Ann Hartley
I was singing to myself “I have found the way to San Jose, now just let me…get away, far away…” when I slammed on the brakes. Whoa! It is a good thing the traffic light turned red right at that moment, because I got a chance to take a picture of this from the car: A toilet right on the corner of the street. Are any of you old enough to remember Jack Parr? He was fired for saying WC on the air. Why? Because WC is an abbreviation for a term that people on the other side of the world use for “toilet” which was a word one just did not say on either side of the Atlantic. Where I grew up, the euphemism was Privy. One just did not say the word toilet. Lenny Bruce would have had a field day with this one, except that he is alleged to have died on the toilet. So maybe not. Anyway, if you look at the sign it doesn’t say “Restroom” which is what we usually put on the sign to refer to the room the toilet is in. It says, “Toilet.”
I am sure that Jack Parr is rolling over in his grave. I would be too, except that I am not dead yet. I will be MIA for a while, though. Going camping, what did you expect? Please do not forget me. I will let you know when I get back.
Can you name this object?
There it is, right outdoors. I had to look it up on Google to make sure it was what it said it was as opposed to being so-called Modern Art. You know, like a sculpture?
No unemployment around here.
There were buildings going up everywhere as I drove from San Jose to a neighboring town called Milpitas. I been in a long meeting, and was hungry and wanted to eat at the Sweet Tomatoes Buffet, one of which was very near the toilet pictured above. No, thank you. I just wanted to get out of San Jose and eat anywhere else. It is hard to tell where San Jose ends and other towns begin, but my GPS said if I kept driving 8 more miles I would come to another Sweet Tomatoes restaurant, in Milpitas.
Walls made of mirrors.
This is corporate headquarters of a global high tech firm called Western Digital, famous for their hard drives, among other things. On a cloudy day this building looks like mud, but with the golden hills of autumn reflected by those gorgeous windows, and all those trees, it actually looks quite nice.
No, I did not get home before dark
It was still daylight when I took this picture, so all the red you see would be brake lights. But as some of the cars do not have brake lights showing, that means they are inching forward. The space between me and the car ahead of me means I had better put down my camera AGAIN and inch forward too, before horns start honking, but as his lights are still red I had better not inch too fast or too far.
Do you like the great big yellow toy on the right side of the road?
Collage of pictures I took from the car in and near San Jose
My Garmin and my backup camera are the car’s best friends.
The only times I have ever been to San Jose before were work-related and the commute was about 40 minutes from my home in the East Bay, maybe an hour in peak traffic. This photo I took of my GPS (while I was stopped in traffic, of course) shows by the yellow squares which road not to take. I took the fastest way instead,and still didn't get home for 3 hours.
Privy isn’t in common usage anymore, it is quite archaic. That having been said, let’s bring it back!
Yes, Alex. Well I like the multiple meanings of that word, and it seemed appropriate when describing the display of something we are not used to seeing displayed on a street corner. Besides, I like archaic words.
What a interesting….. But difficult