Betty and Dave Buhr

Let Us Introduce Ourselves

At the end of 2005 Dave accepted a position as customer technical support for a laser company in Silicon Valley, CA. We eventually located a long-term RV park with space for our motorhome and had the coach driven down to CA. Dave was already working full-time and I haven't driven the rig through the mountains in the winter weather. We also have a Saab which can't be towed four down so I followed the coach down in the Saab. I spent most of January on the phone trying to get our land line, DSL, and cell phones installed or switched to CA numbers. What a time consuming process. I am currently looking for work and spending most of my time reviewing web technologies, such as JavaScript, CSS, and XHTML.

We miss our friends in OR but will enjoy reconnecting with old friends here in CA as well as making new friends. As far as I know it is still raining in WA and OR and still flooding. This has been a really bad year weather wise. The weather so far in CA has been beautiful. Much warmer than OR and mostly sunny. The rain is cooperating so far, falling mostly at night.

After being in rural OR it is going to take a bit of adjustment to get used to Silicon Valley. We lived and worked here for years before going to OR but everything has really grown while we have been gone. Single story homes replaced with 3 and 4 story office buildings and apartment houses. The freeways are sprouting multi-branched interchanges ala Los Angeles. It is now surprising when we see some place we recognize! We haven't made it out to any of our favorite hiking spots but I'm sure we will soon. It is good to be home.

In July 2005 we went to one of the Oregon County Fairs. We have always enjoyed the fairs and in Oregon they are more like the fairs we went to 30 years ago - more agricultural and livestock displays and little technology. At this fair they also had a classic car show. I fell in love with this 1968 VW Bug. It is owned by and being restored and enhanced by Carole and Robert Disnernia of Oregon. The dragons just took my heart away.

I continue to do software development, now as an independent consultant. The web development area that I'm working in is constantly changing so there is always something (many things) new to learn. I even had our motorhome changed to accommodate my work area. This nice, big desk was created by Shaun Davis of Davis Cabinets. The desk houses a desktop computer, laptop, scanner, printer, and files. A dragon made by "Wee Did Thizz" of Harrisburg, OR, watches over us from atop the printer.

I worked for two years on an online credit card payment site which is written in classic ASP and with SQL Server as the database. The company was in Arkansas but I worked in Oregon in our motorhome. We both worked out at the Timberhill Athletic Club and Dave volunteered at a local food bank. The economy in Oregon was quite depressed and there were a lot of people who really needed help. We are now in California where Dave is working for a laser company again. I belong to a Gold's Gym and work with a personal trainer a couple of times a week. He was highly recommended by my physical therapist. The trainer varies the routine every sessin which keeps it interesting. He pushes me, gently, so I feel that I am really making progress without hurting myself.

There are many parks near by where we enjoy hiking and photography.

Dave and I spent most of our working lives in Silicon Valley, CA. Dave worked as a technician for the medical division of a laser company for many years. As he repaired lasers, he watched the development of many medical lasers that are used to do things that scalpels just cannot do.

I was a software developer writing business applications for various companies in the valley, working in manufacturing IT and finance IT. It was really great when we started moving the applications from mainframes to PCs and to the World Wide Web. The short lead time for getting a web application to the point of seeing something is great - I love instant gratification.

In 2000 we left Silicon Valley and moved into our new motorhome. We are currently in Oregon, near Eugene. This has been quite a change from living in a house in Silicon Valley. We watched all of the orchards disappear from the valley and the increase in traffic and housing congestion made us happy to go to rural Oregon. We do miss our friends and family as well as the geek stores like Fry's Electronics.

Outside of work our interests have included hiking, bicycling, photography, and gardening. Silicon Valley parks, as well as the weather, were very conducive to all of the above. Of course, in an RV park we don't do a lot of gardening (we do have two color bowls of flowers by the coach door while the weather is warm enough), but we enjoy seeing other people's efforts. The weather in Oregon is cooler and wetter, but parks, rivers, and farms are everywhere. We see some of the most specialized machinery used for various farming tasks. Also, in this area of Oregon they grow things I never thought about as crops - a wide variety of grass seed and MINT!. Mint is harvested and the oil is extracted in the enclosed trucks using heat and pressure.