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Out of the forest~



Read this first: GPS unplugged~


The rest of the story . . .

I'm bad, but not bad enough that I didn't see something wildly inappropriate about the route GPS sent me on yesterday.

Bruce called the Garmin GPS help line this morning.

There was no plot against me fomented by artificial intelligence gone amuck, a possibility I'd entertained as I zigzagged around roads that went nowhere; no reality show with a helicopter hovering above, filming how long the black Toyota truck would go in circles before the driver pulled off the road and cried.

Apparently there is a preference setting in the GPS that was set to "avoid highways and avoid U-turns." Well, duh! I was trying to go 60 miles with a GPS that was determined to keep me off highways. No wonder.

To my credit I'd rebelled at one point and got on Rt. 95. I called the GPS some bad names, and yanked its dendrites from the cigarette lighter, because she insisted on instructing me to get off at each exit.

You should hear how sweet she sounds, how hypnotic, so, and this is my insecurity at work, I plugged her back in after a while-- just in case-- and I listened to her, because I can be bad at directions. So can she, although, in her defense, she was doing what she was programmed to do. We just had a communication gap. We're still friends.

The lesson? I should trust my instincts. I'm not as bad as I think. Sometimes.
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Comments

Dawn said…
Oh Ruth! I'm right there beside you. I have no sense of direction! Glad you made it there and back again and you and GPS are friends again. :)

Dawn
July 7, 2007 at 2:54 PM
Unknown said…
It sounds as if trusting your instincts is the way for you to go, but I think that is not always the case.

My ex, who was a terrific teacher, once drew a map of the Iditarod Dog Sled Race for her class of fourth graders to use in plotting the progress of teams in the race. This was in the days before the internet with its live updates and Google Earth overlays. Her map featured Alaska flipped horizontally and vertically, so that the teams were heading SE rather than NW as the course dictates. She thought I was teasing her when I pointed out the error. I had to show her two published maps before she relented. She seemed doubtful, even then.

Not everyone's instincts regarding orientation are reliable.

Clarence
July 8, 2007 at 1:12 AM
Ruth L.~ said…
Clarence,
It's a good thing you got your ex straightened out before her lesson went public. The kids are great at spotting mistakes like that, and if they are too young to notice, you can be sure the parents will catch the mistake when the work goes home.

Dawn,
We're friends, but I don't take her everywhere. Sometimes she can be a drag.
July 8, 2007 at 6:56 AM
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