This week I had to park in a crowded, unfamiliar parking lot. This lot is surrounded by a cement wall and trees on three sides and the street on the fourth. It is separated from the building it's for by a tree-ringed plaza, and the building itself is downhill from the lot. I'm telling you all this so you will understand why, though I could see the building, I couldn't figure out how to actually exit the lot and reach the building, other than walking out to the street and following the sidewalk around the block, thus losing the advantage I'd gained by having parked next to the building in the first place.

It was over ninety degrees outside and I didn't feel like baking on the hot, unsheltered sidewalk. Then it occurred to me that the handicapped spaces are always closest to the building entrance. I looked around for the familiar blue signs and walked toward them. Sure enough, they were right next to the parking lot exit which led to the tree-shaded plaza. I made it to the lecture on time, feeling darn proud of myself. As someone who is "spatially challenged," I'm sure I'll use that trick again.

Every so often, I've got a wonderful bit of advice or a sage opinion but no one to share it with. So I've created this weblog, Povinovinonon, to give unsolicited advice to the world at large. My husband, George, who has even more interesting opinions and good advice than I do, will also occasionally be posting in here.

Yes, the title of this blog is a made-up word. I found it in a diary entry that I wrote when I was a freshman in high school, where I defined povinovinonon as "a combination of point of view, opinion, and something else that I can't remember right now." I think that's as good a definition as any for what I intend for this blog to be.