DW US

Well, I still don't want to move to California and I'm still frustrated with Dreamwidth but I got myself an account (same name, same default icon) because I am a lemming. But also because I respect synecdochic and want to support whatever she does, and this is her baby. People are always whining about LJ doing this and suppressing that and crashing this and censoring that, and I respect Synecdochic tremendously for having gone through her own LJ frustrations (haven't we all?) and going off to do something about it.

So I opened a paid account because I want to support her project financially but for the moment, at any rate, I am still firmly housed in LiveJournal. I'm not intending to post to DW or go there much at all. So if I've not friended you, it just means I'm lazy and not that I don't lurv you, honeys! Just don't desert me here on LJ!

Anyway, I have discovered, to my trauma, that I am a timid soul who likes the familiarity of a home so just as I'm not about to leave England, I'm not about to leave LiveJournal.

How's that for equating a trivial internet choice with a life-changing momentous decision? False analogies rool.

Hugh. Ich habe wohl mal wieder gesprochen, oder so.

purely descriptive observations about california

Or, to be more precise, about the Bay Area.

Plumbing
The water coming out of the shower smelled mossy.

Fauna
A hummingbird hovered in front of my face in the hotel walkway.

Traffic
The speed limit on the highway is 65 miles (104 kilometres an hour). In built-up areas, it can be 35 miles (56 km). Most drivers keep to the speed limit. They do not overtake or tailgate or honk or flash their lights at you, or simply all go faster, as they do in England and Germany. Every car glides along at the same stately pace.

The roads are wide, and some of the larger ones have three lanes, even when they are not highways.

Street signs do not announce where a particular street is going to but its name. So, instead of saying 'Next exit Heidelberg' (for example), the sign will say 'Next exit Camino Street'. This means it is easy to get lost.

The streets are mostly arranged in grids. Few streets curl in on themselves or move at a diagonal.

Rampant capitalism
is what I expect from the United States of America. But either the case for rampant capitalism is highly overstated or the Bay Area has been so rampant that it's moved on and come out the other side of it. I encountered almost one independent bookstore per day. Even quite small towns had 2-3 independent bookstores. In England, you could spend weeks without ever stumbling across an independent bookstore. Or an independent coffee shop. Everything's a chain. Not so in the Bay Area.

The City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco has a section called 'Muckraking'. This is not a category much encountered at Border's.

Precipitation
For two days, there was intermittent rain. It came in the form of drizzle and could be weathered with a hat or an umbrella. Or even by just waiting under shelter for 15 minutes. Everybody apologised for the 'bad weather'.

The air is fresh, not muggy. It is hot in the sun and cool in the shade.

Demographics
A real estate agent (or 'realtor') drove us around some suburbs (or 'neighborhoods'). Every house cost over 1.8 million dollars (1.198 million pounds). Many houses cost 2.5 and 3 and 4 million dollars. Some houses had front porches with columns. The residential streets were leafy and empty of pedestrians. The only people there were Mexican men, engaged in what the realtor called 'mowing and blowing', i.e. garden maintenance.

The mowers and blowers cannot possibly afford the 1.8 million dollar houses. I assume they commute in from less well-off locations.

As this is meant to be a purely descriptive post, I am not saying anything about the 'blowing' aspect of the 'mowing'.

The dispensation of justice
I read in a local paper about a murder case, currently being investigated. A little girl was found killed. A woman was arrested and charged with her murder. The paper told me that, if convicted, the woman could face the death sentence.

Nomenclature
A public loo is called a 'bathroom'. A domestic 'bathroom' is called a 'bathroom'. A domestic downstairs loo or guest lavatory is called a 'half-bath'.

The computer in its natural habitat
In the land of the Silicon Valley nerds, the computer is not in a zoo but operates in its natural habitat. Even the local buses were wi-fi wired up. Lots of people sat on the bus, doing their emails or whatnot on their laptops.

Matters sartorial
Very few men wear suits. Very few men wear ties. I saw men wearing a suit jacket with a different-coloured pair of trousers. I saw very few young women in mini-skirts or those new platform-type high heels. It took four days for us to spot our first young man in a pair of skinny jeans.

Dreamwidthers: can you hear me?

Hey, is anybody even still here? I know you're all cross-posting from DW so that I can read your posts but are you even reading mine? If you're all 'over there'??

*waves fornlornly and bleats into the empty ether*