Be a post whore!

[glatt]

Often, Google maps doesn't work fast enough or is too complicated to use while driving, but on the way home from NEPA yesterday, it worked BEAUTIFULLY.

Route 81 is under construction in the vicinity of Pine Grove and Ravine. It's closed in one direction and traffic shares one side of the highway (a single lane in each direction for about 25 miles or so.) On the way up on Friday, there was an accident along this stretch and we got stuck at a standstill between jersey barriers for about 45 minutes while the wreck was cleared.

So we already knew traffic was heavy and this was a bottle neck on the way back home. As we approached 209 from the north, traffic slowed down to a crawl. I pulled up Google maps and saw traffic was mostly black with bits of red here and there for about 20 miles on 81. We had a hundred yards or so until the exit onto 209. (I highlighted the section of 81 on the map below where there was traffic.)

I asked my wife to enter in our home address into Google, and let it direct us home. It told us to take that 209 exit and get onto 325 South.


Let me tell you. 325 south is absolutely spectacular. It is straight as an arrow and the road surface is smoother than 81 and there is zero traffic on it. For 25 miles I barely had to move the steering wheel at all. And I was going faster on 325 than I had been going on 81 before the traffic jam. It's a beautiful road. Goes right through state hunting land next to a reservoir. Scenic and fast and ZERO traffic. Yeah baby.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Good find, probably built to sneak the mistresses of the Harrisburg politicians, or Fort Indiantown Gap Generals, in and out.

[Sundae]

Okay, really whoring it up here...
But if anyone is already a member of Trip Advisor, could you give me some positive feedback? Sundaegirl72

It doesn't get me money, it won't change my reviews (feel free to read them, they're almost certainly the same as I've written on here) and won't really do me any good.
But they've introduced some kind of points system. Presumably to counter bad publicity about pretend reviewers by encouraging real people.
So what I'm suggesting goes against the letter of the law, but not the aim.

Y'all know me. I've been to every place I've reviewed.
And I've left the most honest review I can.
I may have skipped a few places out because a bad review lingers like a bad smell and it's not fair if somewhere was just having an off-day. If I make a complaint it will always be at the time, not from behind a keyboard.

Oh actually, that's a lie.
I complain here, or to my Mum. But I don't sound off on a website for rating places.
Phew, pulled myself back from the brink!

I also try to follow Infinite Monkey's rule of making an effort to thank staff personally.
Please and thank you are ingrained here, to taxi drivers, bar staff, people in pet shops etc. But time is what I have to give, so I do try to emulate her and go out of my way to find Teh Management and tell them how impressed I am. And yes, I'm one of the sad sacks who fills out the feedback questionnaires printed on till receipts. Because I remember when that was important to me.

[limey]

Originally Posted by Sundae

Okay, really whoring it up here...
But if anyone is already a member of Trip Advisor, could you give me some positive feedback? Sundaegirl72 ...

I am, but I don't understand this at all.

[glatt]

I think I understand. If you log in to tripadvisor, and search for her name, and click the tab for the users who show up in the search results, you can see the 25 reviews that she has done. If you click through to each review, you can scroll down to the bottom and click that the review was "helpful."

I think that's what she means, and I just did it for most of her reviews. Then I got distracted and lost my place and gave up.

[Undertoad]

On the Carlisle Pike/Capitol Beltway zig from 581 to 15, that was my area since age 16 and you missed Katkeeper's house by 500 feet.

[Sundae]

A bit weirded out.

I was sort of friends with a kind-hearted, very decent man. He never made a move on me (which was good as it was never going to go in that direction) and offered to help me out in many ways. I turned almost all of them down, because despite bemoaning my isolation and loneliness, I have learned to be solitary.

Things were creeping up though. He was more tactile than I liked. Nothing rude, but I get a bit twitchy about physical contact I don't initiate. Ask Limes, Dani or Carruthers and they'll probably refute that - because I know them and like them. Mr Limey too - I'd never hold back from a hug with him. But this person would touch my shoulders, my leg, my hair (!) No.

Anyway, it's all a sad story because he has a very possessive daughter, only ten years younger than me. I have no issues with her - she lost her Mum (and this man lost his wife) to illness. But it meant she got quite stroppy about me "being in his life" in a way she didn't with his male friends.

I decided I couldn't deal with this. I had to sit him down and be open and honest and explain that while I was happy for us to bump into eachother, to have a laugh and a smile, I couldn't make plans to meet up, accept his offers of help, let him bring round food etc. I've accepted very little from him finanacially - as I say, the odd cup of tea, a takeaway (because he gets it free from where he works), an offer to go to the hospital with me - I refused - and he has a copy of my keys so I can't lock myself out any more.

But it seems I wasn't careful enough.
He cried.
He actually cried.
I felt like I was his wife telling him I'd shagged his best friend, and he was saying, "I don't care, I still love you anyway!" I had no idea it would be drama-central.
I got three calls, two text messages and three voicemail messages (which I have not listened to and won't). He wanted me to speak to his daughter to clear the air?! Errrrr, no.

Bloody hell.
People, emotions. I'ma gonna stick with my rats.
Sod this.

[Gravdigr]

Maybe ya could take the girls out and shake 'em at him a lil bit?

[Griff]

Sorry it went down like that Sundae.

[limey]

You are not responsible for other people's emotions, Sundae. You did your best to let him down carefully and gently. Please try not to feel bad that he is upset. His emotions are his, you're not responsible for them.


Sent by thought transference

[BigV]

Correct.

Easy to say, harder to live, still correct.

[Sundae]

Had a long walk home on Friday. Got blisters on the soles of my feet.
Was hinky about whether they would burst, especially the plum coloured one on my left foot.

It did.

Right outside Sainsbury's.
SQUELCH!
Fluid all over my flip-flops and the pavement.
I'd been sensible though - as well as wearing flip-flops, which can simply be rinsed under the tap, I had tissues and wetwipes in my bag.

And a lovely lady stopped to ask if I was okay while I was cleaning myself up - she was younger than me, but concerned that I'd cut my foot on something. Probably a Mum, bless her.

Grim grim grim. Is throbbing a bit, but am happier knowing it's all done now.
I think the other one may have leaked out slowly - it's more pancake than fried egg.

[Carruthers]

Originally Posted by Sundae

.....it's more pancake than fried egg.

You have a way with words.

[Gravdigr]

She does, doesn't she?

[monster]

There is a (Hallmark) "Siblings" day. I had a fleeting thought that that seems tough on only children. Then I realized every day is Only Child Day.