Tuesday, January 5, 2010

GPS- The Story


My GPS is a wonder.

OK, it’s not perfect, and it sometimes takes me in weird ways, but I love to use it.

Basically I can’t really see it from where I sit, without some very special glasses, but I can hear it so I know where I’m going. It has helped me through all sorts of problems, both locally and all over North America. I will admit that you are better off using it if you really know where you’re going, just in case it gets a bit weird, but in any case, it works.

In my drive to Washington, D.C. last summer, it took me (the fastest way was what I chose) through Pittsburgh which was, in fact, the fastest way, not the most direct. The most direct takes me west into Pennsylvania and South through PA to the PA turnpike and east to Breezewood, south through Maryland to D.C. I had a MapQuest with me so I could try and make sense of which way I liked. I chose my own way returning and it was much shorter but took an hour and a half more.

Yesterday, I took my daughter to Union Station in Toronto so she could get a train back to Montreal. My GPS had been in the car for the last few weeks, nestled in a back compartment and freezing. Like most electronics, it doesn’t like freezing and I figured it would need to be warmed up to use it. Unfortunately, that didn’t work, and it was dead!

After much shuffling of papers last night I found the bill of sale and the warranty sale slip. It had only a 90 day warranty, but a guy had convinced me to take a two year replacement warranty for money. I felt duped but I ended up taking it and I was happy until I realized I had a slip proving I bought one, but didn’t have the warranty itself, which I think is from a secondary party and I would probably need it to make this thing work.

As well, I need the GPS tomorrow, so it would do me no good unless I could get a new one quickly, not a possibility. So, I decided to see what I could find out there and looked at all the net possibilities.

I had to look at places I could go to on a Sunday and buy one and it would still be the last day of Boxing Week in most stores.

The bargains were not overflowing.

I want a GPS with a voice that announces the street names. Size was not important, and a refurbished one would be great. I was willing to pay around $100. They were willing to sell me one for around $200-300. This would not do.

I knew that I would return my Magellan (refurbished with a voice for $99) and maybe get a new one if I could work out the details of my warranty. I figured I could give it to my wife to use. It would be nice to have one with new maps as there are a few roads that are currently not recognized and the GPS thinks I’m lost in the woods.

I did my research, found a Magellan on line that may be in the store, refurbished, in a 4 ½” size (bigger than mine).

I took a shower, got dressed, got in the car, picked up the frozen GPS and before I left, plugged it in one more time to see if I could use the reset button (I hadn’t noticed before) to start it.

It started up as soon as I plugged it in!

Who knows? Maybe the planets aligned. Maybe the sun was out. It just worked!

I brought it into the house and put away my coat and gloves. My shopping day had ended!

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