Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Puzzles

Ok, I ask you, how does one manage to lose a pajama top? I'm at a loss. I wore a pair of pajamas sometime last week. I did the wash over the weekend and the top is gone. Poof! Nowhere to be seen. I've checked the hamper, behind the washer, in the other drawers, behind the drawer it should be in, the closet (on the odd chance I hung it up). Gone. A sock missing I can understand, but a whole pajama top? It's a puzzle.

Today coming home, I hit another puzzle. I drive the road between here and the office so much that I put my brain in neutral when I head out in either direction and suddenly find myself at the other end with very little memory of what passed in between. I was running a little late leaving the office today and had considered making a stop in Elgin, but decided I had better get on my way. Mother is okay being left for 10-20 minutes on her own, but more than that is risky. So I breezed on through Elgin and headed down Highway 95.

Suddenly the traffic came to a dead halt and I realized the road ahead was full of cops, ambulances and people milling around after a car accident. It was only a minute or two when all the traffic in my lane began to make U-turns and head back the other way. I hesitated when I saw a young man approach the car ahead of me and talk for awhile and then head my way.

He said they were turning all the traffic around and had the road ahead completely closed down and did I know another way to get to Bastrop because the lady ahead of me was not from the area and neither was he. I pondered and told him, yes, but it would require going back to Elgin. At that moment I realized I had no idea where exactly I was. Had I passed Sayers Road? Yes, I knew I had done that but how far back? Had I passed the road that connects to Lake Bastrop Acres? I didn't think I had. I just wasn't sure how long it would take to get back to Elgin.

About that time a cop was striding angrily toward us, gesturing to turn around, turn around, turn around, while the lady was trying to get him to come talk to her and tell her how to detour. I decided no matter where I was, I had to go back, so back I went. And discovered I had been about 6 miles out of Elgin, and while the Sayers cut-off came up in about 5 minutes I knew the road was too rough to make good time, so I opted to keep going all the way back to Highway 290.

From there I sped toward McDade and the little farm-to-market road that I knew would bring me back to Highway 95 below the wreck. I was really running late at this point, but there wasn't much I could do about it. I finally got home, about 35 minutes later than usual, to find everything and everybody was just fine.

It didn't occur to me until later that I could have turned on the navigation system and figured out exactly where I was. And maybe a shorter detour. But, then again, probably not. I just would have had a better idea of how late I would be.

I do wonder if that poor lady ahead of me made it to Bastrop ok.

LSW

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Road hypnosis. When I was driving big trucks, I used to pick up a couple of loads of corrugated pipe a week in Schulenburg. I'd drive Hwy 71 so many times, I could probably do it in my sleep. Sometimes, I'd make the turn off of I-10 at Columbus, and the next thing I knew, I was slowing down for El Campo. It's kind of scary how many people are out there driving on autopilot while they're daydreaming. Scarier yet are the cell phone junkies and texters.

Anonymous said...

If you washed sheets too....check between your mattresses... :)
Ever go somewhere and then discover you have a fabric softener sheet sticking out of your pants leg....just asking, not that it's ever happened to me......

LSW said...

Nope on the fabric softener, but I have gone most of a day and suddenly looked down and found a knee high hose crawling out of my pants leg.

MiniKat said...

I think whatever has made off with some of our laundry has migrated to your neck of the woods. If you find it, bash it on the head with something. ;-)

Anonymous said...

You have not blamed the cats yet for the disappearance of your top.

LSW said...

Well, no doubt they would sneak it off if they could, but I don't think in this case they are at fault. Still haven't found the wretched thing.