I have experience at this.

Up the coast is definitely nicer. I've never seen a nicer place to live that Santa Barbara. It's a backwater, which is a plus to me. But more importantly, it's a really nice backwater with lots of culture, a University of California campus and a nice city college, and the weather and geography is really nice. If you want more culture or excitement, we are only 1.5 - 2 hours away from LA. We are north and west of LA, so we very rarely see smog. It's been over a year and maybe longer. I'm a wine and motorcycle guy. There are great vineyards and great motorcycle roads no more than 30 minutes from my house. There's lots of upside here. There are two downsides. The first is that it is growing (like every place else) and the quality of life is definitely slowing declining. It's still real nice though. The large downside is the cost of living here. Housing prices are just below San Francisco levels. Gas, food, etc. prices are among the highest in the state. That's going to happen everywhere. I've lived in and out of California all my life. I'll probably live out of it again someday, but maybe not. Once you get away from the coast in California, prices start going down until they are down right cheap. Of course, a lot of those places are cheap for a reason. Property taxes are relatively low (per $1000) here because of Prop 13 many years ago. Of course, if your house is assessed many $1000's, you still pay a lot of property tax. The people that have stayed in their houses for years pay very little property tax.

These are my impressions too. There are ways to get a version of this amp. None of them are inexpensive.

I'll be bringing 2 growlers of Telegraph Brewery beer and probably 6 bottles of wine. Don't worry about bringing drink. Beverage Warehouse is only 3.5 miles away. I'll be happy to give you a ride if you'd like. Smoking cigars will be fun. However, this is California. It could be challenging to find a place to smoke. AFAIK it's always been called the GM70. Also AFAIK, Frank's is the only example. I'm sure one is available if you make Frank an offer he can't refuse.

FIFY

Great news. Glad you got it. Enjoy the scotch.

I expected to be from $1K - $2K more. It's still awfully expensive. Let's see how well it sells.

Hurray! See you there.

I prefer the classic version.

That sounds ultra-dry.

You guys keep talking this up so I thought I should try it. Now please suggest some drinks for which it is especially suited. Any ultra-dry martini comes to mind.

FIFY How would we tell?

Maybe you should call up Singlepower and discuss it with Mikhail?

Is that 3 dubbels and a tripel? Or is it 3 tripels?

So you're a drywall chaser eliminator? Now I understand the handguns.

Sorry to hear about your daughter. I'll send good thoughts your family's way.

My understanding is that there are few choices, as the vast majority of 7n7's were made by Sylvania, no matter how they were labeled. The good news is that you are right in that they are dirt cheap, they are plentiful and, even better, sound great. One of my favorite driver tubes for the SP Extreme is a Sylvania tall bottle 7n7.

FIFY

I just checked mail and there is a recruiting packet from the USMC for me. They make it sound quite fascinating and I'm really tempted to respond. Do you think that the fact that I'm 56 years old is a problem? Or are they really that desperate to make the recruiting quota?

Once he received the trafos, maybe he discovered that the prototype needed improvements.

Bird Loves Ray Charles - Video

Yes. Being secret works against getting the hype flowing.

Sorry, I wasn't clear. Ray has done a lot of introductory pricing before. However, he always proudly gave the introductory and later prices. The fact that it's secret is out of character. I suspect that he is still in negotiation with the builder and doesn't have a final price yet, so the intro price is secret.

Something really is not right here. Why is the introductory price for the first 10 secret? AFAIK, Ray has never done that before. I wonder if the fact that the BHSE is now shipping has pushed Ray to announce sooner than he wanted to.