Cecilie1200
Diamond Member
Is it a universal man thing, or is it just MY menfolk, that they cannot seem to accept and follow simple directions without trying to "out-think" me and find another way of doing it, almost always manage to totally screw the whole thing up and/or make it take longer?'
Case in point:
Neither my husband nor my boyfriend can navigate their way out of a wet paper bag. I, on the other hand, plan all my trips around town out very carefully before leaving the house in order to maximize efficiency and minimize time, gas, and annoyance from traffic.
The other day, around five o'clock, Sean and I were approaching downtown Tucson from the south, needing to visit some businesses on Fourth Avenue and one in downtown Tucson itself. As the oldest part of the city, the streets in downtown are very narrow, and so most of them are one-way, making it a pain to navigate there, even aside from the fact that traffic at that time of day is horrible. I had told Sean - who was driving - to go to Fourth Avenue, which is an offshoot of the downtown area. From where we were, all we needed to do was follow the street we were on to Toole Avenue, make a right, and make another immediate right under the overpass and BAM! There we would be on northbound Fourth Avenue. My plan was to make our stops there, and then we could head south BACK under the overpass, where the road curves around into Congress (which is one-way), and it would take us right to the one downtown stop we had. From there, we could head right the hell out of downtown entirely by any number of methods.
Instead, Sean makes the right onto Toole and moves over one lane to the left. I asked him what he was doing. He said, "Going to Hydra (Our one downtown stop)."
I said, "Why would you go there first?"
He says, "Because we're right here next to it. We might as well hit it first." Some grumbling and griping, "If these assholes would just let me move over one more lane." (The lanes at that point are very weird, with much curving and confusion.)
I said, "And how are you planning to get BACK here to Fourth Avenue afterward? We should just hit that first, and then shoot back down Congress."
He said, "This is faster, because it's right over there." Which was true, as the crow flies, but we weren't crows OR flying. So naturally, the congested rush-hour traffic wouldn't let him move over, we were forced to drive past the curve into Congress, and we spent 1--15 minutes circling around the one-way streets of downtown, trying to maneuver over to Hydra. When we got there, we discovered that we had missed their closing by five minutes. Now Sean's cussing and pounding on the steering wheel.
I said, "So let's head north on this next street past the overpass, and the cut over to Fourth Avenue and head south." He starts to do that, and then suddenly turns right on southbound Toole Avenue instead. I said, "What are you doing?"
He said, "We can just go back to Fourth from here, and we won't have to go out of our way."
I said, "Southbound Toole doesn't connect to Fourth Avenue any more. It converts to one-way northbound just before that."
He said, "What? I used to go that way all the time. When did they change it?"
I said, "Couple years ago when they built the new overpass."
He said, "This is why I hate driving in downtown. It's just nothing but bullshit!" And we proceeded to circle downtown for ten more minutes while he cussed and ranted at the other drivers before we finally managed to connect with Fourth Avenue.
Had we followed my plan, we'd have been out of there almost a half-hour earlier, AND actually caught Hydra before they closed, AND not been frustrated and pissed.
This is becoming epidemic. The smallest little thing, and instead of just doing it, I either get an extended discussion about "Wouldn't it be better to . . . ?" or I get it done wrong and have to redo it.
What the hell?
Case in point:
Neither my husband nor my boyfriend can navigate their way out of a wet paper bag. I, on the other hand, plan all my trips around town out very carefully before leaving the house in order to maximize efficiency and minimize time, gas, and annoyance from traffic.
The other day, around five o'clock, Sean and I were approaching downtown Tucson from the south, needing to visit some businesses on Fourth Avenue and one in downtown Tucson itself. As the oldest part of the city, the streets in downtown are very narrow, and so most of them are one-way, making it a pain to navigate there, even aside from the fact that traffic at that time of day is horrible. I had told Sean - who was driving - to go to Fourth Avenue, which is an offshoot of the downtown area. From where we were, all we needed to do was follow the street we were on to Toole Avenue, make a right, and make another immediate right under the overpass and BAM! There we would be on northbound Fourth Avenue. My plan was to make our stops there, and then we could head south BACK under the overpass, where the road curves around into Congress (which is one-way), and it would take us right to the one downtown stop we had. From there, we could head right the hell out of downtown entirely by any number of methods.
Instead, Sean makes the right onto Toole and moves over one lane to the left. I asked him what he was doing. He said, "Going to Hydra (Our one downtown stop)."
I said, "Why would you go there first?"
He says, "Because we're right here next to it. We might as well hit it first." Some grumbling and griping, "If these assholes would just let me move over one more lane." (The lanes at that point are very weird, with much curving and confusion.)
I said, "And how are you planning to get BACK here to Fourth Avenue afterward? We should just hit that first, and then shoot back down Congress."
He said, "This is faster, because it's right over there." Which was true, as the crow flies, but we weren't crows OR flying. So naturally, the congested rush-hour traffic wouldn't let him move over, we were forced to drive past the curve into Congress, and we spent 1--15 minutes circling around the one-way streets of downtown, trying to maneuver over to Hydra. When we got there, we discovered that we had missed their closing by five minutes. Now Sean's cussing and pounding on the steering wheel.
I said, "So let's head north on this next street past the overpass, and the cut over to Fourth Avenue and head south." He starts to do that, and then suddenly turns right on southbound Toole Avenue instead. I said, "What are you doing?"
He said, "We can just go back to Fourth from here, and we won't have to go out of our way."
I said, "Southbound Toole doesn't connect to Fourth Avenue any more. It converts to one-way northbound just before that."
He said, "What? I used to go that way all the time. When did they change it?"
I said, "Couple years ago when they built the new overpass."
He said, "This is why I hate driving in downtown. It's just nothing but bullshit!" And we proceeded to circle downtown for ten more minutes while he cussed and ranted at the other drivers before we finally managed to connect with Fourth Avenue.
Had we followed my plan, we'd have been out of there almost a half-hour earlier, AND actually caught Hydra before they closed, AND not been frustrated and pissed.
This is becoming epidemic. The smallest little thing, and instead of just doing it, I either get an extended discussion about "Wouldn't it be better to . . . ?" or I get it done wrong and have to redo it.
What the hell?
