On the Road Again
Mar 30th, 2007 at 5:43 am by Susie
So my friend Mary Beth calls me as she’s driving through the California desert with her kids. “Oh shit, I don’t know whether I should have taken that turn,” she says.
“Do you want me to look it up?” I offer. (I’m sitting at my computer.)
“Okay.”
So I boot up Google maps. “What town are you in?” She tells me she’s in Twentynine Palms - “Although there’s a lot more than 29 palms here.”
“What road are you looking for?”
“Amboy. Oh, wait, there it is! I’m driving in the middle of the desert - did I mention it’s really beautiful here?”
But she doesn’t have to tell me; I’m already staring at the Google satellite pictures. “You’re right, it is beautiful,” I say.
I’m old enough, of course, to marvel at the virtual ease with which I can see the same world she’s traveling, three thousand miles away. Okay, it’s not real time, but close enough.
And I get a kick out of looking up directions for someone who’s on the far side of this big country of ours.
Off topic:
Poll up at 6:43 AM today -
Should the Guantanamo Bay detention center be closed?
http://www.cnn.com/
If you are in your late 40s or 50s, think about how AMAZING this is — someone can call you FROM THE ROAD, and you can use INTERNET-BASED maps (the kind of info formerly only available to Department of Defense personnel) to guide that person out of trouble.
On the other hand, we SHOULD have gotten something back for spending 1/2 of our federal taxes on DOD projects over our working lives — As you give her directions over the phone, think about how much was given up for better housing, schools, etc., and why the US now ranks the lowest among the wealthy G-7 nations in infant mortality.
These were choices we made, or which were made for us.
Haven’t been there in years, but now I miss that country.