Yesterday, I was supposed to have lunch with a friend but she had to cancel because of a pain issue. My cell phone doesn’t get a good signal in most areas of my house, so by the time I received her text messages, I was already dressed and ready to go. That’s ok though; no harm done. Dad felt sorry for me being all dressed up and nowhere to go so he insisted we should go out anyway. So, we did.
We decided on a town that we have been to hundreds of times via the same route, however, it had been a few months since we were there last. We were talking Trump TV, as we call it, catching each other up on the latest bullshit thrown at us from the tv news or the internet. It was a heated conversation; we totally agreed with each other but the ‘heat’ came from how freakin’ fed up we are with the clown that is pretending to be important. We were so wrapped up in conversation that I missed a very important turn on our journey. Of course, we had no clue.
We drove about 5 miles past the turn until we came to the junction of 14 and 181. The problem is, we were both dumbfounded. Neither one of us recognized where we were or which way we were supposed to go. Dad insisted I go left. I knew something wasn’t right but I made the left.

I couldn’t figure out what the heck happened. It was almost as if they changed the roads! We had been on the right road and then all of a sudden things were off. It just didn’t make sense. I drove a couple of miles down 14, as Dad told me to do. I knew that wasn’t right. I knew because nothing, absolutely nothing, looked familiar! I turned around. I told Dad, “something isn’t right.” I went back to the junction and made a right placing us back on 181. Still no familiarity. Dad spied a sign that read CC. This was the road that we should have turned on, and I turned right which was the only direction the road went. I was relieved for about 2 seconds and then I realized things still didn’t look right. Nothing was familiar. We passed homes, barns, cow pastures, cemeteries and all were things that we had never seen before! What the hell is going on? We were both confused and couldn’t figure out where the hell we were.
Finally, I pulled into a deserted little cemetery and pulled up Google maps. We went so far past our turn that when we saw CC we assumed it was the right road. It was not. So, we went back to 181 and I made a right, as Google showed me. Finally, we saw something familiar! The turn we originally should have taken; CC! That’s when we realized that we were so distracted we didn’t even realize we passed our turn.
It was a relief to have my bearings back but I still felt uncomfortable and nervous. I imagined how confused and terrified an Alzheimer’s patient must feel when they don’t know where they are; when they’re lost in their own mind, scared with no map to guide them. It was a horrible feeling to wash away. Strange how Dad and I both lost our minds at the same time!
When we finally made it to our destination, we stopped at The Dollar Tree. We picked up a few things and before we finished Dad came and showed me a twenty-dollar bill he found on the floor! He was worried that a little kid might have lost it but that’s a large amount for a little kid to have lost. He hung onto the bill and walked around the store. He was watching folks and how they were acting. He spied a woman around my age walking up and down the aisles looking down at the floor. He watched her for a few minutes. She saw Dad behind her and asked, “You haven’t seen a twenty-dollar bill anywhere, have you?” To that Dad replied, “As a matter of fact, I have!” He pulled the twenty out of his pocket and handed it back to the woman. She was so relieved and so thankful! She told him that she was given the responsibility of purchasing a few things for her Church and she was just horrified to have lost the money her pastor gave her.
We had Chinese food afterward. Lukewarm Chinese food, I might add. I don’t know why they can’t keep their food hot!
We got lost, Dad did a good deed, and our lunch was disappointing but my pain level was down a little. Thanks in part to CBD capsules. I think. Only time will tell for certain.
