I broke GoogleMaps

 I've seen navigation navigate me straight into a dead-end street while telling me to turn right at the end,  I've seen it send me the wrong way into a one way, or telling me I really needed to take that walkingpath with the boulder in the middle, to prevent people from doing just that, but I have absolutely N E V E R..... E V E R   see it so tonguetied, it kept repeating the same sentence for a full 15 Kilometers!!!!

 I was hilarious and admittedly a little disconcerting, but mostly hilarious :-)

I went down to Maastricht to visit a mansion with gardens and a lot of walking paths, just to see if it would be worth making it a regular stopover, after filling up the  car, just on the other side of the border. (40 cents a liter less, lets me do a little more traveling, so well worth the early Sundaymorning getting out of the house....  an having something to do at the end of it, just seemed like a nice way to spend a little time outdoors, now that the weather isn't quite as cold as it has been the last couple of weeks.... Not spring yet, mind you, but nice.   It was a nice place to be, has a bistro for breakfast and lots and lots of space to take that brainclearing walk. Also, there's a ton of puppies to look at while enjoying the walk..... I think I was the only person there that didn't have one.  But I digress....

After sitting in the middle of nowhere, enjoying the sun and quiet while reading for about 2 hours, and realising that my asscheeks were so cold, I didn't feel them anymore, I decided to go home, have some lunch and finish my book.  I cannot activate navigation after I start driving, because it doesn't always react to the touch, and you REALLY have to look at the screen to hit the spots just right, so I either drive blindly in the direction I think I need to go, or I pick a point I think I need to pass to get where I need to go, if I'm almost certain where I need to be and ignore her once I'm in familiar territory..... and  not knowing for sure where to go, I plugged in the next town, knowing that I would pass the entrance to the road I needed to get home on, so..... I drove the way I thought I needed to go and took the first exit on the roundabout instead of the 3rd one as indicated, becaue I knew where I was and how to get home from there.... That's when the fun started. Instead of telling me to turn left, so I could get back to the route she wanted me on like normall, she kept telling me "go west..... go east.... on the roundabout take ...... go east" than she got quiet for a bit, and started up again.... "turn.... turn ..... turn...keep right... go east..... turn left.... slight right, follow......follow..... follow..... go east.... follow...... follow......" never giving a streetname, at all.   At this time, I was on the highway, with no turns I cared to take, as they would have taken me down into a meadow or across the divider....  and I kept picturing a doll with its head spinning while springs and things were shooting out of it....  

People looking into the car would have thought I completely lost my mind. It was just me in the car, but I was laughing like I was in the middle of George Carlin concert.... Getting into town, she really got lost... On the Valkenburgerweg, she told me to follow the ramp towards Heerlen (there isn't one on this side of town) When I turned on Tenelenweg, she told me to turn right on Valkenburgerweg, and take the 3rd exit on the the roundabout, than go west on hoogstraat (no such street) and follow the tenelenweg,.... follow...... turn..... follow......  When I stopped in front of the house she clammed up until I got into the house and tried again to make me "follow". That's when I mercifully, although regretfully because of the entertainment value, switched off GoogleMaps.   

I'm kinda dreading the next time I need it, because if she holds a grudge for freaking her out.... I'll end up in a canal somewhere.......

A New Year.....

 You'd think I would have a plan.....

but all I have is a humongous to do list, that's spanning the last 4 years of shit that needs taken care of and absolutely no fuckin' clue how to go about taking things off it.....   

I collected all the "to do's" and combined them on one list.... You had the ovbious ones that kept resurfacing on practically every one of them, organize the house, clear the crap, plan the yard, decide where we wanna live in the States. And than there were the surprising ones, that surfaced on maybe 2..... Set time aside for writing, orgainze  family tree research and write our story, put together photobook, check out "insert town or museum to go to". And that's when I realised that we've been doing things for ourselves when we could fit it in, so mostly...... Never. 

That's when I made a decision, and started, another list.  I know..... anOTHER one, but this one is not more of the same!  This one with stuff NOT related to organizing the house, getting rid of stuff or trailing paperwork, but, perish the thought, FUNstuff. Stuff to do, and not being another chore, something "just because"  Some, I won't be able to do until the bulk of the shitlist is done, like sitting down and organizing the familytree research, (you'd have to be able to find it all, first) or making the photobooks, (no patience with the house a mess and no deskspace) but I can put aside time for writing, I can do research and write the Stories behind the Stars, I can take a day and go up north to spend on the water, maybe stay the night somewhere in the middle of nowhere and go for an early morning walk on the heath...... I wanna "go somewhere" once a month. Plan it out good, pack a bag, just in case I wanna stay or I'm too tired to drive back, pack a picnicbasket and just go. I'm going to split the weekdays into 2 hour blocks. (go thru crap, clean house, do yardwork/car, indidental crap like scrubbing doors and windows and such, keep track of the finances/other paperwork, grocery-/week-/mealplan, walk (3 times a week),  writing/research.... Start my day no later than 08.00 and hit "quittin' time" after dinner, around 19.00.

Picking a day to do one thing hasn't worked longer than a week, ever, so maybe this will get me to a point that the list gets shorter.... If I go away during the week, I do the work on Saturday and I'm keeping Sunday for funstuf. Most events are on Sunday, so that'll give me a "planned" unplanned outing. and Saturday morning 8AM will be groceryshopping, regardless of things that need doing.

There's one exception, though. When I'm packing up the (little) Christmas decorations I have actually sitting out, I will go thru every room, and collect anything that has to do with seasonal decorating, organize them by event, and put them in tubs, and shove them in the attic. That should take care of a good part of the loose breakable stuff, floating around.

Once every 2 weeks I'll make a dump-run including the recycleable stuff from around the house I've come accross, and maybe start putting stuff on Marktplaats... Although I'm not sure I want the hassle, some stuff is just wrong to put in the dump..... OH, and this summer, I'm going to sand down and maybe refinish the dining table and start using that again. Meaning, that part of the livingroom has to be clear before the weather gets nice :-)  Have to decide if I want to oil it or shellac it, but that decision can keep until I'm done sanding

So 

I'll start on that February 1st, because up to this part of January I've been down with the flue..... Boy, I thought I had bad dreams before... those fever dreams are  W I C K E D!!! 

So.... How've you been? 😆

 

That's it for me, for now. Hope you had a good beginning of 2026, are planning lots of fun stuff with people you care about and please, don't forget to hug them!! 

Love and hugs,

Pauli