Archive for September, 2009
Iraklio - overrun with cars
I have had the opportunity to visit Iraklio on the island of Crete and have come to the conclusion that unless you love demolition type driving don’t plan on driving in and around this city.
My most recent brought this home in no uncertain terms. After getting off the ferry from Santorini and meeting our tour company contact, picking up the three very large vans needed to move our large group around the island we were to follow our tour contact to the hotel. This seemed like a great added bonus since the contact was there really to just get us our vans. The sun was going, it was a beautiful evening, warm with a hint of a breeze and what could be better than being on a Greek island in May.
The tour contact zipped off on his scooter and we followed along. He was zipping along through streets clogged with cars—cars parked in every single open space, in all lanes of traffic and even places where there were no lanes and more. We zipped down one street that was wide enough for one car in one direction but that really was not how the street was used because up ahead I could see a bus, a city bus headed my way. How we passed without contact is still a mystery to me. After about ten minutes of harrowing streets, almost hitting this, that and everyone out for the evening we finally made it back to the main street down by the water front. This was a real road with lanes and everything even lines on the road. This was easy but it did not last.
We turned up yet another street that appeared to be just slightly wider than an alley to get to the hotel. Then came the turn that nearly did us all in. Imagine turning down a small street with a huge van full of college students who are crammed in with all their gear, you cannot see out any window except straight ahead, the van in slightly underpowered and it is dark in a city where you cannot speak or read the language. And turning onto a street once again filled with cars and far too narrow. Only solution is to go over the sidewalk and just hope the tires do not explode.
We made the turn after backing up a couple of times to try the turn again. Of course this brought out a chorus of horn honking from everyone we held up and that seemed to be everyone in this part of town. We stopped in front of the hotel to unload, nowhere to park so you just block the street and get the horns all over again.
Dump the students and gear and drive down to the parking area which was just a block down the street. As soon as I got in I could hear the lot attendant yelling at the first van about something and hearing lots of no’s. Apparently this was only for local residents. So back out on the street headed toward so other parking area somewhere to the right. I followed the other van down to the main street only to lose them there and then I was on my own.
I was lost, really lost. No idea where this garage or parking area was. I could get back to the hotel but what good was that. So I drove and drove and drove some more hoping I would find this place. Finally I gave up and returned to the hotel and by some miracle the tour agent was there and was to lead us to the underground parking garage. We arrived at the garage and dropped off the vans and left them there for the next day.
My advice. If you find yourself in Iraklio and want to stay there for a day or two do it without a car. Ride the bus, walk, run or get a scooter. This place was not meant for cars and it has been overrun by cars. It is meant for walking. And if you insist on having a car use it to drive out of town. I dare you to park anywhere near the Kastro Hotel without putting your life in danger. I love to drive and I can handle traffic. But this experience was so intense, such a shock to the system I think it left a mark—tire tracks across my back. Never in my life have I encountered such intense traffic, narrow streets, near-death experiences at every intersection, seen so many cars stacked up in every direction on the sides of the roads and so many people intent on getting from place to place in their cars.
Limits
I am not one for rules. Rules are made to be broken, rules must be enforced, and we cannot hope to all agree on all the rules. And it would take too many rules to really make any changes. We all ignore rules anyway. And rules really never change anything.
But I think a better way to bring about change would be to agree to impose limits on certain daily activities that we all do in our days. Here are my ideas for limits we need.
1. A limit on how many people can be stupid in one day. Nothing more needs to be said.
2. A limit on how many people can drive under the speed limit during any given day. This is especially needed on weekends. What is it about a weekend that makes certain drivers forget where the gas pedal is? They drive so slowly and with such a lost look about them they are a hazard to everyone who needs to get somewhere before next year. If someone is in front of you looking totally lost and driving 20 miles an hour under the speed limit I say you should be allowed to ram into their car and drive them into the ditch. It is only fair. I can only imagine a great number of those lost drivers will, after they have extracted themselves from their mangled cars, finally wake up to fact that they can’t drive worth beans. And maybe, just maybe they will stop driving altogether.
3. A limit on how many people can be in the same aisle in the grocery store. Find what you want and get out of the way. Similar to the driving limit in that when some people get behind a shopping cart they suddenly lose the ability to think and act with any swiftness. It would be so easy for a grocery store to hire aisle bouncers. They could toss you out of the aisle for lingering or hesitating when making a selection. Delay for a split second in the cereal aisle and you suddenly find yourself tossed over to aisle 21 staring at bags and bags of dog food. Imagine an aisle in the grocery store free from lingering and lost shoppers.
4. A limit on how many kids can cry in public on any given day. Give it a break kid—suffer in silence.
5. A limit on how many times a parent can tell their child “Because I said so” in public. So few parents are really good at the art of the argument. A sad fact in life today.
That should about do it. I am sure more than five limits are needed but these are the limits that would have made my shopping trip today so much better.If a way can be found to impose these limits on the American public life will certainly change.
When a week feels like a month
If you are looking for a way to feel like you are living more and getting more out of life I an the answer. Give up sleep. If you have not given it a try do it this week. The week will feel like a month so full of great stuff you will want to do more and more.
Take this week. It was the first week of a ten-week academic quarter at the small liberal arts college where I teach. Monday is the day of the week that is just too full for its own good. But if you can make it through Monday the rest of the week can be survived with little to no damage. Or so I thought.
Tuesday started like any day. Went in early and made a few changes to the server, getting student accounts set up for the quarter. All went well until I needed to restart the server. The nothing went well for the remainder of the day when the server would not restart. And would not restart and would not do anything. I had the feeling of jumping off off a high cliff and not knowing when or even if I would hit the water or bottom. Sinking all day. Sinking.
By late that night I had reinstalled the software three times, rebuilt the server and all the accounts. Two days that felt like two weeks right there. Sleep did not come easily with so much on my mind. So what the heck…just forget about sleeping and go with the flow.
It is now Friday and it really does feel like a month has transpired. Can I keep it up for another nine weeks? We shall see. Looking forward to week 2!
Oh what a strange dream it was…
What I would like to know is how can dreams be so off the wall strange? Especially after a day that really involved nothing more exciting than the drive home. How can a dream become something so crazy it wakes you up and stays with you all the next day? And you can’t stop thinking about it, and you can’t stop thinking about it…
Last night I was at a racetrack driving a huge old tan station wagon. The racetrack was a series of railings, concrete barriers and odd rock walls. The object was to drive with at least two wheels up on top of the barriers and I could not get the car up on the edges. Just could not for the life of me no matter how fast I drove.
Next I am in a bed looking out a window on to a busy street. The window is very thin and fragile. For some reason I knew it was a single thickness of glass. How did I know that? No idea. The sun is going down and the room I am in is already dark. I was laying on my side looking out and watching traffic go by and get thinner and thinner until it was too dark to see and there were no more cars. So far so good. A mix of driving and sleeping.
Now comes the strange part. At some point I was convinced that there was someone outside the window with their face pressed up against the glass. I had the brilliant idea of pressing my face against the glass and then quickly turning on the light and scaring them. Only I was so frightened I could not move. Somehow I forced myself to slowly move towards the window and as I got closer I could see the outline of a head against the glass. I was shaking by this point. I started to reach for the lamp switch and the head outside moved and I screamed.
At this point I woke up. I was screaming in my sleep. And I was hitting the wall with my hand. I know what you are thinking at this point—this guy needs help. But that might not be the case. I blame watching TV and reading in bed. Earlier in the evening with my two sons I watched Top Gear. All about cars and crazy driving. And in the morning when I looked out the window from my bed I noticed that I had stacked up all the books on my night stand in a tall pile of books and it looked just like a head.
So be prepared for anything when you turn out the light and go to sleep. Some simple thing you did could easily become a character in your dreams. Sleep tight and goodnight.
