GPS and a Hole in the Ground
I travel a fair amount for my job. Granted I travel to the same places every week, but I’m always looking for a shorter/faster way to get there. My wife says I need to watch out or I’ll end up like that lady in the Stephen King short story. I bought a GPS to help me in this goal. Now, I’ve discovered this might not have been the most effective option.
My GPS unit seems to only really have to settings: Interstates aplenty and “Have you seen Deliverance?” This thing initially wanted me to head south to a large interstate cluster in order to eventually head north. I nixed that pretty much from the beginning. Then I shifted it into the “shortest route” mode. I tell you, short routes must all involve whatever squirrely little back road that was paved on accident, at least, according to my GPS. Have they never heard of Highways? Not the giant eight lane monstrosities or some little dirt track, just good old two to four lanes of blacktop frequented by most people on a daily basis. The best part of the whole trip was hearing the exasparation start to slip into that computer generated voice as they recalculated the trip for the hundredth time as I ignored the directions, yet again.
When it comes to figuring the shortest route somewhere I think a good paper map and someone that lives nearby is probably still your best bet, but when it comes to simply finding somewhere random, the GPS is probably going to be handy. I know it will probably cut down on my calls home asking my wife to look up some map online.
I heard on the news that GPS devices were the hottest sellers on Black Friday this year. It’s good to know that I’m still a trend setter. I’m really just waiting for all of those wacky reports of people driving through buildings or into rivers because their satellite navigation system told them to to escelate in January. Remember folks, between your ears is the most complicated computer processor in the world, don’t override it for a machine that goes “ping”. But if you do, make sure you email us pictures.
Tune in next time when I ponder why it is that Hollywood seems to think Will Smith is white.
