DRIVING CALIFORNIA & BEING DRIVEN CRAZY

NOT CONNECTED

       I'm sorry for not posting yesterday.  Internet problems!!!! Just finished crawling around under the desk, connecting and disconnecting and reconnecting for the umpteenth time.  Finally the automated service on the other end of the phone was able to do whatever he/she/it did and now we are back on the information highway.

       These kinds of service interruptions bug me but they also worry me.  It demonstrates just how dependent we have become on a technological infrastructure.  Not being able to process email, browse and interact with social networks exposes a vulnerability and induces  a kind of withdrawal.  True, life continues.  I even went to the beach and enjoyed a gorgeous California day, but not before fretting about, what I was not "getting done" or "missing."

        Modernity requires this kind of fragile connectivity, though there is so little we can do to exercise power or influence over it, its service or reliability.  That feeling of helplessness angers me. It also worries me about forces of nature or man that can disconnect us.  Oh well-Off to play tennis and happy to be back in the world. 

       What a great segue to thoughts about kind of connectivity- commuting.

MORE THAN A COMMUTE

      French and Italian drivers can be aggressive-one finger in the air and another on the horn.  Mexican and Brazilian drivers can be fast and daring-who is going to back off first on a two lane road?  African drivers are heroes, because of the condition of African roads. But California drivers are in a class of their own. They can put up with the "commute" everyday.

      And California drivers are creators of what I call the bubble jams.  

      There you cruising the freeway and suddenly things jam and slow, even if there is no on or off ramp, no repair, no accident.  Stop and go and lane hopping until you hit a another bubble of open space and return to high speed until another mystery jam.

       Naturally you expect it when the (5) (10) (210) (405) (101) (etc) splits from the 

(5) (10) (210) (405) (101) (etc). But I am mystified by what causes some slow downs. They disappear as rapidly as the brake lights begin flashing on.

Now, what would you prefer.  This

or this.

It is the same road. The first scene in LA, the second, just a little further north of LA.

I've live and worked urban but I much prefer these scenes for a commute.

Here are a few successive "road scenes" as we head further into the Central Coast

Almost home and feeling peaceful.

It is more than a commute. In LA it is a kind of battle.  Up here it is a kind of therapy.

AND IN FACT, THIS BEAUTY IS A THERAPY FOR 

INTERNET INTERRUPTION AS WELL!!

See you down the trail.