IT IS WHAT IT IS

A near accident startled me this weekend. I narrowly avoided being hit by a speeding car at a fairly new four-lane intersection at the entrance to my street. Several years ago the approach to my house was a simple fork in the road.  All of the roads were quiet, wooded sleepy lanes nestled with summer cabins and cottages.

 In the past bearing right was all you needed to do. When giving driving directions I simply said, "Bear right at the fork in the road and continue up the hill. Simple."

Today there is a four-way intersection. The road to the left continues to be identified as Sunset Beach Road and what used to be a sleepy lane straight ahead is still called Bowers Lane. It’s much wider than it used to be and leads directly to a new highway. My road, the path to the right, is now called Beaumont Drive.  My new, old street. Some locals pronounce the fairly new name Boo-mont. I identify it as Bow-mont. Momentarily there is no way out of Beaumont. The road was just washed away by a flash flood.

I can’t find the street sign to this neglected state road. I think West Virginia misplaced the street during the re-naming of rural roads for 911 emergencies, a change in mapping that makes it easier for emergency response teams to find people in need.

Perhaps the state misplaced the street sign when the highway department built flood control drainage and changed the intersection at Beaumont and Sunset to accommodate the runoff all the new asphalt and concrete for recently completed highway 43.

I am certain no one could find me today because there is no street sign identifying the road on which I reside.  I suppose if someone had GPS tracking device they may find my street. When I Google my address on Google Earth a neighbors house at least 100 yards away is located with the Google zoom feature. I am actually fine with this Google faux pas. I think in most cases I would rather not be found by someone entering my address into a computer. I feel comfort knowing my home coordinates are not correct in the cybersphere. I guess I might be screwed if the bank or government started using Google mapping to prove property ownership. Of course, neighbors know exactly where I live as well as the taxman. The coordinate error led to the wrong location being pictured in my recent appraisal included in my mortgage documents. I didn't mention it. Should I have mentioned it? 

Can you truly be invisible? Can you live off the grid? You may be able to avoid being found if only for a while.  Eventually someone may appear out of nowhere. And there smack dead center into your nowhere another junction of dysfunction to reckon. 

It is what it is, so to speak.