It’s a bea-u-ti-ful day…

Sky falls, you feel like

It’s a beau-ti-ful day…

Don’t let it get away…

 

Is it, Bono?

That was my thought as U2’s beautiful lyrics serenaded another of our summer outing drives. Like many, I’m sure, I sing “Beautiful Day”  when a bea-u-ti-ful day says,  “hello!” to my senses. I sing it a lot in summer, so my son sings along to the chorus on drives. I try not to comment on his beautiful voice because as soon as I do, he stops. If there are other twelve-year-olds or teens in the car, forget about it- they all pretend to think my singing and music are dorky. Whatever! They don’t know what hip looked like in my hey day.

 

As many of you know, I often make connections between songs, nature, movies, and, of course, books to current life situations.

 

So… A few days ago, I did it, again.

“Yes, it is a beautiful day… Look at that gorgeous sunshine… Look at the beauty around us…” More cheese and corn was spewed, but I’ll spare you. Anyway, before “Beautiful Day” concluded on the drive to our des-ti-nation…, I heard the dreaded, shurn-shurn. The shurn-shurn is WAZE recalculating location and directions.

 

I’ve had  a I-love-you-WAZE to you’re-not-my-favorite-right-now relationship with the navigation app this summer. Why? Some of the routes it gives are absurd, but from experience, I learned to listen to its wisdom. Not always. But, a lot more than previous months.

 

“Oh, no. Why is it recalculating?!…”

It was asking me to make a right turn on the next street. What?! NO way… That’s not right.  I must have accidentally clicked a different location. Yes, I’ve done that before.

 

Not wanting to distract myself, I ask my son, “Honey, can you read the directions?” Realizing a right turn was way off course, I transformed the negative into a… Yep. Positive. “Well, you see, there’s a reason why we were delayed.” From past experience, and, a lot this summer, I know koo-koo re-directions mean an accident occurred ahead.

 

My husband and son often sigh and roll their eyes at my expense when departing for short or long trips. Why? They’re know-it-alls.  And, I’ll admit, I have annoying qualities. Not many, though.  I’m pretty much all positive, but since nobody can be perfect, I have a sprinkle of flaws here and there. Ha! You know I’m only joking, lovely friends. Like most people, I have many flaws.

Lucy Strikes, Again!

You know the episode of I Love Lucy where Lucy continually says, “I’ll be ready in a minute dear!” But, she’s ready many minutes later. Well, sometimes, that scene runs through my mind as I reply, “I’m almost ready. I promise. I just have to… (do this or that)”. Like Lucy, I have every intention of being ready on time. Some days, especially, warm weather,  I surprise my boys and I’m ready before them. I let nature dry my hair.

 

Typically, delays are not related to my love of feeling stylish, it’s forgetting my top three essentials: sunscreen, a sweater/jacket, or a hat if it’s a summer outing. Race day delays? Well, that’s a whole different story. I’m a mess on many race mornings!

 

The morning of “Beautiful Day”, our trip to the Ventura Botanical Gardens was delayed because I had forgotten my sunhat was in my husband’s car. I delayed us by ten minutes. No, more like 15-17. But, I was not 100% responsible. Our lovely pup made an effort to join us for the ride. While her attempt was applaudable, we had to walk her back inside. She does this to me often. I can’t help it, I’m so lovable, she wants to be with me at all times. Ha!

 

Things Happen For A Reason.

Yes. I know! Major cliche. Sometimes, I like cliches. So there. Anyway, since January of 2017, I’ve been observing and collecting data  related to time delays and accidents which made me conclude: “things happen for a reason”. No, I’m not utilizing the “official” scientific method, but I’ve encountered and witnessed enough accidents for a non-professional mini-mental-research observation, data analysis and conclusion.

 

Don’t judge a koo-koo mind for creating mini-mental-studies. It’s a fun hobby.

 

My theory based on my oh-so-scientific-experiment is…

Maybe, by not stressing about delays x, y, and/or z, my family and I avoided involvement in accidents. Don’t laugh. Doesn’t it make sense? Yes? No?

Since our move, last summer, we drive  all over the place because our son continued with his OG travel baseball team and we have family and friends, not to mention all the fun happening in that part of LA (hello, Dodger Games!). Our promise to keep our son connected to his family,  friends and everything else,  forces us to drive the koo-koo 5, 101, and Oh-my-word-have-I-grown-to-dread-you-405 freeways- a lot! Hence, many traffic accidents or their aftermath  are witnessed.

 

“Mom, you make me late.”

Guilty. Never for school, though. But, I do have a tendency from time to time to get to his baseball practices on-time. To my responsible and punctual son, a characteristic he gets from his father, “on-time is late, Mom!”. My husband is one of the coaches on his travel baseball team, but, when he is unable to attend, I take our son  to practice.  I admit, a few times, I’ve delayed us. But, guess what? Many of those times,  I was glad I did because WAZE chimed in, “an accident is reported ahead”. Boom. My theory. It’s correct.

It’s a coincidence, lady! It’s not scientific proof.
I know,  but,  it gave me an opportunity to remind my son about unexpected detours in life.  We can choose to stress about plan A not happening or accept the first plan didn’t happen, but, there are many other options. When applicable, I remind him about the droplets cascading from disappointed eyes when seeing “wait list” on the single sheet of UCLA graduate admissions letterhead on a bright, crisp, spring day turned gloomy by a disheartened spirit.

Today, I’m happy the outcome wasn’t plan A, then. Receiving a thin small envelope is not fun, but it only means, the bulky one is waiting for the right moment to arrive.

On the Road, Again…

Like detours in life, we didn’t drive our planned route; however, the detour gave us a new perspective on the small town we often visited when our son and his cousins were huge train aficionados and during our old-family Christmas tree tradition (Christmas tree farm tradition I shared with you last December).

“Awwww… what a cute train track! We’ve never seen this part before… See, we totally would not have known this was here…” My son’s nod and smile agreed.

 

Finally! At our des-ti-nation… (“des-ti-nation is sung like Bono in “Beautiful Day”)

If I continue writing, this will become another epic post, so, I will let our pictures summarize our beau-ti-ful day…

 

*** Permission was given by the head photographer, my son, to share with you. He re-discovered an interest in photography this summer, so I’m only sharing a few; otherwise, you’d be scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling. He snapped away!