I was doing a Google Maps search last week and noticed something called "Street View." I didn't think much of it at the time, but a couple of days later, while doing another Map search, there it was again. How is this possible? The photos are not from a satellite in the sky, they are shot next to the address requested, taken from the street...
So I searched my address, and sure enough, there's my street, the fence in front of my house, and my cars. But wait, not my current cars, but cars of which one I have sold months ago, and one that is rarely parked at my house. It appears that what Google has done within the last YEAR is to have paid people to drive around most Los Angeles streets with a 360 degree camera strapped to the roof (just scroll down the image as far as you can; I can see that apparently it was a black car, but checking Marina's address it appeared to be a red car).
QUESTION: If I scroll UP in Google Street View and zoom in, can I see the Google sattellite? and if not, what are you hiding, Google?
Beyond the obvious privacy and technology questions (this is all inevitable, so get used to it), it got me thinking about my own recent history. This photo says so much to me about what was happening in my life appx. 6 months ago:
- The roof of my house does not yet have rolls of tar paper and packages of roofing shingles on it, so the photo was taken before I started re-roofing (something I started about 2 months ago, and have not finished). Two of the 5 skylights I installed over the last 2 years have started leaking because of the very heavy rains we had this winter, and a temp fix with roofing cement only repaired one. The other skylight in my bathroom leaked continuously during the rains, and as I am about to finish drywalling and install floor-to-ceiling tile, I realized I should probably re-roof (there were 3 layers already, the bottom one completely deteriorated). The roof's not THAT big, and I actually enjoyed the 3 days I have already spent tearing up half of it, and replacing it all with new paper and shingles. Unfortunately, that only completes about 1/4 of the entire job, and the hot summer is approaching, so I need to get to it and finish the rest! It's always easy to enjoy the beginning of a job - what makes it a JOB is having to follow through and complete it.
- 2004 Dodge Sprinter Van (parked across the street). What a cool van that was! I got it in my mind that, if I was going to commute a few times a year all the way from Los Angeles to Halifax, Nova Scotia to build a house there (more on this later - see photos of the land here), that I would need something bigger and more fuel efficient than my 1996 Chevy van with 330,000 miles (at 12 miles/gallon)! These diesel Mercedes vans can get up to 25MPG, and the longest wheelbase model had enough space for me to build a small sleeper behind the cab still have more than 10 feet of storage behind that! I shopped online in 2007 for quite a few months, bought one on eBay, and flew out in Feb 2007 to Columbus, OH (during a really bad snow storm), only to find it was the shorter one, so I left that one there and flew back home. A month later I found another in Little Rock, AK, so I bought THAT on eBay, flew out and drove it home in 2 days. I installed a rear camera, fixed some minor electrical thing, installed a good stereo, and happily drove it for 6 months. It was GREAT van for doing gigs with the band (doubled as a dressing room), but in the end I decided it was a little TOO long for most any other use, and the mileage on this model (the more heavy-duty 3500) wasn't much better than my other van, which in the meantime no one seemed interested in buying. Their loss, it's a great van still! Plans changed, I kept the Chevy and sold the Sprinter. On the day Google Maps took this photo, the Chevy van must have been used by my ex-wife, which is why the 62 Thunderbird is there...
- 1962 Ford Thunderbird - back in the 1990's my first wife and I owned old cars to fight high insurance costs and take advantage of the great old cars available in Southern California. I had a 1961 Ford Ranchero pickup, a vehicle in continuous stages of restoration and repair (as are ALL older cars, especially when they are used as daily drivers), and aI still occasionally see and drive it in my dreams. She had a 63 Falcon, which she still owns to this day. I eventually traded the Ranchero in for a 95 Pathfinder , having a driving job that wore out the old pickup (plus no air conditioning wore me out)! My second wife was and still is REALLY into old and classic things, and got the both of us into old cars once again. Sometime right after 9/11/01 I purchased this 62 Thunderbird on eBay from an old man on Long Island, New York, and flew out to drive it back (my ray-gun style timing gun had airport security confused for a few minutes, but eventually they figured it out). I could and still might write a story or screenplay about that trip, which included bad brakes that blew out 3 new tires, almost killed me coming off a freeway in Ohio (where a tow truck ruined the bumpers), a wife screaming "I told you so" on the phone the entire trip - ugh! I drove that car around Los Angeles for three years before finally swearing off old cars. I don't miss the old car hassles, and still own BOTH this 62 (I am planning on an adventure to Tijuana to get it painted and the interior done, then sell it), and a 1961 Thunderbird parked at ex-wife #2's back yard, restored but waiting to be reassembled (the 61 was going to be my keeper before I finally gave up on all classic cars, partly due to the nightmare that was and still is my ex'es 1951 Buick, one contributing factor in our divorce). In the meantime this 62 Bird is usually parked at her house across town for use as a backup when her Buick is down (you can never only own one car if it's a classic) - oh, how about the story where it was towed by the city because she had not moved it for a few days, and it was almost sold at auction...
- 2002 Toyota MR2 Spyder - what a pleasure it is to drive this car. It's small, gets pretty good mileage (28MPG ave., although nowadays that's getting to be not quite good enough), is extremelyt reliable and cheap to maintain (it IS a Toyota), and is the perfect Southern California car for getting myself and my computer, or a bass, or Marina and NOTHING ELSE around town. I first bought one of these new in 2002 after marrying wife #2. I had a decent income, and the 30 mile commute justified something better than what I had at the time. Purchasing the car was another big controversy in the marriage, and the payments were too high to justify a year later when that job ended. I loved the car, and always hoped I would get another, but was trying the old car thing once more (see 62 Tbird above). One of the first things I did when I separated from wife #2 in Dec 2004 is buy another MR2, this time for half the price with WAY better loan terms. It is a joy to write the $260 car payment check every month, and having and driving this car enables me to appreciate what a great place Los Angeles is - diverse and interesting, from food to culture to architecture to nature, all within 30-60 minutes. This kind of lifestyle will probably change dramatically over the next decade or so because of the inevitable oil shortages and prices, but in the meantime I enjoy the freedom, mobility and my relatively "small carbon footprint" owning 4 vehicles - but driving only one at a time, usually the most efficient one.
How does my life get so complicated? Following my passions, I guess. I have learned to trust them, and they usually end well. The complexity and many unfinished things in my life annoy Marina greatly, but that's part of who I am, and part of what I love about living.
It's a good thing I am such a good procrastinator; I am able to block out and ignore most of the unfinished things in my life. But I do think about them, about how to finish them, and believe I will get to them - eventually- and I usually do. Sometimes, ready or not, I am reminded about them in ways I had not anticipated, and if it gets my butt in gear, then that's OK.
THANKS A LOT, Google.
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