Interlude #1

I had another moment that I wanted to add to the last post, but it did not fit the overall tone.  There will always be those little things that just don't make the cut--when you edit, sometimes you've got to kill your babies.  

As such, I want to still include these different moments, but take those ideas out to stand as its own rant or aside without losing what was there before.  So here is our first interlude:  Some Angry Thoughts Toward Indiana's DOT

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I was driving in Indiana this week, following my phone's GPS blindly.  On my route, I was on Indiana 26 and came upon a sign that said "Road Closed Ahead," pointing toward the right.  Well, 26 continued to the right and then took a quick left, so I had assumed that the sign was implying a road further down.  A couple miles down the road, it turned out I was wrong.  No detour was marked.  So I invented one.  My GPS was effectively going "What are you doing?"  I stared back at it, thinking sourly, "Trying to be a good citizen!"  

After some creative wiggling, I ended up back on 26, thinking I was in the clear.  Nope, another piece of the road was closed to through traffic in another couple miles.  This time, I tried a detour to the right instead of the left.  My GPS once again was politely wondering where the hell I was going now.  This time, I had to agree, as the car felt like it was sliding along on the gravel.  I waved to a couple of farmers as I went by, the gravel road continuing to snake around in all kinds of interesting directions.  Finally back on blacktop, I was grumbling to myself for the rest of my trip that day.  

On the way home, I took the same route and decided that I was going to go through even if it was just for local traffic.  The first barricade I went around, I felt smug about, but eventually came upon another barrier.  This one, though, actually had a detour marked so I felt obligated to take it.  After a rather circuitous detour, I rejoined 26 and was on my way again...only to run into another barrier.  Seeing no detour marked on this one, I just went around the barricade... and I soon found out that this road closed sign meant that it was really closed, backhoes and everything.  I had to turn around in a driveway and find a way around, again on a gravel road.  

That was frustrating, sure, but what made it truly bad was that there was an SUV that had followed me the whole way.  When I went to turn around in that driveway, I did not make eye contact with the driver in the other car--I could feel the "I TRUSTED YOU," radiating out.  And yet, that car still followed me on my next creative detour--I know because I kept checking.  I kept sending reassuring thoughts to my SUV companion that I would take them off of the gravel road and back to civilization, making mental apologies, too.  At the same time, I was thinking some very perturbed thoughts toward the Indiana DOT for not marking detours well.

**Sigh** At least I had the foresight to leave over a half hour early.  It IS construction season after all.