Doubt and Technology

I'm in Colorado with my mom, who's in the hospital being treated for lymphoma. She completed her first round of chemotherapy yesterday, with little in the way of side effects so far. She is noticably better than when I came, and I hope to see her continue to improve. She will be in the hospital for about another week, but I'm leaving this afternoon.

It is really tempting to go into "storytelling" mode with the details of my trip here, my mom's condition and prognosis, etc., but I think I'll focus more on how I am experiencing this trip and its challenges. Yesterday's poem is an example of that.

But today I will relate an amusing story about my arrival here...

When I got into town I went directly to the hospital, saw my mom, and spoke with the oncologist. My mom was pretty out of it due to sedation from a biopsy, so I didn't stay terribly long. I was very tired from a long trip, and wanted to find my hotel and get some rest.

I got in the car and realized that I had not printed out directions to the hotel, and didn't know the address or phone number. In fact, I was only marginally sure of the name. So I drove toward where I thought I recalled seeing the hotel on the map, but I did not see it before I decided I must be mistaken.

I decided to do something out of character for a male and find directions, so I stopped driving around aimlessly and found a pay phone with a directory. Of course it was two years old, so this (new) hotel was not listed. No matter, I thought, I'll go find another directory.

Have you tried to find a pay phone lately? With the advent of cell phones, they are few and far between. I did manage to find a convenience store with pay phones, but the pages "Ma" through "Mo" were missing...so I was still out of luck.

I tried the next Quicky Mart up the line - once again the very pages I needed were missing. Is there a conspiracy here? Am I on candid camera?

Being very tired and ready to sleep, I swallowed my pride and went inside to ask the girl at the counter. She said she thought she knew where this particular hotel was, and gave some vague but usable directions. I got back in the car and started following them.

After driving about a block, I thought "nuts to this" and called my wife on my cell phone. I had her Google the name of the hotel and the town I'm in, and she quickly was able to map the address and "talk me on" to finding it. I had actually remembered its location pretty well in the first place, but just didn't drive far enough in the right direction before I began to doubt myself.

What a concept - I'm lost in a small town in Colorado, and my wife in Virginia is able to give me better directions than a local teenager. Technology persevered where the direct approach did not.

Of course if I'd trusted my memory I wouldn't have needed the technology.