This is where I live...

Tonight, as Tracy and I were hanging out in our living room with the front door open to let in a draft, we heard a prolonged car horn beep coming from the street outside our apartment. Honestly, it sounded like someone had passed out/died at the wheel and their head landed on the horn. I don't think I've ever heard a horn beep for as long as this one. It must've been about 25 or 30 seconds. Then it stopped. Then it started back up again for about 15 seconds, followed by short bursts for another 10 seconds. At this point, we decided to head outside to see what the problem was.

Apparently, a car was blocking our across-the-street neighbor's driveway, and he was celebrating the fact that the owner had left it unlocked, which allowed him to beep it to his heart's content. His logic? He believed that perhaps the car's owner would recognize the beep and come move the car. Ummm...yeah. I couldn't make this stuff up. I reminded him that it was after 9pm and other people lived in the neighborhood, and miraculously that convinced him to stop beeping.

What does it take to get a quiet night around here? These people make the "Ballard Crazies" pale in comparison.

Work

I haven't talked a lot about my job on this blog, but it's not because I don't like it. I work with a great group of guys, in a beautiful location, and the work is intellectually stimulating. Occasionally (like twice this week), I do an on-site visit to one of our clients, and realize just how different a world they live in. It reminds me a whole lot of the movie "Office Space". Here's a cartoon I found hanging on the wall there that sums it up pretty well (click on the image to make it bigger):

Not in Kansas anymore...

I had always been taught that, when driving, you should stop for pedestrians in a crosswalk. In Hanover, NH and Seattle, this point was even further driven home, as cars seemed to look for pedestrians to stop for. But this morning, I learned just how different things are here in San Diego.

On my way in to work, there is a crosswalk along a relatively busy street (speed limit 30mph?), with flashing yellow lights over it. I saw a woman with a coffee cup standing in the crosswalk looking both ways, clearly hoping to cross. So, naturally, I slowed to a stop and assumed drivers in the opposite direction would do the same. After 10-12 cars, not one failed to even slow down, let alone stop. Even worse, a big tractor trailer 3 vehicles behind me go so impatient that he cut around the cars in front of him and passed in front of me!

Our apartment

We've been living here a little more than two months, and I still haven't posted pictures of it. So, without further ado, here they are: