Turn Around When Possible

All I wanted to do was check out the new book store. You know, the one they opened in the center of downtown. A few of my friends said it was real nice, and I bet I would agree with them, but like I said, it opened in the middle of the city, which I now refer to as a urban Bermuda Triangle.

I left early-ish in the morning, around quarter to eight. I had a dentist appointment at 2:00, so wanted to give myself enough leeway to browse. The dentist’s office was only down the street from house, I also thought most of the morning traffic would already be on the road, and out of my way. It was good idea. I was sure it was a good idea.

The idea became less good around 9:20, when the traffic leading into town became larger, then slower, and then ultimately stopped. I had my suspicions about what happened, or perhaps just a clear premonition of how my day was to play out. I turned out to be right; right about a three-car pile-up happening just before the bridge leading into town. No, no one was seriously hurt, and perhaps this should have helped me put things into perspective, but it’s hard to look at the big picture when all you care about is reading the fine print.

Traffic crawled like a crippled duck for the next hour or so, and that was after the police and ambulances arrived. And, with the bridge blocked by the three, newly compact cars, everyone was diverted down an alternate route. I typically can’t figure the city’s main roads, yet alone the back ones, which of course were the streets we were being told to take.

This was the point when I thought I was smart and pulled out my GPS.

The first mistake was not already having the GPS up and running. By the time the stupid had booted up and figured out where I was, I had gone close to a mile in the wrong direction. Well, according the GPS I was going the wrong way. Maybe the thing thought I was driving in England, because it sent me in the exact opposite direction. Yes, that means I was going the right way in the first place.

Luckily technology has become advanced enough to realize when it’s sending someone into the adjacent county, instead of their two-miles-away destination.

By this point, my mind was a racetrack. I now had to worry about trusting a potentially homicidal machine, fighting traffic, making my dentist appointment, actually finding the book store, and, now, watching the gas gauge. That last one got tacked on once I realized I went down the road before the GPS wanted me to take. The map arrow thingy was not pointing at the right street, and no one call tell me otherwise.

As you can probably imagine, my patience was coming to an end, and so was free-time. After all the traffic and attempted sabotage from my GPS, it was now quarter to 1:00, and I knew there was no way I would make it to the bookstore with enough time to sufficiently browse and make back for my dentist appointment. I set the GPS to take me home, made sure it was actually going to lead me that way, and began the final trek of my fruitless endeavor.

And for how my dentist appointment went, I had no cavities, but I did need a root canal, which needed to be schedule on my next available day off, which was a week away, which also meant I wouldn’t have a second chance to visit the bookstore for at least two weeks. This may not be relevant to my story and you may not be interested, but I don’t really care. I’d like some company for all of my misery.