Wishing for More Space

SUMMARY: Back yard dreamin'.

Isn't mapquest fun, now that you can see actual photos of the world? You can use it for scouting out potential agility sites (yeah--big field, but no parking lots anywhere near!). Or for capturing maps of your neighborhood:

• My yard is outlined in red. Barely enough space for 3 jumps in a row if I keep them to 15 feet apart, when I'd really like 20 feet for more realistic maneuvers.
• The yard I'd really like is at the green arrow. It was, oh joy!, up for sale last year, and it's exactly the same houseplan as my house, and I would've loved to trade and move across the street. Except. Asking price was half again as much as I paid 2001, and it didn't have a lot of the basic upgrades that mine has, not to mention the logistics of getting my house up for sale and coordinating the two sales and the moving--even if it was just across the street-- sigh--
• Lookit all the swimming pools! I had no idea!
• At the top, you can see some of the new 80-house development that went in about 3 years ago. Try doing agility in those yards, let alone adding a swimming pool! This (plus high-rise units) is the wave of the future in San Jose--efficient use of space for All Those People Needing Housing.
• The big empty area to the right will someday be a 290-acre park; huge, for an area of dense suburbia. Probably won't be doing any agility in there, either. But it'll be nice not to have dense housing (see above) directly behind me.
• The big red star floating above the intersection is a real public nuisance. In foggy weather, it drips red droplets onto cars driving by underneath. On sunny days, it casts big star-shaped shadows into the nearby yards. Birds are constantly running into it and falling to the ground, stunned, but the crows like to hang out on it and drop walnuts onto the pavement below to break them open.

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