Showing posts with label maps. Show all posts
Showing posts with label maps. Show all posts

Saturday, March 22, 2014

need directions

Going nowhere? Then you don’t need directions. The world is too interesting not to know some geography. Also I know my future lies beyond the yellow brick road. I have the knack for getting from A to B (even B to A) but trying to communicate those details to a another traveler comes with difficulty.



Just pass the big clown on corner, you’ll come to an idiot in the middle with nonstop turn blinkers on. Ignore him. Check your gas gauge because you have about another 100 miles to go and you’ll be passing gas. I mean passing the last gas station. Oh don’t use the restroom there. It’s so bad you may never breathe right again.

Now remember that big oak you saw by the clown? Don’t worry, you do know oak from evergreen right? Three evergreens and an oak tree later you fork. I mean a split in the road. Stay right. Well if you miss it and go left don't worry. You will still get there if you have good shocks and no dentures. 





Now you got gas and the right fork. Correct? Ok, don’t worry about speeding until you blow by big curve warning sign. Slow down because the oncoming traffic likes to ride the center line. If you survive the big curve and you have not been pulled over by Officer Obie you’ll probably make it.  If you are arrested have Obie call me, I haven't talked him in awhile.

Eventually you reach a cemetery (most of us do) and if there’s no funeral going on, take a shortcut through the cemetery. The buried dead are laid out to the horizons but the place is easy to get through, just stay on the straight and narrow. It’s scenic and saves you about 10 miles. If you get the strange feeling your own funeral is going on, then why are you being buried in that cemetery? I didn’t think you were from around these parts.  Snap out it.

Assuming you made it out of the cemetery before dark. Did I mention they close the gates at dusk? Take a right at the road. There is almost always a deep rut on the corner so don’t cut corners there.

Just about a mile or two (maybe 3, my odometer been stuck since 60) you will come upon a big glowing neon pig. Great BBQ. But if you are coming for dinner don’t stop unless you are buying for everyone. If so, I’ll take the pulled pork with extra hot sauce. Be sure to grab plenty of napkins.

OK, just pass the BBQ place after the road drops quickly is a dirt road on the left. Don’t worry just go pass that one. Take the second dirt road on left.  If the road sign is not knocked over (most of the year it is down) you'll notice you are at the corner of Lightning and Thunder.  Thunder is not a bad road when it's dry. Often there are dead armadillos at the corner. Watch out for deer and flooding (if rained of course).

If you happen upon the mail carrier (pink pickup truck can’t miss it) going down that dirt road, you will not be able to pass him being that it’s a one lane road that drops off to a raging river on one side. If he is coming toward you, then he will expect you to backup since he is on official business. No one else uses the road except the teenage drinkers/stoners late at night. So get there before dark but not during mail delivery time.

You will find us at the end of the road assuming you don’t get stuck in the mud.  No doorbell to ring.  We will hear the junkyard dog up the road barking before you reach our property.  Wait for me to come out.  I would not want you getting accidentally shot.  I’ll leave the light on until midnight after that go get a room somewhere and call me in the morning after 10.





Friday, June 26, 2009

you can't take it with you but

YOU CAN STILL BE MAKING IT after you're gone.

Yesterday (and still big coverage continues) the world lost two big celebrities - Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett.

They are gone but they will still be making money.



The world lost two legends which is sad. Both of them impacted my past and its memories. However, neither of them were much of an influence on me.

During this extensive coverage I picked-up on an unusual Forbes list. The Top-Earning Dead Celebrities list.

NOT a list I want to be on. (also if you're on it do you know?? --- that's a discussion for another time)

I was very surprised by who came in number five on the list. Want to guess?
I will put the answer in the comment section.

Did you know (probably not since I don't know of any celebrities reading my blog) there is a 1984 law dubbed The Dead Celebrities Act, that grants posthumous rights for 70 years? So even after you're DEAD you still need a LAWYER!

That Forbes list (2007)

OH - somewhat related thought to yesterdays events -
I heard the MJ news in the late afternoon. Later that night I was checking a favorite blog over in Australia and read a post that started:
"It's kind of sad to wake up today and hear about the deaths of Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett ...."


That got me thinking about the international date line and events. For example, the tragedy 9/11 was a Tuesday. However, it was Wednesday the 12th in say Sydney.

So if a celebrity from North America dies in the Far East (not much past the date line) which day does history record his death? I would assume the local time but I bet his close friends and family near his home would remember the previous day as the event.

The big conference that established this date line was held in October 1884 so I think we would be used to it by now.



Tuesday, June 23, 2009

interesting walk

Next year I'm not missing this special "World" day that I just missed. Last week, actually June 19, was World Sauntering Day. W.T. Rabe, created the "holiday" in the 70's at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, Michigan. (side note - Mackinac Island is the perfect place to saunter because motorized vehicles are banned there. I've sauntered around their fudge shops years ago.)

Sauntering - I should tell people that's what I doing when my bum left heel acts up and I hobble along sorta strange.

I'm not a runner. Never was never will be.

I dreaded track time in high school. It made no sense to run around the same oval again and again. My last serious running was in Air Force training. Hiking is good. The view changes.

But the more I think about it --

I could be a saunterer. Are there saunter clubs?

Interested in sauntering around? Don't want to get lost?

Google is working on some help right now. You probably know of Google Maps and their Street View option. Now Google's Street View is expanding onto the footpath. They are starting with college campuses and footpaths in the UK.

google mapper
(AP Photo/Mark Stehle)

So many uses/apps for google maps - one's imagination couldn't come close to thinking them up. Over in New York they are using google maps to track maple syrup smells. It's a big mystery I guess.

Next thing will be google suggested sauntering routes!

More links on Sauntering Day -- link 1 link 2




Wednesday, August 13, 2008

smoking google maps

fire streetview


Last fall I posted that Google's streetview found my house.

Like most people, I wondered if anything embarrassing was in the picture, such as me bending over while putting down the garbage, or raking leaves.

Well at least my house was NOT on fire!!!

I grabbed this screenshot off of a Sherwood Arkansas streetview. I discovered this from the write-up at the Telegraph (UK). There are more pics there.

Well I also learned that the Sherwood fire department has plenty of hose.

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