Caltrans District 8 runs forty one cameras on the public feed page. I counted in June. I counted again last week, forty one, nothing added nothing pulled, and out of forty one the two that load first for me, before I even hit refresh, are 257 and 277. Not the rest stop one everyone likes for the raccoons. Not 199 by the summit which is the prettiest picture on the whole page if you care about pretty. 257 and 277. Twenty apart. I already wrote the 257 history in the clock pages, the two clocks entry is still up, go read it if you want the whole timeline, I am not retyping four months of it here, I did that math once and I am not doing it twice in one week.

This is 277. Cypress Ave onramp, PM 32.234, eastbound. Headlights coming in low and smeared because thats what a camera does to light at that distance, I know that, I am not saying the smear is the message. The stamp says 8/04/26, 20:44:07, PDT, Caltrans banner top left same as always. What I am saying is the number. Two hundred fifty seven. Two hundred seventy seven. You do not get to pick your own camera number, they assign it, sequential build out, thats the official line, I called and asked and a man read it off a script so bored I could hear him not caring. Sequential explains 257 and 258. It does not explain twenty. It does not explain why out of forty one only these two keep finding me.

Twenty apart. My mothers birthday is the twentieth. I have not called her since March. anyway.

Coincidence. Sure. Coincidence four times now if I count what I already have saved and this one, that is four, four in I want to say ten weeks, could be eleven, doesnt matter, it was them loading first every time, not the summit, not the rest stop with the raccoons. Go pull up your own districts feed page right now, refresh it, see what loads first for you, and then tell me thats random. I still have the tab open. I am not closing it tonight either.

UPDATE 9/23:

I pulled the district page again tonight, not because anything told me to, just routine, and 596 loaded first. Not 257. Not 277. A camera that has never once loaded first for me in the five months Ive been doing this, Main Street, Hesperia, forty, no, closer to fifty miles north of everywhere I actually watch. The url still calls it i15596mainst. Five nine six. Sequential build out, same story the bored man on the phone gave me back in June, you do not get to pick your own number. Fine. But look at what the camera burns into its own frame the second it takes the picture, before anyone at the district could touch it. Top left corner. It does not say 596. It says 58D. CCTV 58D, 15 NB, PM 34.0. The catalog has one number for this camera. The camera has a different number for itself, in the corner, where it assumes nobody reads that far in. I read that far in.

Is that a typo? No. Typos dont happen to systems that get maintained, and this system gets maintained, same as the panel that got swapped in after the sign went up, somebody assigns a number once and then somebody else assigns it again when it stops fitting. Main Street. every town Ive ever lived in had a Main Street, my mothers did too, thirty some years on the same one before she sold it. anyway.

Two numbers, one camera, same night Im typing this. Thats the update. The 257 history is still in the clock pages, not retyping it, I dont revise what I already said even when a new number shows up and stops it fitting neatly.