Thursday, July 17, 2008

Is It North Or Is It South, and Where Is My Front Yard?

My husband has accused me, on numerous occasions, of being directionally challenged.Perhaps he's right. Then again, maybe he's left?? It's hard to say for sure.

It seems every time I move to a new home I find myself in a state of confusion. Every house is facing a different direction. I'm pretty sure the roadways they are located on are all facing different directions as well. For that matter, the towns they are located in may be facing in different directions. From one place to the next, I can never seem to figure out what direction I am facing.

The house we are living in now, in it's particular location is especially confusing to me. I look out my dining room window and I'm really not sure what direction I'm facing. If we leave the house, I become even more confused! As we ramble down our driveway, we turn to the right. I have no idea what direction we are headed at that point, which is understandable, considering I've no idea what direction we were headed as we began our descent. Once we've reached the bottom of the driveway, we usually turn right again. We then head down the road, which curves this way and that, past the power lines, around the "twisty windies", and finally we reach the "T", where we have a choice of turning either right or left, depending on our intended destination. Then we turn either left or right, and again, right or left to enter 101. By this time the only way I'm going to be able to tell what direction we are headed is either to have a compass in hand, or take the easy way out, and ask my husband. I usually opt for the latter and am nearly always rewarded with a shake of the head, and a chuckle, followed by, "Where does the sun come up?"

How the heck am I suppose to know that?? Never mind the sun has usually managed to become fully awake, peering down at me from high in the sky by the time I've managed to consume my third cup of coffee, which also coincides with the time my eyes have reached their maximum level of alertness. I've now experienced every possible twist and turn imaginable, and have no idea where I am currently located is, in relation to where the sun may have emerged from the view in my house! He just shakes his head, smiles and leaves me to figure things out within my own mind. Eventually I usually figure it out, at least to some point.

Back at the house I find myself wondering, when I refer to my back yard, or my front yard, just which portion of my yard actually fits the description? I remember, as a child my Grandparents explaining that their front door, was actually their back door. I seem to remember it having something to do with the location of the kitchen, which was what the front door (or was it the back door?) opened into. At my house, we enter into the living room. However, the driveway, is actually around the corner from my front door. Does that mean my front door is actually my side door?

Then again, our driveway, and parking area, are on the back side of the house in relation to the road that brings us to our driveway. Does that mean our driveway, and parking area, are actually my side yard? Or, does the fact that my kitchen, and dining area are facing the direction the road is on, make that side my back yard, and the driveway/parking area my front yard?

I have somehow come to think of the portion of the yard that faces out from my kitchen/dining area as my front yard. I think perhaps that is because it is the best view, although actually there's no such thing as a bad view from our house. I would however, like to know, once and for all, just where is my front yard??

4 comments:

Kim said...

ha! hahahah! NOW I know where I get it from!!! Nick finds my lack of directionality highly amusing. When we traveled to Australia, I couldn't navigate downtown to save my life - thankfully I never ventured out on my own, or I would have never found the hotel! I finally thought I had it figured out after two weeks and pointed in the direction that I thought the hotel was. Nick laughed and corrected me by pointing in the exact opposite direction. I also have trouble telling left from right unless I put my hands up and see which one makes the "L", which makes for really great driving entertainment, but that's a story for another day....

Boondock Ma (Kim's Mom) said...

LOL! Daniel read your responsewalked away, shaking his head, laughing, "Good Grief!" LOL
The first time I ever heard of the "L" was in an episode of "Jericho". I though that was a pretty cool way of explaining it to youngsters. So long as your right handed, all you need to do is remember, you write with your right hand.;-)

I let the kids read my entry. Now they're arguing about wich yard is the front yard. Nice to know I'm not the only one that's confused. LOL

Unknown said...

It's genetic...it's WAY genetic...We get it from our father....my daughters are the same way...Michael's car has a direction teller...what are those things called?? It's tells me which way I'm going...it's the only time I know. I so remember the which door is the front door thing at Grandma and Grandpa's...and now we have the same thing at Mom and Earl's...Which door is the front door??? I try to get Katie to do the L thing...Too challenging...I used to write my name in the air..then I'd hold that hand closed to remember..did that in marching band when we did drills. People who are not challenged in this manner find it entertaining.

Boondock Ma (Kim's Mom) said...

Carol, I'm sitting here, picturing you marching down the field with your saxophone, pausing to write your name in the air...LOL Thanks for that vision! :o)