Wednesday, October 27, 2010

3142 As the crow swims

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

A million seconds is 11 days
A billion seconds is 32 years.
A trillion seconds is 32,000 years.

A trillion is a big big number....

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I subscribe to several services that locate things near one, by zip code. Like Meetup.com (dinner groups, movie groups, groups for varied interests), local happenings, singles' groups, etc.

It worked fine in the mid-Hudson valley. I put in my zip, and asked for a radius of 25 miles, and found lots of interesting stuff to do. I could drive north, south, east, west, and have fun. Everything the zip code turned up was possible.

It wasn't noticeable in the valley, but apparently these services simply draw a circle 25 miles in radius around my house and give me everything there. And I could get to everything in reasonable time.

It's not working so well in the new house. I can see the lights of Brooklyn from my back windows about 15 miles away across the expanse of Raritan Bay and Lower Bay. Seeing is one thing. Getting there is another. It's about 45 miles driving, one to two hours depending on traffic, and over a bunch of bridges.

So when I put in my zip code now, and ask for people, groups, events within 25 miles, I have to scroll through pages and pages of things in Manhattan and Brooklyn before I find the few piddling things relatively local to me.

This crow don't fly, and especially not over water.

Social networking suddenly got harder.

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I got a call from the homeowner's insurance guy today, the one who found me the policy. The insurance company insists that this must be my primary home, not a vacation home. He said the adjuster had been out to look at the house, and they've decided it's not a primary home. I asked what brought the adjuster to that conclusion.

I don't believe it. The guy decided that I didn't intend to live there because I had no curtains on the living room windows.

Duh?
.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

According to the State of Florida, the vacation home has to be 50 miles away from the primary home.

Becs said...

Oh. I feel a little guilty about not warning you that it's hard work to build a social life in Jersey. Especially if you're a single lady. I envied your Meetup groups until they got crazy.

I think you can take the River (?) line into the city. NJ Transit - the way to go. Or so they want you to believe.