Directionally Challenged

I mentioned on Tuesday that I am challenged when it comes to knowing how to get places. If it's somewhere I go all the time, I'm fine, but new locations? Not so much.

There are stories I could tell about studying a map--the paper kind--and promptly turning the wrong direction. Like the exact opposite direction. I've been lost in more cities than you can imagine and I've learned to stop and ask for help.

But then GPS came along. My car has it built in, but I use Waze on my phone because then I get traffic information.

The app, though, has a few quirks.

Like I start it for the drive to work as I'm walking from the house to the garage. According to Waze, my walking speed has been as high as 83 MPH. Yes, I said walking! Seriously, I'm always in a hurry, but even on my best day, I can't out-race a cheetah.

And of course, the quirkiest things of all can be the strange directions. One time, the app directed me off the freeway, took me on a roundabout, side road jaunt and then guided me back on the freeway because traffic had slowed. If there's no accident, I would just as soon wait in the slow down than execute evasive maneuvers worthy of one of my heroes.

A couple of weeks ago, I put in directions from one location to another that I knew was close by. I was like 99% certain I knew where to go, but I wanted to be 100%. Waze wanted to direct me back to the main road, to another main road, and then to the same road I was already on! So instead of turning left like Waze said, I turned right and my destination was like a few blocks.

But things like this are a small price to pay because when I take a wrong turn--which I sometimes do even with GPS--it gets me back on track. I need that. Because I'm no joking when I say I'm directionally challlenged.

Driver Nicknames

Does anyone else give nicknames to the cars/drivers that they see regularly during their commute? Is this just me?

It's true. I nickname the drivers I see regularly on my drive to my day job. Maybe it's because I leave so early in the morning and most of my commute is on a highway where there isn't the volume of traffic for most of the way to the freeway. I haven't nicknamed anyone on the freeway.

The first guy I call Cygnet. It's because his license plate starts with CGN. He actually works at Delta Air Lines, too. I've seen him in the parking ramp at work. I haven't seen him on the road much lately and I wonder if he's leaving earlier than usual because I have spotted him getting out of his car in the parking garage as I'm going up the ramp. Cygnet drives really, really slowly and he looks as if he's past retirement age.

Next up is Bumper Sticker Guy. You probably guessed that the rear of his car is covered in bumper stickers. Not only on the bumper, but across the trunk, too. BSG normally gets on the highway about the same time I reach his entrance. I'm not sure if BSG works at Delta or not because he's another slow driver. If he's a little ahead of me, I'm usually passing him.

There's Commander. License plate starts CDR. He drives slower as well, but not as slowly as Cygnet or BSG. Still, I usually end up having to pass him. It's not because I'm racing to work, either. I drive about 5 miles over the speed limit. These three men just drive really slowly.

Then there's the guy in the little blue car. I call him Andretti because he thinks he's a race car driver. The only time I see him is if we get stopped at the same light, because once we get going again, he's way, way in front of me before much time passes.

These are the four main nicknames I have, but there are a couple of other guys on the road that I'm starting to recognize and I'm sure I'll eventually nickname them, too.

RIP Van Pool

I don't like driving in Atlanta. There are far too many insane drivers here who drive 90 MPH (no lie!), weave in and out, and tailgate at that speed. There's the opposite side of the spectrum, too. Like this morning, the guy I came up on who was doing maybe 45 MPH on the freeway. Gah!

The first year after I moved here, I would drive to work with a death grip on the steering wheel. I hated it and I was ready to move back to Minnesota. And then I found the van pool.

To say I loved my van pool would be understating it. I would sleep on my way in to work in the morning and sometimes I slept on the way home, too. Other times, I'd text friends, do quick emails, play games, read, or any number of other things.

It wasn't perfect. There was one guy who was always late going home in the afternoons and I was already staying a little late. It also wasn't the greatest if I had errands I needed to run after work. A lot of times, I would end up backtracking or trying to drive to work myself to make the stops on my way home. Even this, though, was workable once I discovered my credit union had mobile deposit.

And then the unthinkable happened. My van pool died. There is a villain!

The company that leased the van to us (yes, we paid to lease the van and for gas) was bought by Enterprise Rental Cars. They insisted that everyone was going to get a new van, one that would lease for a hell of a lot more money than what we were currently paying. Our van pool leader managed to hold them off for a few months, but at the end of November, we had no options--we had to take the new van or drop out.

Sadly, there was no choice except drop out because the monthly fee nearly doubled! Yes, that's right--Enterprise jacked up the rates so high, the monthly fee would have been almost double the previous month's fee. I do not have fond feelings toward Enterprise.

So I've been driving to and from work on my own since my van pool died. I hate it. I miss sleeping, I miss not having to be the one behind the wheel, and I miss our guaranteed parking spot very close to the entrance. I'm really hoping that some other company will come in and start a van pool business that leases vans at a reasonable rate. Or that the state subsidizes the van so that it's affordable. Something so I can ride and not drive.

RIP van pool. You had your annoying things, but overall, you were awesome.

Driving On the Left or Right

Why do some countries drive on the right and others on the left?

Sobering Drive Home

Another blog written in Minnesota: I left Atlanta on Good Friday to drive up to Minnesota. As I was driving on I-24 headed west, I saw an orange road construction sign that said Prepare to Stop. I didn't think I'd have to, though, because it was the Friday before Easter and the Department of Transportation had to realize there'd be traffic for the holiday. Surely, they'd suspended the work for the weekend.

And then not too much farther up ahead, traffic came to a stop. It was around 12:40 in the afternoon. As we inched along, I cursed the DOT for having road work going on, but as the time dragged out and we still were only creeping forward, I turned on the radio and started scanning for a traffic report. There was nothing.

At one point, I came on a three car accident. Someone had rear-ended another car and sent them into a third. I had to go around them, but that wasn't what had traffic backed up. It took 50 minutes in stop and go traffic before I saw why no one was moving.

On the other side of the freeway, headed east, was the remnants of the most horrific car accident I had ever seen. There was one car that looked as if a bomb had gone off and destroyed it, a second had the front end bashed in, and a U-Haul trailer off on the grass. It didn't appear damaged, though. There were clothes and personal items strewn all over the road and there was a child safety seat sitting in the middle of the carnage.

When I got to the hotel that night, I searched to find out what happened. I got the bare bones that night. The next morning, the news had the rest of the details.

At 11:40 that morning, a black 1996 Toyota Camry headed west on I-24 crossed the median into the eastbound traffic. It made impact first with the U-Haul, but did only minor damage to the truck. Then it slammed head-on into the Rav 4 driving behind the U-Haul. The man driving the U-Haul was uninjured. His wife and two daughters were in the Rav 4.

On the Saturday after the accident, the wife (who was wearing her seat belt) was said to be in stable condition per the news articles. The two daughters, aged 6 and 7, were in critical, but stable condition. They'd been restrained in child safety seats.

The car that caused the accident was the one that had looked torn apart. There was a father and two daughters in that vehicle. All of them died. The 11-year-old girl was dead at the scene. The father died at a local hospital, and the 16-year-old daughter died after being transferred to Vanderbilt hospital in Nashville.

What I read said that the father driving the U-Haul was freaking out and that people who stopped to help had to calm him down. Another quote was from a woman who was a former first responder who happened to be there shortly after the accident. She tried to save the 11-year-old girl who was in the Camry.

I haven't been able to stop thinking about this. I imagine the father in the U-Haul watching his family get hit head-on. I wonder if he sat in the hospital replaying the accident, trying to come up with what he could have done differently. I wonder if he thought if only he'd done this, it would have deflected the Camry away from his family's car.

I wonder about the wife and the two girls who are in the hospital. Stable doesn't mean well. It doesn't mean they don't have serious injuries that could take months to heal or might even cause them lifelong issues. I wonder about how much therapy—both physical and psychological they'll need to recover.

I wonder about the mother of the girls who died in the other car. How terrible it would be to lose both daughters like that. How does someone deal with that kind of sudden loss?

I think about the people on the scene. The people who saw the accident happen. The people who ran over to help. The people who saw the injured and dead loaded into ambulances. I think about the police and the firefighters and paramedics who arrived on the scene and did their jobs—and what they'll have to live with for the rest of their lives. And I wonder if they've seen other accidents this bad before.

When I saw the scene, I started praying for everyone involved—both victims and families and first responders. And I said a thank you that I was safe and that I hadn't seen the true nightmare images of people hurt, dead, dying because I don't think I could have seen that and not had it impact me strongly. Just seeing the cars impacted me incredibly hard. And the thing is that I could have seen that accident. I could have been in that area at 11:20 if I'd left on time that morning, but I was tired and dawdling and didn't leave until later than I'd planned. And I said thank you for that, too.

I still can't think about that accident or talk about it without tearing up. I can imagine the pain and confusion and hurt and aftermath too easily. How do you do a job like the police and firefighters do and deal with that day in and day out? I couldn't do it, but I'm very grateful that there are men and women out there who do what they do.

GPS Adventure

I've been using GPS since I moved down to Atlanta. Most of the times it's been the best thing ever. I'm directionally challenged and even with turn by turn instructions I've made wrong moves. It's true. ::Hangs head:: GPS usually recalculates fairly quickly and helps find me an alternate to get me back on track. But then there are the other times. Last Friday was one of those.

My department at work had our Christmas party at our boss's house. He lives out quite a way from Atlanta, so after the party, I went straight home and not back to work. (Of course, I had training to finish before Sunday, so I did some work at home, but that's beside the point.) This is where GPS became...interesting.

First off, my boss lives on a dirt road. I have never driven on a dirt road and I was in grade school the last time I rode in a car on a dirt road. GPS managed to get me within like 3 houses of his place, but it wasn't completely successful getting me to his house. Luckily, one of the guys painted a sign and put it in front of his house so I found it without having to turn around. If I even could have found somewhere to turn on this narrow dirt road.

But that was going there. On my way home, GPS managed to get me back to real roads admirably. And then the weirdness began. It would take me on a road for a little ways and then turn me off on another road. And then another and another. It took me down the road in front of the Atlanta Motor Speedway (or something like that). Sometimes I'd be on a road for all of about half a block and then it would turn me onto yet another road.

I was totally going WTH? But I dutifully followed my instructions. On narrow streets. Past COWS! I'd see signs now and then that pointed toward a freeway, and I was sure GPS was guiding me there, but nope. That wasn't what the computer decided was the fastest route.

What really freaked me out, though, was when I was on a road whose name I'd never seen before and GPS told me that I was five miles away from home. I was like, OMG, GPS has gotten me lost! This wouldn't be the first time. I was like, okay, just follow GPS and when the instructions end and you're not home, you can try again. I'm seriously map challenged so having this fail is a big problem.

And then the miracle happened. The street I was on suddenly changed names. This happens a lot in the Atlanta area. Don't ask me why, but the same road will have multiple names. It makes it really confusing to get around down here. It doesn't even have to cross a city or county line, the road will just change names. Anyway, this new street name was the one that goes past my turn off. I was saved!

Relieved, I pulled into the garage. I might have been on a cross-country adventure, but GPS did get me home safe and sound.

The Journey Home

In case anyone is wondering why I've been so quiet online lately, it's because I was up in Minnesota, working to get my house ready to sell, and there wasn't time to spare. I'll have a bunch of blog posts about that later.

Driving up from Atlanta was interesting. Like the driver in Illinois who tailgated me even though there was no one in the left-hand lane and she could have easily passed me. I mean this woman was right on my bumper. It irritated the hell out of me and I'm thinking to myself, when did they start driving like this in Illinois? This is what I'd expect in Atlanta, not here. 

It took the chick a while to figure out I wasn't going any faster no matter how close she got to my car and finally, she does go around me. And guess what I saw as she went past? Georgia license plates. Fulton county, no less. For those of you unfamiliar, Atlanta is in Fulton county.

The other thing that struck me as interesting was reaching Minnesota. As soon as we went past the airport and was in my old stomping grounds, I moved into the left-hand lane. I haven't driven in the left lane since I moved in January because it's a flipping NASCAR race on the freeways in Atlanta and even going 15 mph over the speed limit in the right lane will get you tailgated.

Do you have any idea how awesome it felt to be able to drive in the left lane again? I always drove in the fast lane in MN because there I'm one of the speedier drivers. It was freeing and it was so much less stressful to drive there than in Atlanta. Yes, we still have the idiot factor, but at least the idiots are going slower and I don't fear for my life.

The other thing that stood out to me on getting home was the lack of bugs. I don't mean that as in the condo in Atlanta was inundated with them. It really wasn't despite how it felt. It was just that the bugs were bigger (palmetto bugs, shudder) or they were ickier (centipedes, anyone?).

I climbed into bed that first night at home and realized I hadn't checked the bed for spiders or other bugs. Then I realized that I didn't have to do that there. I do a bug check every night in Atlanta—just in case. I've never found anything—yet—but did I mention the bugs were bigger and ickier down here? I'd rather err on the side of caution than to get into bed with bugzilla.

Bugged?

It snowed again yesterday. :-( That meant my usual 25 minute commute expanded to an hour and a half. Make that a white-knuckled hour and a half. Top speed was about 30 miles an hour, but most of the drive was at 1o mph. That was a good thing because the roads were horrible. It's up early today and out the door ASAP because of the conditions.

The only thing that made the day bearable was arriving home and finding my coffee table and end tables on the door step! Yea! The problem was dragging snow covered boxes into the house. I'm hugely excited to have these tables and absolutely can't wait to fold up the step ladder (my makeshift coffee table) and put it away. I just have to get my dad to come over and assemble the new furniture. :-/

On the plant front, I talked here about the bugs in my amaryllis. The nursery suggested some stuff that mixes with water, goes into the soil, and kills them. I can't wait for that to arrive. They said the bugs are harmless, just a nuisance, but I don't like them in my house. I don't care if they are harmless. I'll also have to dose my bamboo plant with this stuff, I guess. The guy said that the bugs will make their way to other plants in the house and that's all I have.

Speaking of bugged, last night just before midnight, the phone rang. Wrong number. Not only was it a wrong number, it was someone's computer trying to connect to the internet. I've had calls like that on my voice mail when I've gotten home from work, but I never had a call in the middle of the night before. You'd think the fact that they've never connected dialing my number might encourage the person to delete it. Apparently not. Grrr.

Shards of Crimson Is Out!

Shards of Crimson is out today! This is an anthology set in Crimson City with four new stories by Liz Maverick, Carolyn Jewel, Jade Lee and Me.

My story is Dark Awakening and the hero and heroine are Kimi Noguchi and Nicodemus. Both were mentioned in Through a Crimson Veil although neither physically appeared. Kimi is being hunted by a dark demon, and with Mika and Conor out of town, she calls on Nic to protect her. Nic's been avoiding Kimi for her own good, but now that she's summoned him, all bets are off.

Yesterday, despite the 3:30am wakeup call, was a stellar day! Because it was a holiday for most people, the traffic was nearly non-existent which made the commute in okay. Yeah, the side streets were horrible and so was the highway, but the freeway was in decent shape. I got like the best parking spot at work since my union was the only one required to work and the office was empty. No one else was there. One of my engineers did show up around 10, but he stayed for less than an hour and he's nice and quiet, and because I was able to concentrate, I got a ton of work done.

I was able to wear weekend clothes, which means extra casual and the commute home was fabulous! I couldn't believe how light the traffic was. If only the freeway was like that every day, I wouldn't hate driving so much. :-)

Worked on my edits some more. I'm still mulling over a comment about Deke and his reaction to his circumstances. Part of my problem is the scene where he might be off-balance is in Ryne's POV and Deke isn't going to admit to her--or display in any way she'd notice--that he's rattled. It's displaying a weakness and he doesn't know her, so he wouldn't do that. The next chapter is in his POV, but by then he's reached a few conclusions and he's not shaken up any longer--if he ever was.

POV can be a bitch. On the one hand, I understand why Deke should be rattled, but he's too used to thinking on his feet to display this, and short of headhopping, his reactions are going to seem to be calm. On the other hand, yeah, you'd think he would be freaked out. :-) It's this same thinking on his feet quality that makes him a guy who takes things as they come and doesn't dwell on them or worry too much about what he can't change. He just deals with what is. And by the time I'm in his head, that's where he's at. So I'm mulling for now.