Fern and I have been using a GPS navigation system to find our way around. It has been a helpful guide to get us from point A to point B. In fact, we find that we're now completely dependent on it.
Or rather, on her. We call her Lori because she guides us on highways, over bridges, and through numerous turns with her stern, yet feminine, voice. Lori stopped working once (she probably needed a day off), and we were lucky we got anywhere at all that day.
Unfortunately, Lori is not infallible. She sometimes warns us of traffic problems that are unlikely to still be a problem for another 350 miles away, yet is often not aware of the three-hour delay due to roadwork on the way to Las Vegas (to give one noteworthy example.) The limits of her GPS accuracy become clear on parallel roads that are near to each other. But most often, she is tripped up by new roads and intersections that are not yet inscribed into her map memory. Nowhere was this more apparent than Houston.
Apparently, Houston is a growing city, and growing cities need better freeways. One of the major roads into Houston (and the one where most of the hotels, restaurants and other attractions we were visiting happened to be on) is undergoing a major overhaul. Some exits no longer exist and new ones have taken their place. Entirely new overpasses have been built over what were relatively quaint intersections. And the old intersection often still exists beneath and/or next to the new roads.
This was too much for poor Lori to handle. We often found ourselves getting onto highways where we should be getting off, or vice versa. Once Lori triumphantly proclaimed "You have reached your destination", oblivious to the fact that we where doing 60mph on a flyover 100 feet above the ground. Compounding all of this, Houston had more traffic than most of the cities we've been to so far. What should have been a 15-minute trip often took triple that time after inching along on roads that we should never have been on in the first place.
Despite her failure in Houston, we still love our Lori. We have no choice; we'd be lost without her.
Heya,
I finally come back west and so you two head east. There was a famous band from Champaign, IL that erupted on the R&R scene when I was in college there; "Head East", "with Never Been Any Reason" from the album "Flat As a Pancake" as their biggest hit.
When you get back you'll have to come to my new "groovy" neighborhood in the Willow Glen neighborhood of San Jose.
The Cisco Systems gig is going well, the text mining/taxaonomy/ontology work is challenging and quite interesting.
I'm so glad to see Fern "back on her feet" and the two of you so happy.
seeya in the Bay area soon,
tV
995 Willow Street
San Jose, CA 95125
h 408.292.9838
c 919.491.8683
Posted by: tim vogel | Sunday, June 11, 2006 at 02:19 PM