hard drive

So the backup worked, and my computer is restored - more or less. Sadly I had not been able to get the time capsule working on the new network, but losing two weeks work is nothing compared to two years. What's a few photos and a couple of blog entries?

When we are really faced with what there is to be lost, we realize what it is that really matters.

Road Rules

I understand the principle of a stop sign, and at a four way intersection appreciate the psudeo politeness that rewards the first to arrive as the one able to proceed, regardless of which way they intend to turn.

What I find less compelling is the apparently random placement of stop signs on minor suburban roads. What intuitively makes sense to to me is a hierarchal system where the stop sign is always placed on the lesser road. There is a kind of predictability to this, an ordering that makes sense. But here no such order exists, or if it does it is at a level of complexity that is entirely beyond my comprehension.

For instance, our road is a dead-end street which enters onto a minor road, several miles in length. Any number of streets similar to ours enter this same road. In Australia this minor road would be a single and uninterrupted stretch of road until it intersected a road of more substance, where any further progress would be governed by a stop sign or traffic light. All entering side roads would be controlled with either a stop sign or a give way sign.

But here there is no such consistency. The minor road that runs past the end of our street is interrupted, at apparently random intervals by stop signs. There is no logic to this. Some side streets you can pass with no thought or attention, at others you have to stop. These are not more important roads, and they are not in any way more significant than other streets you have just passed. But suddenly there is a stop sign, and you have to stop. Slavish adherence to this rule seems to be a deeply embedded cultural norm. 

Increasingly I find myself irritated by the placement of stop signs that seem to offer no traffic safety advantage. Where there is some likelihood that the placement of such a sign could serve some traffic calming function, I am willing to be likewise obedient. But when it makes no sense, and where the placement of such a sign shows all the characteristics of a petty bureaucrat having stuck a pin on a planning map, I feel my anarchic instincts emerge. I must confess to not always stopping. 

And I could live with such idiocy if there was some sense of consistency when it came to road rules in general. But no. While stop signs are obeyed with a mind-numbing display of stupid obedience, red lights are treated as fair game for any one. Never mind the queue of cars stranded in the middle of the intersection waiting to turn in front of oncomming traffic. If there is a light to run, it seems like there is some kind of civic duty to plant your foot and go for it.

Trust me, if red light cameras were installed in this country with the appropraite fines attached, the trillion dollar deficiet would be fixed in a matter of months.

Meandering

Having at least settled temporally with a name and color scheme, I'm wondering where to take my blog. Having found my way into the discipline of writing daily, and not agonizing too much about what I'm actually going to write, I think it's time to find a little more focus. But how to take this forward?

At different times, different things have occurred to me. My Living in New York travel blog idea has moments of inspiring me, but then living in the back waters of Long Beach is hardly inspiring. It's not Manhattan, and short of making a trip every week to the city, it can hardly be anything more than a tedious suburban chunnering. Taking it in the direction of a spiritual reflection is also an option, but one that takes me to a place of uncertainty. I live with the illusion that no one reads my blog (well, almost no one) and I haven't yet managed how to walk the line between blog and personal journal. A decision to be more poetic or literary just feels presumptuous and self-serving, but then blogging is in and of itself a supremely narcissistic enterprise. I'd also like to think I could be funny, but sustained humor is hardly my forte and even the best irony feels jaded after a while.

So I guess I will continue as I have... trust what unfolds and wait for clarity or inspiration to emerge.

baking

I've found the answer to a rather frustrating problem. Ever since we have been here there has been general family despair over the quality of the bread. Even Tim, my white bread boy, has refused to eat sandwiches made of the soft, white, sweet stuff that comes off the supermarket shelves. Whole-wheat is not much better and the gluten free options aren't even worth mentioning. If there are regular Baker's Delight type bread shops, I haven't as yet managed to find them.

The up side of this for me is that I have stopped eating bread. I did have a brief fling with fresh bagels, but there are only so many bagels you can eat. It's just not worth it, and if I am going to indulge in something that is so bad for me, it at least has to taste halfway decent. After all, I didn't ship a jar of vegemite half way round to the world to spread it on something that tastes like sugar flavored cardboard.

Anyway, I digress. The solution this is problem was very simple, requiring only a packet of flour, some yeast and a bit of time. Much to the delight of my children I have been baking bread - bread that smells like bread, bread that tastes like bread.

It's a relatively satisfying thing to do, and reminds me again how there can be great pleasure in these simple tasks.

Another Day

Today I allowed myself the luxury of a nap, though it was hardly a luxury and more the mind numbing weight of too little sleep that made it a necessity. Even now I feel the undertow, dragging me towards the darkness.

Settling In

So I'm settling into my new home at blogger.com and wondering if I will stay. At the moment I'm rearranging the furniture, looking at different paint samples, and exploring the possibilities in this new and different environment. I'm having fun in a frustrating kind of way. Like opening a flat pack, and after a moment or two of being excited by the contents, becoming aware that I'm missing the instruction page. But I managing, hobbling my way through as best I can. Though having just added a photo as an experiment, I can't figure out how to remove it. Oh well, I guess there is always the help section!

But I'm curious that having stumbled into this cobbled together solution, I'm not content just to leave it as a basic unadorned page. Instead I find myself wondering about changes that I might make to the look and feel of my blog. I have for instance come up with a new name, and to go with it a photo that neatly captures the oxymoronic tone of the title. That said, I'm not entirely happy about the placement of the title bar but cannot figure out how to move it.

It has me wondering again about the deeper purpose of my blog and what it is that I am wanting to explore in this space.

But enough for tonight. I am going back to play with the furniture.