Driving in LA is notoriously considered very difficult. There are freeways, impossible in themselves, that cut through towns, so streets are marked north, south, east, and west, depending on their relation to the nearest freeway. I think that's true. There has to be some logical explanation. The voter registration form has a box in the address section that is labeled "direction." I couldn't figure this out for a long time. I looked up the address of a place I was going to, and three places, online, paper, iPhone, used three different letters of the four directions. Also dyscalculia, from which I'm sure I suffer, made it impossible to separate 1171 from 1711. Small wonder that I got lost there.
So tonight, after a meeting, I sat in the car and looked up the address for the nearest Vons grocery store. I had my GPS ready, and looked up Vons in my (new) iPhone. On the iPhone, they gave me a map, but no directions, so I entered the address on the GPS, started up the engine and pulled out of my (beautifully parallel parked) parking space. The Australian gentleman said his usual opening sentence, which I haven't understood a word of yet, but he didn't tell me what to do when I got to the corner. The iPhone also was unclear to me as to which of those little pins was me, and where was Vons pin? Gathering my courage, I headed toward the intersection, three car lengths away from my parking place. I still had no idea of whether to turn right or left, and neither device was of any help. "You're on your own from here on," they were laughing at me.
I inched to the intersection and luckily no one was behind me in a hurry (that's another story about LA cars - they have really mean horns). Checked GPS and iPhone. No help. About ready to turn left and go home, I glanced up, which is actually recommended at intersections. There in front of me, directly across the street from where I was, was Vons.
These modern electronics really are amazing.
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