• Home
  • About Feline Health
  • About the Lintee Bean
  • About the Chi Town Fur Gang
  • About those Loved and Lost

Life of the Lintee Bean

Tales of a flexitarian (semi-vegetarian)-eating animal-loving small-town girl turned big city big-mouth

Feeds:
Posts
Comments
« Sports fan – NOT
Bargain shopping »

Maps on me

May 19, 2009 by Lynette

I’ve lived in the Chicago area for almost 20 years now, believe it or not. I’ve lived in the city for over 15 years. I have to confess, I still don’t know my way around that well. Heck, I can’t even remember the names for the different highways. I don’t know why we can’t just refer to them by their numbers – like Highway 281. It doesn’t need a name, everyone knows the number. The number is what is posted on signs. Names are overrated.

I know my way around the Chicago neighborhoods I’ve lived in, all three of them – and the area where I work. That’s pretty much the extent of it. Now that I’m distributing cat food to a few regular customers, I’m learning a little more of the city, but there’s a LOT of city and I’ve certainly not covered all of it, not even MOST of it.

A couple of weeks ago, I took the plunge and purchased a navigation system. Yes, I’m now the owner of my very own GPS (global positioning system). That’s me, just five to ten years behind the latest in technological advancement. No need to rush into these things, I think.

So, I’ve been using my new GPS over the past week. At first, I used it to navigate trips I already knew how to make, just to get accustomed to it. The first time it blurted out directions, I have to say I nearly jumped out of my skin. Once I got used to the voice, it became like driving with an annoying passenger. “Turn left!” “Turn right!” I started talking back to her. “Which street? Turn now or the next corner? Soft right or hard right?” We’d get into disagreements where I thought we should go one way and she thought I should go another, and there was a lot of shouting back and forth.  Sometimes I’d drive along for a while and wonder if the GPS had fallen asleep.

After a few trips last weekend I thought I was up to trying a trip to a totally new destination Thursday with nothing but the GPS to guide me. Off we went. We got on to the tollway without a problem and headed off. GPS guided me to the correct exit. We’re getting close when suddenly GPS announces “satellite lost”. What? We’re LOST? Now what? I drive a few blocks then pull over into a parking lot. I didn’t have a backup plan. I hadn’t brought a map of the suburbs. I hadn’t printed off directions from any website, which is what I did before GPS. I had nothing but my GPS and she’d failed me.

So, now I’m driving around in a mall parking lot, wondering if I should turn around and head home. Suddenly, GPS decides we’re not lost, she knows the way! Now she’s shouting directions at me, but I CAN’T turn left or turn right – I’m in a parking lot! Once I exited the lot and we were on our way again, I’m glad to report we did arrive successfully at our destination.

submitted for publication in The Greeley Citizen

Share this:

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Print
  • More
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn

Like this:

Like Loading...

Related

Posted in Life of the Lintee Bean | Tagged driving, GPS, navigation | 1 Comment

One Response

  1. on May 21, 2009 at 8:09 am yarnorgy

    I love my GPS! I also wish everyone would just call the highways by their number name as well! I’m a Chicago lifer and have never gotten the ‘hang’ of all those names!



Comments are closed.

  • Categories

    • Canine nutrition and health
    • Canine training
    • Chi-Town Fur Gang
    • Feline nutrition and health
    • Human nutrition and health
    • Knot misbehaving
    • Life of the Lintee Bean
    • Noms
    • Uncategorized
  • Pages

    • About Feline Health
    • About the Lintee Bean
    • About the Chi Town Fur Gang
    • About those Loved and Lost
  • Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

    Join 492 other subscribers
  • Blogroll

    • WordPress.com
    • WordPress.org
  • Feline Health and Nutrition

    • Cat Nutrition
    • Cat Nutrition Blog
    • Diabetic Cat Care
    • Feeding Your Cat
    • Feline Diabetes
    • Feline Nutrition Education Society (FNES)
    • Feline Outreach
    • Parenting Fur Kids
    • Your Diabetic Cat
  • Lintee Bean Websites

    • Crazy cat lady blogging
    • Mousabilities
  • Archives

  • Recent Posts

    • Miss Minnie Mooch
    • Gnome-loving neighbors
    • The “I” in bigotry
    • Big Changes, They are Coming
    • All washed up
  • Top Posts

    • Miss Minnie Mooch
    • Gnome-loving neighbors
    • The "I" in bigotry
    • Big Changes, They are Coming
    • All washed up
  • Blog Stats

    • 176,339 pawprints (hits)
  • Meta

    • Register
    • Log in
    • Entries feed
    • Comments feed
    • WordPress.com
  • AAFCO Afer amino acids arthritis asthma cancer canned food cat cat food cat nutrition cats Chicago CRF crochet diabetes diarrhea diet Dixie dog dry food DSL duel exercise FaceBook FDA feeding cats feline nutrition fiber fitness Fitocracy FIV food food safety grief gym hockey homemade cat food hyperthyroidism IBD Internet Jellybean jewelry Kitty.com knit Latifah loss Louie making cat food movies MySpace NutriSystem nutrition obesity Omaha pancreatitis personal trainer pet food pilling productive push-ups Ralph raw food Rumpelmintz scarf spay and neuter stomatitis Studley Tigger trainer training travel vegetarian weight weight loss yarn
  • May 2009
    S M T W T F S
     12
    3456789
    10111213141516
    17181920212223
    24252627282930
    31  
    « Apr   Jun »
  • Twitter Updates

    Error: Twitter did not respond. Please wait a few minutes and refresh this page.

Blog at WordPress.com.

WPThemes.


  • Follow Following
    • Life of the Lintee Bean
    • Join 49 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Life of the Lintee Bean
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Copy shortlink
    • Report this content
    • View post in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
%d bloggers like this: