August 26, 2003 Montreal I got in the car and started driving at 06H30 this morning. <snip /> I told her I would get up early and fetch her around 07H30 which, notwithstanding the traffic on the way back in to town, would give me a couple hours to work before I took her to the airport. You can see where this all going, can't you? Everyone said that it only takes about 45 minutes to get to Lachute from Montreal. And it does. And it did. On the way back. After I threw the directions that she'd been given in the back seat and simply trusted the map. The lesson here is clearly : always check directions against a map. Had I done that earlier I might have noticed that there are two route 148s in Quebec (separated by many kilometers), that route 139 doesn't exist, that the turn off to route 158 isn't actually marked and that route 158 is in fact a very short country road with the second route 148 at one end and a major provincial highway that leads straight into downtown Montreal at the other. I pulled up the driveway at 09H00. But we made it back eventually. I had baked cookies for her to take up for the rest of the week and there were still some left which helped ease the aggravation on the way back. And then, on my way back from the airport, a rock came flying through the driver's side window while I was driving 110km on the 20 Eastbound, ricocheting off my head. I can't find the rock (which I can only guess came off the big truck with the tarp that I was passing) and all I have to show for the adventure is a bump on my head. Otherwise I appear to be fine. A bit dazed, maybe, but it's hard to know how dazed I already was when I was struck. I'm just glad I didn't have to figure out how to cross three lanes of traffic with a face full of blood.