Virtual Visit Back Home

I’d been reminiscing about my childhood – the neighborhood, the house I grew up in, and especially the backyard. So I took a virtual trip “back home” using Google Maps.

Google Maps starts out in Map View. I switched first from Map View to Satellite. The image seemed to have enhanced perspective, so the house seemed taller. It looked as if a second story was added to the 1-level ranch I grew up in. Then I switched to Street View and saw the property as if standing in front of it.

The house itself looked the same. There was no alteration. Because it’s brick, it was the same color. However, the landscape had been redesigned recently. The strip of grass next to the driveway was paved over (I used to park on it anyway). The huge azaleas were replaced with weird-looking topiary plants. The wood fencing that was silvered with decades of sun exposure was replaced with shiny white vinyl fencing. But the most devastating change was this: all the trees were gone. We had four oak trees in a row that we’d hide behind or zig-zag through on our bikes. In fact many trees around the neighborhood were gone. It made me sad.

Adding to the sadness is the fact that the street view images were taken in November, so the few trees that were there were already bare. The photos were taken on a brilliantly sunny day, so the shadows were long, and the images were bleached from over exposure. And no people were about, as if the population was wiped out by a plague – quite a contrast to my memory of how we used to play in the street or stand around and socialize with the neighbors.

You can visit many places with Google Maps, but you can’t go back in time.

Google Maps

Wednesday Weigh-In 20210609

I had to replace the batteries again in the scale. It takes four AAA batteries. For something that requires programming, it would be better if it were designed with AA batteries. ¹

Waist = 43.25"
Height = 5' 7"

References:

1. AA batteries have about three times the capacity of AAA batteries.
2. Wikipedia BMI page
3. Balance Body Composition Bath Scale
4. Javascript must be enabled to view the data.