Sometimes... you get a geography lesson

Remember those... fifty years ago? The best ones.... came from the spinsters who saved their dollars, and got the hell out of the trap they were in for the summer. And they would come back in September, and fully captivate you with tales of what foreign lands looked like, how nice the people were, and tell you about the cultures they had seen.

That is pretty good teaching...

I would think even today.

So I love going on Sitemeter, and then I get to travel to wonderful places via Google Earth... and see where people live and what it looks like.

It is beyond cool. Yesterday... I didn't even have to get out of my chair, and I visited California. It seems very beautiful. I have never been there. I had a friend from San Diego once. He died. Tragically. Having grown up on the East Coast... well, the West Coast was equidistant to Europe, and I headed off in the other direction. Life is sort of 'odd'.

So I never did that. Peter did. He was in San Francisco once and will never forget that... at least. He fell in love with that city. And Beirut. (Austrians are sorta complicated.) And we had the finest San Diegans in our house and spoiled them rotten. Just because we COULD.

We sort of did that with all our guests. So I am sorta kinda feeling sorry for myself... I never visited California. I was afraid of the earthquakes, I guess. Except I experienced them elsewhere in the world, if only light ones.

I'd hear some radio report, and jump on the phone PANICKED.. 'Are you Ok?'

And they would laugh. 'Are you all RIGHT?' and they would laugh more. 'The bed just jumped around the room' and they would laugh so hard... Seemingly they thought it was 'fun'.

I don't know.. there are places in the world I would really want to visit... but California sorta spooks me. Although the people there are wonderful.

It's sort of mysterious.