Jason: Raise your hand if you’re an idiot

Our union’s local office is in Saratoga Springs, about 45 minutes north of Albany by car. Since most of my shops are in downtown Albany, and that’s also where I live, I do all my office work at home.

This morning, I took a break to run to the credit union and the grocery store. It’s pouring rain outside, so I looked up the nearest branch of my credit union to see if there was one closer than the one I usually go to. I found a very convenient branch about a mile from my house on New Scotland Road. Better yet, it was in a Price Chopper plaza, so I could pick up the few items I needed at the same time. Perfect!

I donned my gear — not rain gear, mind you, because I don’t have any — and headed off via my Google Maps directions. I turned from Lake onto New Scotland and rode north for a while. Hmmm … that’s odd … no bank and no store. As a matter of I fact, I couldn’t recall ever seeing a grocery store on this stretch of New Scotland before.

So I turned around a rode south for a while. Back past Lake and down toward the Albany Medical Center. I’d never seen a grocery store here, either, but did that stop me? Pish!

After several minutes of this, I — wait for it — turned around and rode north again. This time I rode up New Scotland all the way to South Main, which is the street off which my street runs. Of course, I saw no bank and no store.

Soaking wet, mission completely unaccomplished, I went back home and looked at the Google Map. There it was, plain as day. So I went to the credit union’s site again and looked at the address. Turns out there are two 1395 “New Scotland” addresses. One is New Scotland Avenue (about a mile from my house) and one is New Scotland Road, about 4 miles away and, of course, home of the bank and grocery store.

Need navigation help? I’m your man!