Friday 5 July 2013

Maps

Maps! I have a lot of maps in my car, stuck into the pockets of the door. Maps of states and provinces, maps of attractions, museums, historic sites, maps of army bases. Some of the maps are in map books, some on the large sheets of paper that you try to fold back into the proper shape after using but never quite succeed. Indeed, in the trunk of the car is a plastic tub with all of the extra maps that we've picked up and may need again. In fact, the first thing I do when I move into a new area is buy a map. I have my husband drive me around the area for the first month we move to a new community so I can get the routes into my brain and off the paper. I don't like GP systems, often because I get lost using them and I don't have a cellphone either. When I drive, I drive and I really don't like being distracted.
I've moved a lot as my husband's job requires it. We'll be moving again this year but this time I've moved to the community ahead of time. We've moved to a place where we've lived before, which means I already know where I am going. I don't need to rely on a map as much. Not that there isn't anything new in the community since the last time I've lived here. Things do change. So there are still places to explore and see. But there is also a great deal of comfort in coming back to a place that you're familiar with and to not have to constantly rely on a map for the first few months after moving.

So, because I do know where I am going in this community I've made a video and a Google map of my visit to the library. What's great is I've learned to do two new things this week. Splice a video and to use Google maps to trace my movements. Thanks clmooc!

Off to the train for my weekly trip home to Montreal.

3 comments:

  1. Really interesting video, Karen! I learned a lot. Had no idea what diptheria was, really, nor how people used to use feathers to try to stop it. thanks for this learning walk video!

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  2. Such fun to go for a walk with you. I learned quite a bit, but did not like the part about the feather. So glad we get vaccinations! I walked along the street in satellite and street view from picture to picture. I imagined you chattering away as I said, "Ohhh." and "I didn't know that." and once I said, "We have catalpa trees, too." Beautiful! Thanks.

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  3. Sheri I am so glad you liked it! What a wonderful way to connect. I think it is amazing that I can show you the area I live in so easily. So the feather....I wrote a museum exhibit about health and sickness which is why I know so much about diphtheria.

    I do love to explore, look at things and wonder about them. I do talk to myself sometimes while I do it too! Sometimes while I walk I'll look at people's houses and write stories about who lives there in my head. In that space, I'm a great story writer and I have often wished I could just run my fingers along a piece of paper and have the words spill out onto the page, since ideas are sometimes so fleeting.Sometimes the perfect sentence appears in your mind and before you've written it down it is gone, never to surface again.

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