Tag: GPS

Say It Isn’t So

~ JodiLea ~ Leave a comment

Just when we thought the work on our street was nearly finished, we learn that it really has only begun. Now, they are ready for the BIG machines to come in and make REALLY BIG HOLES. From September through November, it turns out.

Oh, they have begun to prep other streets around our neighborhood, and have seriously damaged the one road we were taking to get off our road and into town. Last week, we had to take a different route to town every day. Every day, I had to rely on my Apple CarPlay to navigate me – whether I was coming or going.

Some residents just stopped going anywhere, unless it was Sunday and the road crews were off work. Sure, the potholes and metal plates were still there, causing you to slalom down the mountain. However, the streets were free from roadblocks and detours. No GPS guidance necessary. Even for me.

It started July 10th, 2025, and wrapped up the week before Thanksgiving. Meaning PG&E is finished burying their power lines. We don’t know if the cable or telephone companies will follow suit. If they do, it will be next summer. For now, our neighborhood is ours again. I did not realize how possessive I am of our neighborhood.

I understand now why I was so angry about it. It was like I was being violated when our streets were torn up, and our cul-de-sac was an equipment and materials parking lot. Even getting lost every day was not as disturbing as the fact that residents were not told in advance, or informed of what would happen when. It was as if we were not there.

TTFN

Just Tell Me Where To Go

~ JodiLea

Smart CompassA compass is as helpful to me as lipstick on a pig.

I need my buddy “Tim” to tell me where I need to go. Tim is the Englishman who lives inside my GPS unit and tells me what lane to be in and when to turn left.  He calls the freeway a “motorway” in an English (UK) accent. ( I don’t know why, but I find that cool)

When I turn too early, or not at all, Tim never hollers at me. He quietly re-calculates the route and instructs me how to get there from wherever I happen to be. Thank goodness somebody knows where I am!   So terrified of getting lost, I never drove anywhere outside of my town (on purpose), until Tim came along.

There are others* within my GPS that I can call on, who are entertaining, but tend to get on my nerves after 3 hours, so I usually return to reliable (and patient) Tim. Tim is not perfect. He often tries to get me to go strange and confusing routes. I guess these routes are shortcuts according to Tim, or he likes to mess with me. Either way, I ignore them when I happen to know where I am in relation to where I am going. This does not happen often, so when it does I feel pretty damn smart!

There are many voices I can buy from the website if I get bored with Tim.

* One is a Jamaican native who yells “turn the car around!” a lot. Then there’s Darth Vader – he tells me “your lack of faith is disturbing” when I don’t do exactly as he says. (I half expect to start choking) My granddaughter likes Billy Bob Thornton’s character from “Sling Blade” the best, who says, “Well, I guess you didn’t kill anybody” when you arrive at your destination.

Who tells you where to go?

photo credit: Su℮ ❥ via photopin cc

Best Road Trip

~ JodiLea

I-5I have always loved road trips. Maybe not the entire trip there and back (when ‘there’ was far, far away). Starting out on a road trip is always exciting, which is good because the scenery is boring. Every road trip begins from the same place – home.

Anywhere you go from Livermore you usually get on Interstate 5. At least for part of the way. Your scenic view consists of black top rolling through brown, sunburned hills. Oh, there is the occasional dairy farm, that you smell long before you see a cow. And ugly oak trees called “scrub oaks”. This scenery is monotonous to me, but maybe it would be interesting to someone traveling from, let’s say, Arkansas.

My favorite road trip (lately) was in 2007. My daughter, granddaughter and I packed up my Honda and set out for Laguna Niguel to spend Mother’s Day with my mom. Our husbands were not invited (they were not upset about that at all). We probably packed enough snacks to feed us for a week if we got stranded in a snowstorm. Which does not happen when you drive through the desert in May. But then, with my sense of direction, we could have ended up in Canada.

The just-us-girls aspect of the trip was enough to make it special. This was also an historic trip because I was driving. Yes, she who gets lost in her own backyard, was driving. I felt so grown up!

The GPS unit I got for Christmas had several different voices to choose from. We decided to use a man’s voice that had a slight Jamaican accent. We wanted a cute, fun voice to come along with us. Oh, he was fun. My granddaughter named him “Sebastian”, after the character in The Little Mermaid.

We had not even turned off my street before he yelled at us. “TURN DE CAR AROUND!!” Sebastian wanted us to take the long way to the freeway. We ignored him. After sulking a few seconds, he recalculated the route and we were on our way.

Sebastian began to grate on our nerves after the first 100 miles. His tone was getting more panicked and loud as the trip progressed. “STAY IN THE RIGHT LANE!” “LEFT TURN AHEAD!” He screamed out directions sounding so damned urgent I would turn at the next turn, which was not yet the correct turn. Causing more screaming.  I must admit that we all thought “TURN DE CAR AROUND!” was funny the first 8 times we heard it.

I have to give Sebastian his due, we made it through L.A. and found my mom’s house.  However, when our visit was over, “Tim” guided us back home with his smooth and easy-going British voice.