The GPS and Me
Woman in the Middle | October 25, 2011My husband recently bought us our very first GPS. It is just a little portable unit. Sunday was the first day we used it, when we hit the road to the Western Science Center (see yesterday’s post). It is set to use a woman’s voice to give us our direstions. While they are handy little things, I do wish they were more polite! That woman, I mean machine, has the extraordinary ability to interrupt me every time I start to say something to my Hubby! Another problem is that she, I mean it, is not programed to pronounced words of Spanish origin. She, I mean it, said “Jer-u-pa” Road three times between our house and Jurupa Road (the J is pronounced with the H sound). It was making me very cranky.
When we got near our destination, we needed to get off on Cajalco Road, pronounced by area residents as Ca-hal-co. The woman in the little machine kept saying Ca-jal-co. Sigh!
After leaving the Western Science Center we decided to stay on surface streets for a while, just to see something different. That got the little woman-machine all messed up, causing it to recalculate over and over again. I think I was just messing with her/it by this point. Then she/it tried to get me back by insisting we turn right on Cottonwood Avenue, even though it was a dirt road. At the last second we saw what she/it was trying to pull and we didn’t do what she said. Eventually, ignoring the GPS most of the time, we found our way back onto the freeway. Then I extracted the ultimate revenge – I turned her off!
Ha ha ha. My son’s is always interrupting me when we drive somewhere together. I HATE her.
That thing was driving me nuts! I told him I need a different voice. Maybe British, or at least male. If someone with a foreign accent mispronounced words I would be OK with it, or at least more OK with it!
Kim Check out my Jurupa History Blog at jurupahistory.blogspot.com
My GPS…. I named her Lola. She’s crazy…all… the…. time. I ignore her best I can these days. She squeals “lost. satellite. reception.” fifteen times a day. I’m beginning to think she’s trying to communicate with me, but that is the extent of her lingo. That, or she needs to retire to the big recycle center in thy sky.
Good luck with your future GPS outings! A male, Australian voice…. pick that one!
I agree, a male Australian voice would be lovely! I have been enjoying your blog, by the way!