Sometimes… Thre are places that are just bad JuJu!

One of those places for me is the Wrightwood Market in my little town.

For the 35 years I’ve lived here. Every single time I’ve tried to do business with this place it’s been a cluster fuck.

Every time I’ve gone there for gas, they’ve been out.

Every time I dropped in for smokes (when I smoked) they were out of my brand.

Every time I’ve stopped in for literally anything they’ve been out or their card readers were down or their cash register was broken.

This trend continued right to today.

I needed 2 gallons of gas. We’ve got some snow coming in, I needed to fill the gas can so that I’d be able to run the snow blower. It’s a simple thing … but an impossible task.

Pulling out of my driveway, I thought, “Drive down the hill, or buy the fuel in town.” A message popped up on my phone saying that it would be raining within the hour so I decided to try the Wrightwood Market.

There was a truck, a jeep from Texas, and me, In one lane. A van and a small car in the other gas lane. The truck was filling his tank, probably a double tank, it was taking a while. No big deal… I could wait.

Suddenly the Texas asshole slams it in reverse and starts backing up. I hit the horn, then put my car in reverse. There’s damn little maneuvering room in their parking lot and for me to back up meant I’d have to back out into traffic.

The Jeep stops.

Then some bitch from the market comes out and tells me that I need to back up so the jeep can leave. I told her my problem was that the jeep started backing up without looking and that was why I’d laid on the fucking horn.

Why was she treating me like I was the bad guy? I’ve actually had a dumbass back up onto a car I was driving. I sure as hell wasn’t going to have it happen again.

It was at this moment that I snapped. 

I’m fucking tired of having to accommodate everyone else. I’m tired of impatient  dumbasses.

I decided, “fuck it”, I’ve not spent money with these people for 35 years why should I break a streak. Then I started to work my way out of the lot only to have another moron pull in as though to park, then stop. 

Blocking me and everyone else in the fucking drive.

I motioned for the new dumb fucker to pick a damn direction. Once he moved out of the way, I drove down the hill to get gas, as I should have done in the first fucking place.

So It cost me 2 gallons of gas, to get two gallons of gas and 45 minutes in time when it should have taken 10 minutes. 

It occurred to me, I like my house, I like my view, I like my yard. I don’t really like the difficulties of living here.

It’s tough to get any kind of work done, septic, painting, repairs, whatever, it’s always a pain in the ass. Add the issues with getting mail, the fact that depending on which map is used, this part of the town exists in no less than three other towns, each 15 miles or more distant. That the street I live on is, in an indeterminant state. The county says it’s private when they don’t want to maintain or repair the damage they’ve done, but happily exert their easement rights and drive heavy equipment over it all the damn time.

And well, it’s tipping the balance and making the thought of leaving the house, the memories and the town not such a bad idea.

Better to leave while I have good memories of this place and the time I spent here than have those memories destroyed.

The area is changing, the neighborhood is changing, the town is changing, and honestly not for the good. Hesperia, a local town has the worst driving in all of California.

Moving here was a respite from what was happening to California. It’s taken 30 years for my little town to catch up with the rest of California, but here we are.

When I moved here, part of it was about my other half being here and happy. Coming here also was like me returning to the Midwest. But I was still able to commute to my job in LA or Orange County.

Commuting isn’t possible anymore due to traffic volume and poor planning.

The problems of California are here. I feel like I did just before I met Jerry. I was heading out, my plan was to go back to a place where the rules made sense. 

Perhaps it’s just time to go.