shiradotnet
Well-known member
Man, living in a big city, I take these things for granted... there are like, 6 Starbucks within a 20min walk!
When I lived in Sunnyvale, California (near San Jose), there were 4 Starbucks within a 20-minute walk. Also within 20-minute walks were a Persian restaurant, half a dozen Indian restaurants, 5 sari shops, 5 Japanese restaurants, an Afghani restaurant, an English restaurant, a bunch of fast food places, a Thai restaurant, and more.
Now, I live in a residential neighborhood of a metropolitan area with a population around 80,000. Within a 20-minute walk there is only a Subway. Period. Then again, there's also a 200-acre beautiful wooded park that is lovely for going for walks, so it isn't all bad!
I realize this is off topic, but it reminds me of a story of what it was like to life in California...
And, when I lived in California, one time when my husband and I were crossing the street walking home from a Starbucks, he was hit by a car when we were in the middle of the intersection! We were crossing WITH the walk signal, and when I turned around to see if he was catching up with me, I saw him sprawled on the hood of a moving car that was making a right turn, hanging on for dear life, while the idiot driver had his head turned to the left to see if there were oncoming cars that might interfere with his right turn. He hadn't even noticed the pedestrian who had been right smack in front of him when he started his turn! So I started screaming my head off, standing in the middle of the intersection and pointing at this guy's car. The driver heard me screaming and gave me a puzzled look, wondering why a random pedestrian was screaming in the middle of the intersection. Then he looked where I was pointing and saw my husband clinging to the hood of his car. Finally, he stopped and my husband was able to let go. The good news is that his injury was only a bit of mild bruising on his knees. And now, here's the funny part - the car that hit my husband was a police car, being driven by an on-duty officer!