Posty Posty Posty (maps)

[hrj]

One of the weekend's projects has been to pull the several Boxes of Holding from the car and sort through and update what I really need to be carrying around these days. (E.g., the new car no longer requires that I carry a jug of radiator fluid at all times. And it's been a couple of vehicles since I really needed to carry extra oil as a general rule. And I really need to find a safe and eco-friendly way to dispose of a semi-used aerosol can of "super start spray" -- I believe it's basically pure ether -- which I picked up on some trip or other to snowy mountains when I was having trouble with starting. But today is about refurbishing the first aid kit and sorting through maps. The GPS now makes most of my map-hoarding proclivities unnecessary, so here's an inventory of what I'm discarding. (It will become obvious that I almost never throw maps out.)

After making the initial list, I found another entire stack of maps -- ones that had gradually accumulated in a "to be moved to the car" spot but never made it as far as the map bag in the car itself. These items are prefaced by # rather than *.

State and larger-scale maps
* 2002 North American Road Atlas - probably bought simply because my previous NA had disintegrated, since I don't recall a specific trip I'd have needed it for. Will keep, but not in car.
* (copyright 1996) Thomas Bros. California Road Atlas - Fair condition, spiral bound. Not sure why I kept both this and the following edition in the map bag. A testament to my lack of periodic review of the contents of the bag. A work-horse of an atlas, deserving to be retired honorably.
* (copyright 1990) Thomas Bros. California Road Atlas - Poor condition, spiral bound. Same comments apply as the above.
# (copyright 1993) Central & Western United States - Good condition. I believe this was left behind by some overseas visitors who had no further use for it. Toss it.
* 2006 Washington State - Picked up at regional tourism center in Yakima last fall on the road trip so the docent could jot down notes on some good hiking spots. Toss it.
* (undated) Nebraska State Highway Map - Free tourist center map. Undoubtedly dates to some cross-country road trip, possibly Worldcon in Chicago? Doesn't seem beat up enough to be that old, no, maybe the 1996 Welsh Studies conference in Ohio, that sounds right. Toss it.

Smaller regional maps (California unless otherwise noted)
* 1995 (copyright says 1976, which provides evidence that the copyright dates have nothing to do with when the map was printed and/or bought) San Mateo County & the Peninsula - Fair condition, no idea why I bought it. Toss.
* 1991 Thomas Bros. Alameda and Contra Costa Counties Street Guide - Fair condition, spiral bound. Another solid workhorse of a map. In theory, it should have made any other Alameda/CC map unnecessary. Retire honorably.
* 1986 El Dorado & Placer Counties - Fair condition, no idea why - probably SCA event. Toss it.
* (copyright 1983) Nevada & Sierra Counties - Fair condition. I think I bought this that time I was stuck in Grass Valley with a broken down car after an SCA event and wanted to be able to wander around town without getting lost. Toss it.
* (undated) Bakersfield & Kern County - I have no idea why I got this map. Toss it.
* (undated) San Gabriel Valley - Fair condition. No idea why I got it. Toss it.
# (undated) Southwest Michigan - Moderate condition. Purchased the first time I went to Kalamazoo for the Medieval Studies Conference (or at least the first time I did the fly-to-Chicago-and-rent-a-car method, which may have been my second trip). The theory was that I'd toss it in my bag each future time I made the same trip. I don't think I every managed to remember it. Toss it.

City and similar-scale maps
California
East Bay
# 2006 Berkeley Biking & Walking Map - Excellent condition. The price sticker says "Solano Cyclery" and I don't recall shopping there in the last couple years, so I think this was a freebie for Bike-to-Work day. Keep it, especially for bike trip ideas.
# (copyright 1988) "The Most Useful Map of Berkeley" (yes, that's the title) - Fair condition. In addition to the basic street map, there are extensive annotations for unidirectional streets, traffic-calming barriers, highlighted "best through routes", neighborhood names, and a brief list of local attractions. If I were running an information desk, it would be quite useful. Toss it.
* (copyright 1976, prob. more rec.) Fremont/Hayward/Livermore - Fair condition, no idea why I have it. Toss.
* (undated) Oakland - Poor condition, not sure why I have it but it's stamped "Virginia Hills Exxon, Martinez" so I may have been searching for some place specific and happened not to have my Thomas Bros. on me. Toss.
San Francisco & Peninsula
# 1997 BART & Bus map for SF & East Bay - Fair condition and badly outdated, but I should get an up-to-date copy just to have around for reference (especially for visitors). Hmm, ok, I also have a 2003 copy of the same publication. Still not up-to-date enough for a transit guide.
# (copyright 1996) Fastmap: San Francisco - Moderate condition, laminated. Compact map of the entire city with a detail map of downtown and a freeway map of the entire Bay Area on the back. Probably worth keeping just for its at-a-glance convenience and durability.
* 1992 San Francisco street and transit - Poor condition, badly out of date on transit info. Toss.
* 1988 San Francisco convention & visitors bureau guide - Probably picked up for some visiting tourist. Toss.
* 1972 (copyright date, but probably more recent) San Francisco & Northern Peninsula - Poor condition, horribly obsolete. Toss.
South Bay
* 1997 San Jose - Laminated, large format, good condition (because of the lamination). This was a semi-gag present after a dinner expedition in San Jose nucleated around some out-of-town-visiting members of the alt.shoe.lesbians usenet group where I swore that I knew how to find my way around town because I'd actually lived in San Jose for a couple years (a decade before) and then managed to get us completely lost. No functional reason for keeping it and only mild sentimental association. Toss it.
* (undated) San Jose & South Bay Cities - Fair condition, may date to the early '80s when I lived there. Toss.
Other California
# (copyright 1999) Davis & Woodland - Moderate condition, with annotations. There must be a story here: the outside of the map has my dad's name on it and there are routes highlighted to a couple of Davis residences. Probably a relic of some Quaker business trip. Toss.
* (undated) Los Angeles and Hollywood - Poor condition, I think I got it for some LA convention. Toss.
* (copyright 1976, probably more recent) Central Los Angeles - Fair condition but unlikely to be useful. Toss.
* (copyright 1977, prob. more rec.) Lake Tahoe - Probably picked up for some SCA event, fair condition. Toss.
* (copyright 1979, prob. more rec.) Sacramento - May date to when I lived in Davis, poor condition. Toss.
Non-California
* (copyright 1985) Downtown Washington, DC - Poor condition, picked up on one of my Darkovercon trips when I took a couple extra days and did some touristing. Toss.
* 1998 New York (NY) transit map - Free transit map. Fair condition. I'm fairly certain I picked this up when I was there for the Queer Middle Ages conference in 1998. Toss.
* 1997 Manhattan (NY) Bus Map - Free transit map, see previous. Toss.
* (undated) New York City 5 Maps in 1! - Fair condition, probably same as previous. Toss.
* (undated) Pittsburgh PA - Fair condition. I think this may actually date to some road trip that included a stop in Pittsburgh. Can't quite figure out what it might be. Toss it.
* (copyright 1996) AVIS Rent-a-car Welcomes You to Cleveland and Vicinity - Standard "how to get to and from the rental car drop-off" map. Obviously must date to some trip in or after 1996 when I flew to Cleveland and rented a car. Huh. It wasn't the 2002 OVFF trip because that was to Columbus and I didn't rent a car. Curious; very curious. Toss it.
# (copyright 2005) Greater Boston - Good condition. I bought this a couple years ago when I expanded my usual Thanksgiving-at-Darkovercon trip to include a train loop up to Maine the previous weekend. Since you have to change between the South and North stations in Boston, and I decided I had sufficient time and inclination to walk the connection, my usual navigational paranoia led me to buy a map. But I have no near-future trips to Boston planned, so there's really no point in hanging on to it despite it being nearly-new. Reluctantly toss it.

Comments

[lferion]

If you want to honorably retire the old Thomas Bros CA atlas, I would actually have a use for it as writing reference.

I tried out the strawberry rhubarb thing you posted the other day, doubling the portions and baking it 20 minutes after it became mush under a crumble crust of 1c flour, 1c oats, 1c brown sugar, 1/2c butter and 1t pumpkin pie spice. Delicious. Everybody looooved it. I did end up putting in about 1/2c of brown sugar and some apple juice to sweeten it a little, as the family Reallly Likes things sweet.

[hrj.livejournal.com]

If you want to honorably retire the old Thomas Bros CA atlas, I would actually have a use for it as writing reference.

Um ... I'd have to fish it out of the garbage can at this point, and I think the remains of yesterdays BBQ are in a higher layer. So, alas, I think the moment has passed.

And *sigh* people do like their sugar, don't they?

[dr-zrfq.livejournal.com]

I admit that as space permits I'll archive one copy per year of most road maps I get. Then again, I have been known to purchase old road maps when I come across them in used book stores. (Which explains my 1936 and 1955 Esso maps of Pennsylvania.) But a lot depends on the condition weighed against the level of usefulness for some of my personal research.

[hrj.livejournal.com]

A big part of The Life Program in the last few years has been constant battle against my packrat tendencies. In other words, don't encourage me!

[dr-zrfq.livejournal.com]

Oops -- sorry about that!