LOST ( in Quincy ) ...

Wow.  Have I got egg (or something) all over my face tonight?!
I've had a great reputation as a guy who seldom gets lost when driving, AND as a guy who (even when I DO get lost) can figure out the proper direction to head in and find my way to where I need to be going very quickly.  Well, now that's "all shot"!

To try to make a long story short, I was asked to give a euology at a funeral in Quincy today and to take charge of the "committal" service at the cemetery.

The 90-something mother of Kathy V. (a dear friend of ours) had passed away.  Today was the funeral and burial. My wife Mary Ann had a couple of commitments which made it impossible for her to join me today....too bad as she knows Quincy very well.  I am pretty good around Milton and Randolph, but pretty "rusty" with Quincy.  I usually just let Mary Ann direct me in Quincy.  Kathy's sister had a minister who didn't even know her mother leading the funeral service.  That did not sit well with Kathy (I don't blame her.)  She wanted me to do a euology at the funeral service and then to do the commital at the cemetery.  (It was burial of ashes as the mother's body was cremated.)  The schedule was REALLY weird with the funeral at the funeral home, THEN a meal at a Quincy restaurant, THEN the graveside committal. 

I took the slower roads to Canton and then was going to take the highway to Quincy...but I was pretty early, and decided I could take Canton Ave. through Milton and meander over into Quincy.  I found myself at Hancock St. Quincy between 10:10 and 10:15.  The funeral was at 10:30.  Usually in a situation like that it's just a matter of scoping out the numbers,  and if you're going the wrong way, turning around.  Well, I didn't know I started heading onto Hancock St going in the wrong direction.  The next thing I knew, I was in Dorchester and had no idea how to find my way back.  The more I drove the more lost I got.  I phoned my wife on my cell phone and asked her to call the funeral home and tell them I was lost and I might not make it in time to give the euology.  Through a series of circumstances, my wife got her sister Lynn (who knows that geographic area pretty well) to call me on the cell phone.  When I connected with Lynn (after about 25 minutes of being lost and driving around) I was at Adams St at the Dorchester/Milton line. Lynn was able to direct me back the other way to Gallivan Blvd and ultimately onto Hancock St Quincy and then it was a matter of just driving to the funeral home.  The funeral home needed about 3 times more parking spaces in their lot, so I had to drive down a side street and finally park.  By the time I got to the funeral home, another 20 minutes had elapsed since I'd gotten started with Lynn and the funeral was OVER! 

As Don Imus would say, "It was AWFUL".

Kathy V. rode with me to the restaurant...otherwise I probably would have ended up in Holbrook or something!  Then she rode with me to Mt. Wollaston Cem.  I'd been there before with Mary Ann but I think I would have had trouble finding it on my own.  It was cold and raining.  The "funeral party" was actually too early....the undertaker had not arrived with the ashes yet.  We had to wait awhile...he came, and in rain and cold I did a faster committal than I normally would have, but I think it seemed OK.  My problems were not over because I then had a tough time finding my way OUT of Quincy!  When I crossed into Milton, it never looked so good!

I know southside Framingham can be confusing and is not always well marked, but after Quincy I don't think Framingham's that bad!  In the past year, I've been lost in Woonsocket, RI and Medford, MA among aother places, but I usually can find my way pretty quickly.  Usually it's just a matter of running into a helpful sign, a familiar traffic route, or a landmark.  In Dorchester, there just weren't any!

You may think I'm kidding but I actually sent an e-mail to the Mayor of Quincy recommending the City of Quincy have better directional signs.  I suppose I could also have contacted Mayor Menino about how confusing Dorchester is, but, well...why bother?!