on the edge of the known world

Phet and I spent a good chunk of time yesterday oogling over google maps. With google maps, in case you haven't used it, you can check out incredibly detailed satellite images of your town online. Like, you can make out your own house, the abandoned warehouse down the street, the local parkette, all that good stuff. Or in Bangkok you can see the rooves of wats and the meandering canals. It's a particularly cool because you can switch between the satellite photos and a street map of the same area. Or, best of all, you can overlay the street information on your satellite image. Like Mapquest on speed it is!

We zoomed in on the Bruce Penninsula to check out our three acres up there and discovered the following:

Wait, let me zoom in just a little closer so you can see what's going on:

Yes, that's right. We are OFF THE MAP. We are in the land of blur! As you can see, the satellite image of the forest cuts off almost exactly where our house would be. Not only that, but Howdenvale doesn't even exist! Makes you wonder, eh? Did the crystal meth lab around the corner explode and cover the entire area with nuclear-level fallout? Is Howdenvale a no-go zone because it contains the most evil and psychotic and caaaarrrraazzzzeeee looking real estate agent known to man? Has Phet been lying all this time about working in Information Communications Technology for Development -- is he really a super spy who has the airspace above our land permanently fuzzed out? Does our property even really exist?

Maybe from now on I should refer to the countryside "house" and our "property", just to keep reminding myself that this all might just be an illusion.

PS: At least that would be a reason why we can't get broadband internet up there.

[Countryside-28-May-2006]