Published May 26, 2003
Ya know those ads for T-Mobile where Catherine Zeta Jones snidely makes fun of people who walk down the street absorbed in their work and other important activites, rather than paying attention to silly people around them? She says, well, if only this person had a camera phone, they’d notice the, like, world full of unimportant stuff? Well it’s totally true! I walked up the street earlier today to drop some letters in the mailbox, and I brought my Nokia 3650 with me. Once I realized I could take photos of everything, I did actually pay more attention to stuff around me. So, here’s my ‘hood:
I live on a busy street. Many cars! But not as noisy as you’d think.
There’s no more apartments north of me, so a lot of people park their car on the street and slap a for sale sign on it. With all that traffic (and people stacked up on the street at rush hour), they figure lots of potential buyers will see it. Not a bad idea, and generally the parking enforcement folks will let for sale cars stay there for 3-5 days before slapping a ticket on it.
Some of these cars are even pretty cool!
Some proportion of the cars parked up the street aren’t for sale - they’re for living in. It’s nice in some ways that people get this second chance. I’ve seen a whole bunch of our “neighbors” at the bus stop, and you’d never believe they were living out of cars. Many people live in mobile homes or camper shells, and move from street to street around here.
Round the corner and you find yourself in a quiet residential neighborhood with little traffic. What a change!
The flags are out for this memorial day!
Some of the houses have elaborate gardens. One includes this very long flower.
Another has cute bonsai trees in it. Seems like a fun thing to try!
End of entry ahead!