Lavina and the GPS

You've heard the idea that a butterfly flapping its wings can begin the wind that becomes a hurricane continents away? Something to that effect? OK, then consider this true story from our home over the past two days.

On Tuesday evening, we received a call from friend, Lavina, who needed a ride home from her sister's house, 20 miles away, the next evening at seven. We agreed to pick her up.

Yesterday morning, while planning a future trip to visit our son in Virginia, my husband, J., and I were sitting in our kitchen with friends discussing ways to make the trip fun for our 10 year old Colorado granddaughter, who would be joining us. While the group continuing talking, I went to my car and programmed the destination into my GPS-type gadget. Then I came into the house and joined the conversation. All done. No biggie.

The day was lovely, compared to most of the days of the last several weeks, and we spent the later afternoon out in it, mowing and planting. J. put three shrubs in the front driveway garden to fill up an area that is usually a weed bed. These plants are pretty and varied and should make butterflies in the area happy.

A charming, and sometimes disconcerting feature of Daylight Savings Time is that you lose your sense of time. We came into the house at about 9:30 p.m. to answer a ringing phone. A man asked us if we had forgotten about Lavina, waiting since 7 p.m. to come home. J. grabbed his keys and ran to the car, leaving me to tend to our brood of 4 dogs, laundry, and other chores neglected while we enjoyed the outdoors. He had no dinner, no snack, and no idea where he was going, and yet, I let him go.

The phone rang while I was working somewhere out of earshot. I picked up the message from J. who was lost and was getting some kind of crazy guidance from the GPS. He doesn't really know how to use it, and I was surprised that he had tried to.

A half hour later, he called again, still unable to find Lavina, and still wrestling with the GPS. He hadn't tried to program our friend's address, but apparently was following directions that began when he left the house--directions to the state of Virginia! My sweet absent-minded professor husband thought that he was following instructions to a home somewhere outside of Danville, Ohio, while actually headed for Norfolk. Because J. is no fool, he bucked the guidance several times, but he still had no idea that it was for some very, very other place. Well, who doesn't lose confidence in the dark?

Shortly after midnight, J. returned, without Lavina, and with the strong sense that he had been bested by a machine. Lavina had to spend the night where she was, and she arrived safely home this morning. Did I mention that we are going to Virginia by train?