For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for August 03, 2010

(((( hugs )))) Michael…in a few days, the vacation @ the shack will be a funny memory. Just last week, our family planned a day-trip to a lighthouse in WA..Hubby ‘Googled’ directions ( a short-cut from the map I had printed up, of course)

Needless to say…we drove 3 hours to a CONVENIENCE STORE called ‘Lighthouse’…it was funny…and this will be ,too =) We did eventually see the lighthouse as planned, though =)

@L+T+B etc: I’d bet the real lighthouse didn’t have Slurpees

Just today I Googled directions to a veterinarians office about 45 miles from here. It got us there, but you wouldn’t believe the back-woods dirt roads it took us down. There was a much easier way to get there.

michael, this too shall pass…

Real men don’t need maps Maybe I wanted to go to Portland and not Portsmouth It was a piece of cake getting INTO Boston Any fool can drive in DC or NYC. Heck the city’s square Hey turn here, I think I know a shortcut. Don’t worry. Do I look like I’m lost? Ah, go in and buy something, ask the kid. I’, sure I’m right

The kid’s learning early that stuff runs downhill

I don’t trust online maps much either. My husband almost missed our daughter’s dance recital because he followed the directions from GoogleMaps. It sent him to the rival high school, instead of the one the recital was at. I’m sure some high school kid thought that would be hilarious when it just caused him stress. And yes, he put in the actual street address, not the high school name.

(That is pretty sad about Michael and I’m sure many will chastise John and Elly, so I won’t bother with the obvious)

Yes. It’s not right, but so long as us parents are human, it happens to some extent. They benefit from our happiness and suffer when we’re sad or angry. We can only do our best to keep it to a minimum.

We aren’t on the GPS yet (the street isn’t even). Every time someone comes out to deliver something, we get a phone call. “Did we get your street wrong?” “No, it’s right. Our house is new. We’re not on the GPS. Would you like directions?” “Uh… I guess”

Lewreader - I never get lost. May not always know where I am..but that’s another story.

@Nab,

I do use paper maps, but I didn’t have one for this particular city. Give me a proper map and an address and I can find anything. I drove a taxi for eight years, and occasionally delivered lost luggage for Delta.

Thomas Guides Rule!!!!

Used to be if you asked Yahoo Maps for directions from LA to Paris, France it would give you detailed directions from LA to the docks in New York, then tell you to swim 3000 miles to the coast of France. They took that down a couple of years back, but it used to be a real giggle telling all your friends to do it without telling them why.

some of these incidents will be material for your writing later in life michael cherish these moments

We use a computer software program that is installed on our hard drives. (My laptop, my hubby’s tablet). It gives the advantage of being able to pre-plan the trip at home, in leisure, with the advantage of having a GPS tell you where you are on the map when traveling. Just like paper maps, it has a legend to distinguish between highways, dirt roads, etc. It will calculate a route for you, but I’ve found it wise to review it before starting out, and put in “vias” where needed/wanted. It is nice to be able to zoom in & out, and to have the GPS locate you on the map. My husband & I only had one big fight (concerning the route) since we started using it. I can’t blame the GPS, my husband wanted to take the “road less traveled” and he succeeded. Unfortunately, I’d prefer smoother roads.

Several years back, there was a story about a couple buying a high-end luxury car with built-in GPS and picked it up at the factory as part of a vacation trip. They programmed it for the hotel and then wondered why the suddenly ended up in the water. GPS led them to the Ferry but the Ferry weren’t there. Oops!

(@howtheduck) Turning a painful situation into a humorous one is a sign of (or a part of) healing. And LJ’s medium is one way of sharing that hurt with others so that they might see the abuse for what it is.

I don’t know how abusive her mother was, but there is a human tendency in all of us to take out our frustrations on those around us, usually the most vulnerable. Perhaps today’s strip and the linked one can help us be aware of our own weaknesses and work to overcome them.

And, there are a lot of similarities here to Bill Watterson’s father as revealed in Calvin (and Hobbes)’s father.

Poor Michael! I’d give you a hug if only I could!!!!! :-(

I would say to Micheal, be thankful that you, can have vacations, though some are greater then others. I say that becouse, the only vacation I rember, was before I was a teen, becouse we were to pour. But I’m still thankful that my youth wasn’t that bad.

^ eloquent…