The Buckets by Greg Cravens for May 09, 2023

If the sun is out, there’s a clue.

That’s why I have a compass on my rear view mirror.

I have an external compass — I look at the sky.

We have some pretty tall mountains to the North of us, so it’s easy, if you can see them. :D (when the sky is cloudy, which it is most of the time.)

I used to be able to “feel” where west was, because of the ocean. It got a little confusing when I moved to south Florida because there was water east and west. But living in TX ruined it all because the ocean is now south. Sometimes when my car compass says what direction I am going, I just don’t believe it.

Internal snow globe. Now that made me chuckle. Thanks, Greg!

I love living in Colorado’s front range. With a great view of the mountains, even a geographic dyslexic like me knows which way is west.

This one occurred to me during a trip to one of the thousands of towns that make up the Atlanta Metro Area. Someone in our group said she needed directions back to the hotel from the group’s meeting room. Another attendee said “Leave the parking lot, head back toward Atlanta, and it’s on the left after the second interstate exit.” All of which was probably perfectly true, but I said, “Which way is Atlanta from HERE?” and that’s when I realized. No Compass. Snow Globe. Me.

Fortunately I have a decent innate sense of direction.

This fascinates me and proves everyone can learn compass directions: an Australian Aboriginal language called Guugu Yimithirr has no words for left or right. Instead, they communicate by saying things like “give it to the person on your north-west.”

Yep, I know there is a problem when I lose track of which cardinal direction I am heading. And I have one of the last cars where the vehicle isn’t telling you all that info every minute. The Y chromosome works like a dowsing rod helping men know which direction to go.

I think I have an internal snow globe, too. I have no sense of direction.

Check Google maps.

His “due north” is more like “duh…north?”

Poor sense of direction runs in my family, so does dyslexia – please don’t ask me about left and right. So I learned a long time ago, whenever I move somewhere new, I orient myself so that I know which way is north from the house/apartment. That helps a lot, because then I can superimpose an imaginary map of the US over the house, so I always know north (Canada), east (Atlantic), south (Miami), and west (California). This actually works, for me at least. I almost never get lost walking around the neighborhood.

And that just sound pathetic, doesn’t it?