On Tue, 27 Mar 2012 12:38:29 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

On Monday, March 26, 2012 1:46:11 PM UTC-4, HeyBub wrote:
Wouldn't a "Heads Up" display be handy?

For the average 'tard driver on the road today, a heads-up display would be too confusing. "Drrrr, I was lookin' at the pretty numbers and didn't see the kid run out in the street half a mile up."

I've seen prototype HUDs that essentially improve the contrast of the scene
ahead, particularly highlighting things that "aren't right". They're nothing
like HUDs used by fighter pilots. They confuse even experienced fighter
pilots.

On Tue, 27 Mar 2012 16:07:26 -0400, Frank
wrote:

On 3/27/2012 10:00 AM, bob haller wrote:
On Mar 27, 10:45 am, wrote:
On Tue, 27 Mar 2012 07:55:41 -0400, "Robert Green"





wrote:
wrote in message
...

The POS lead me 70 miles the wrong way one of the first times I used it.

Mine just guided my low-clearance wheelchair van through a huge truck park
(to save about a 100' in normal road travel) with huge, truck-sized speed
bumps arrayed along along the roadway as far as the eye could see.
Fortunately, I stopped and since I generally knew where I was, backed up and
listened to it whine about deviating from the bottom-out alleyway route
until I got to the next junction point.

I would have liked the option to answer the unit's "You're speeding" with a
"STFU for X minutes." What a nag. My first unit took me to the middle of a
cornfield instead of the medical park I was looking for. Their best use
seems to be getting you home when you're lost. They "know" where home is
(and so do you) so even if the maps aren't very detailed for your area, it
will at least keep you pointed towards home. I'd sell mine, too, if it
weren't for that feature.

I've read that all the gains made in taking drunk drivers off the road in
the last 50 years has been quickly undone by the new "driving drunk" -
texting while driving. I see it so often it spooks me. In S. Korea, I
think, out of work people are paid a bounty to catch miscreants like texting
drivers on film.

Sounds like you have the same type that I had. A Tom-Tom.
Oddly enough, I set mine to my home location. Several months later I
hit the "go home" button and it said something like "no such location".
I tried several times to put my home location back and it could not be
changed. At one point I wanted to change the whole thing back to the
default factory settings and never figured out how. Even letting it
turned on till the battery was totally dead did not work.

Yea, mine took me down a long windy road in a medium sized city. I knew
where I was going, and knew that the highway I wanted to take was right
before entering that city. I did not need the GPS, but it was turned on
just to see how accurate it was (if it was). A half mile before the
city and the road I should turn on, it tells me to turn on this gravel
road. What a ****in nightmare that was. A windy curvy bumpy gravel
road that was so curvy I could not exceed 25mph. When I got home, I
google mapped that road and come to find I saved less than one mile, but
probably wasted 20 minutes at that slow speed v/s just taking the
highway. I'm sure I wasted gas too, since I had to brake every 10
seconds because of the sharp curves.

As far as texting on the highway, I cant imagine doing that. I cant
even bring up my contact list to make a call on my cell. Actually I
dont even make calls on the highway, but one day I was on a gravel
country road where there is never traffic, and just wanted to call
someone to ask if they were home. I slow down to about 20mph, and am
trying to bring up the contact list. I find myself nearly going into
the ditch. I pulled over, made my call, and went back to driving.
Talking on the phone while driving is not that difficult, but the minute
I need to start pushing buttons, it's time to pull over. I got the
basic phone with 12 buttons, not the full keyboard, so it's harder to
text, but I just cant see anyone in their right mind even trying to text
while driving.

They'd be better off staying home and getting drunk while texting

well I LOVE MY GARMIN. My job as a repair person for machines
primarily in schools has me on the road constantly.

they arent perfect, my garmin has one building in the fast lane of I
70, they are only as good as the paper maps.

I tried a TOM TOM for awhile but garmin much better. the newer units
are much more accurate.....

the best most useful device ever created.

my first garmin cost over 650 bucks, it paid for itself in a matter of
months......

I got a new Garmin with lifetime maps and traffic. Hardly used it yet
but it works great.

I've had a Magellan for four or five years. The "bitch" is always screwing up
(the map view is normally right but the voice make too many mistakes). The
maps are about as old as the state, too. A couple of months ago we got
Android phones. The maps are superb and the directions flawless, unless you
run out of the service area. :-(

On Tue, 27 Mar 2012 19:20:54 -0400, "Robert Green"
wrote:

"Frank" wrote in message
...

my first garmin cost over 650 bucks, it paid for itself in a matter of
months......

I got a new Garmin with lifetime maps and traffic. Hardly used it yet
but it works great.

I can see how the additional traffic feature could be very useful in
metropolitan areas and holiday driving. What did yours cost?

Traffic comes on my cell phone's navigation app. It takes a digital
connection, though, which isn't a problem in cities where it's needed.

On Tue, 27 Mar 2012 18:57:30 -0400, Frank
wrote:

On 3/27/2012 5:28 PM, Stormin Mormon wrote:
Sunday, I went to visit a friend, and help with some church paper work. He
has a working rotary dial phone. Now, THAT is quaint.


Bet he's still paying the telephone company a couple of bucks a month to
maintain it

Some places charge more for rotary service, too. It costs them money to keep
the dial equipment around.

On 3/27/2012 5:57 PM, Frank wrote:
On 3/27/2012 5:28 PM, Stormin Mormon wrote:
Sunday, I went to visit a friend, and help with some church paper
work. He
has a working rotary dial phone. Now, THAT is quaint.


Bet he's still paying the telephone company a couple of bucks a month to
maintain it

Back in the late 90's I fixed a garage door opener for a nice lady who
lived with her mother. The nice lady was 70 and her mother was 100 years
old. They still had their original Western Electric black rotary dial
phone that they were renting from BellSouth and I checked the date code
on the darn thing and it was 1949. ^_^

TDD

On Tue, 27 Mar 2012 20:44:02 -0500, The Daring Dufas
wrote:

On 3/27/2012 5:57 PM, Frank wrote:
On 3/27/2012 5:28 PM, Stormin Mormon wrote:
Sunday, I went to visit a friend, and help with some church paper
work. He
has a working rotary dial phone. Now, THAT is quaint.


Bet he's still paying the telephone company a couple of bucks a month to
maintain it

Back in the late 90's I fixed a garage door opener for a nice lady who
lived with her mother. The nice lady was 70 and her mother was 100 years
old. They still had their original Western Electric black rotary dial
phone that they were renting from BellSouth and I checked the date code
on the darn thing and it was 1949. ^_^

I'm surprised it even had a dial. My grandmother still had her "hello, Mabel"
model as late as the '60s.

On 3/27/2012 6:12 PM, Robert Green wrote:
"The Daring wrote in message
...
On 3/27/2012 4:14 PM, bob haller wrote:

I've played a lot of video games but none matched the thrill of trying
to
evade the huge metal handtruck that blew off a Coca Cola truck. For a
while
it's still traveling along pretty quickly from the momentum. For a
while.
Thick rubber tires can really bounce around, too. I was driving on the
Verazzano Bridge plaza when a truck full of truck tires lost the rear
gate
and squadron of tires began flying through the gaps in the traffic.

--
Bobby G.

I drove over a extension ladder recently. boy was I surprised....

saw a sprite truck open up and dump many many cubes of sprite all over
the road. geez did those bottles spray big time.


I was driving through Malfunction Junction in downtown Birmingham some
years ago when I caught a movement in the lane next to me and it was a
big towed Ingersoll Rand air compressor that was loose and the tongue
dug into the pavement so the compressor was flipping end over end at
60MPH. The next day, state highway department crews were out repairing
divots that had been ripped out of the freeway. o_O

Ouch! My Italian NYC cousin got hit head on by a towed car that had broken
free and slammed into her as they went through an underpass together on
opposites sides of the road. Another friend has a picture I should post of
some huge truck axle segment that came up through the passenger floor of his
Acura and probably would have gelded any guy sitting there.

Some of my closest encounters with the Great Beyond have concerned trailers
of one kind or another. There's the "Tale of the Singing Tow Cable" and
"Rock and Roll Until You Roll Over." The problem is that U-Haul rents
trailers to young adults. (-: I watched "Harvest" on the HistChan
yesterday and some kid operating a $500K combine ignites the dry wheat
(about an acre's worth) and then hops out of the combine (now hovering over
the dry wheat) with a little, bitty fire extinguisher looking to use it to
put out huge crop fire. The owner's screaming "Don't cut the fire!!!"
worrying that the kid will drive the fuel-laden combine into the burning
wheat. We old cusses take for granted how much stuff we've learned just by
getting old.

--
Bobby G.


Many years ago, one of my Yankee Italian aunts was driving along with
her son when a car suddenly came at them head on. My aunt started
screaming, took her hands off the steering wheel and covered her face.
My cousin grabbed the steering wheel and steered the car to safety. It
became a family legend to be told every holiday. ^_^

TDD

On 3/27/2012 9:08 PM, zzzzzzzzzz wrote:
On Tue, 27 Mar 2012 20:44:02 -0500, The Daring Dufas
wrote:

On 3/27/2012 5:57 PM, Frank wrote:
On 3/27/2012 5:28 PM, Stormin Mormon wrote:
Sunday, I went to visit a friend, and help with some church paper
work. He
has a working rotary dial phone. Now, THAT is quaint.


Bet he's still paying the telephone company a couple of bucks a month to
maintain it

Back in the late 90's I fixed a garage door opener for a nice lady who
lived with her mother. The nice lady was 70 and her mother was 100 years
old. They still had their original Western Electric black rotary dial
phone that they were renting from BellSouth and I checked the date code
on the darn thing and it was 1949. ^_^

I'm surprised it even had a dial. My grandmother still had her "hello, Mabel"
model as late as the '60s.

Rotary dial phones are an ancient mystery to the children of today. o_O

TDD

In article ,
"Robert Green" wrote:

"Frank" wrote in message
...

my first garmin cost over 650 bucks, it paid for itself in a matter of
months......

I got a new Garmin with lifetime maps and traffic. Hardly used it yet
but it works great.

I can see how the additional traffic feature could be very useful in
metropolitan areas and holiday driving. What did yours cost?

--
Bobby G.

I love the part about traffic features. Kept me out of a couple major
jams roaming on Interstates. I, too have some concerns with them in
rural areas. Although I find if I keep it on fastest instead of shortest
route, they tend to be a little more comprehensible.
I also like the part where it tells you which lane to get in about a
mile ahead of time. Especially useful driving through ATL in general and
other places where the Interstate-to-Interstate interchange runs off to
the left instead of the right.

I still find some interesting quirks. We were out on the Indiana Uplands
Wine Trail last year with a group and we were in two cars. For one
winery, the two GPSs (one Tom Tom and one Garmin) indicated two
different places about 30 miles apart for the same address. Looked
around for a bit and finally used an older version (the MarkI Gas
Station) and found it right across the street about half way between the
two. This was on the built up outskirts of Anderson and not in the rural
areas.

--
People thought cybersex was a safe alternative,
until patients started presenting with sexually
acquired carpal tunnel syndrome.-Howard Berkowitz

In article ,
" wrote:


Traffic comes on my cell phone's navigation app. It takes a digital
connection, though, which isn't a problem in cities where it's needed.

You obviously never got held up in the wilds of some state because the
two semis came together on the rural Interstate. I have had my Tom Tom
tell me about backups in the middle of nowhere, although I think that
tends to be more useful in areas with a strong 511 system statewide.

--
People thought cybersex was a safe alternative,
until patients started presenting with sexually
acquired carpal tunnel syndrome.-Howard Berkowitz

On 3/27/2012 7:20 PM, Robert Green wrote:
wrote in message
...

my first garmin cost over 650 bucks, it paid for itself in a matter of
months......

I got a new Garmin with lifetime maps and traffic. Hardly used it yet
but it works great.

I can see how the additional traffic feature could be very useful in
metropolitan areas and holiday driving. What did yours cost?

--
Bobby G.



It is a Garmin Nuvi 1450LMT and cost about $125 on sale at Best Buy on
line before Christmas. It has a 5 inch screen and you can get a 4
incher, something like 1350LMT for about $15 less. I bought one of the
latter for my son's birthday as he was calling us occasionally while in
his car for us to get on line and give him directions.

My wife has an older Nuvi without maps and traffic and using it last
year to go to a friends wedding anniversary celebration it worked great
but a bridge was out for repair and we had to turn off the gps as it
kept wanting to steer us back to the outage. Not sure how my new one
would react to this situation.

Roads don't change that often but businesses and other points of
interest do. A map upgrade currently costs about $75 so the lifetime
maps option is a good thing.

When you first get the Nuvi, you plug it into your computer and register
with Garmin and they update maps and will send you a notice when new
maps are available. Someone in the Garmin ng said this could happen 4
times a year.

On Tue, 27 Mar 2012 17:28:43 -0400, Stormin Mormon wrote:

Sunday, I went to visit a friend, and help with some church paper work.
He has a working rotary dial phone. Now, THAT is quaint.

:-) I've still got a couple that I want to hook up[1] one day when they
eventually make it out of storage - IIRC one was built in 1962 and the
other one 1947. The older one has no internal bell, but I have an
external ringer (a wooden box with a couple of bells on top) which I
should be able to make work with it.

[1] possibly with some interface box of tricks to get them talking to the
modern system...

cheers

Jules

On 3/28/2012 8:56 AM, Jules Richardson wrote:
On Tue, 27 Mar 2012 17:28:43 -0400, Stormin Mormon wrote:

Sunday, I went to visit a friend, and help with some church paper work.
He has a working rotary dial phone. Now, THAT is quaint.

:-) I've still got a couple that I want to hook up[1] one day ...

[1] possibly with some interface box of tricks to get them talking to the
modern system...

Indeed, I didn't think there was anywhere in the US that hadn't replaced
pulse w/ tone dialing.

Folks still had old rotaries when we came back and despite the rental
that could have had a new one for no additional cost any time, the units
were so worn out that had to physically return the dial to the starting
position because springs were totally kaput.

We did replace them and cancel the rental and SWBell announced shortly
after that pulse was going away (roughly 10-11 yr ago now).

I'm still not into the carry-the-stinkin'-phone-around 24/7 though and
never will be. I do carry it when travel or if really have some need,
but other than that it lives on the sideboard in the dining room until I
want it.

--

Might work fine. I remember when tone fones came out, they kept the rotary
"pulse dialing". Some modern phones have a choice T or P, for tone or pulse
dialilng.

Hook em up, try it out. I bet it works without modification.

Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
..

"Jules Richardson" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 27 Mar 2012 17:28:43 -0400, Stormin Mormon wrote:

Sunday, I went to visit a friend, and help with some church paper work.
He has a working rotary dial phone. Now, THAT is quaint.

:-) I've still got a couple that I want to hook up[1] one day when they
eventually make it out of storage - IIRC one was built in 1962 and the
other one 1947. The older one has no internal bell, but I have an
external ringer (a wooden box with a couple of bells on top) which I
should be able to make work with it.

[1] possibly with some interface box of tricks to get them talking to the
modern system...

cheers

Jules

On Wed, 28 Mar 2012 08:04:24 -0400, Kurt Ullman wrote:

In article ,
" wrote:


Traffic comes on my cell phone's navigation app. It takes a digital
connection, though, which isn't a problem in cities where it's needed.

You obviously never got held up in the wilds of some state because the
two semis came together on the rural Interstate. I have had my Tom Tom
tell me about backups in the middle of nowhere, although I think that
tends to be more useful in areas with a strong 511 system statewide.

I have, but as you say, it depends on the reporting which in the wilds is
nonexistent.

I've used my cell phone a bit more around here, over the past few days. I'm
not sure what the problem is but I've become more disenchanted with it. In
the far burbs (of Atlanta) it (the navigation feature) seems to lock up
constantly. If I cancel the navigation and start over it does fine, so I
don't think it's losing connection. I may have to buy SWMBO another GPS. :-(
....and this time it WON'T be a Magellan.

On Wed, 28 Mar 2012 08:24:27 -0400, Frank
wrote:

On 3/27/2012 7:20 PM, Robert Green wrote:
wrote in message
...

my first garmin cost over 650 bucks, it paid for itself in a matter of
months......

I got a new Garmin with lifetime maps and traffic. Hardly used it yet
but it works great.

I can see how the additional traffic feature could be very useful in
metropolitan areas and holiday driving. What did yours cost?

--
Bobby G.



It is a Garmin Nuvi 1450LMT and cost about $125 on sale at Best Buy on
line before Christmas. It has a 5 inch screen and you can get a 4
incher, something like 1350LMT for about $15 less. I bought one of the
latter for my son's birthday as he was calling us occasionally while in
his car for us to get on line and give him directions.

My wife has an older Nuvi without maps and traffic and using it last
year to go to a friends wedding anniversary celebration it worked great
but a bridge was out for repair and we had to turn off the gps as it
kept wanting to steer us back to the outage. Not sure how my new one
would react to this situation.

There is no way to delete/mark-no-go a segment of the trip and recalculate the
route?

Roads don't change that often but businesses and other points of
interest do. A map upgrade currently costs about $75 so the lifetime
maps option is a good thing.

Actually, that's been my problem with too many map programs (DeLorme Street
Atlas is horrible). They don't add new streets nearly often enough. My
street still doesn't exist, though it went in over five years ago. Same deal
for the house we're moving to.

When you first get the Nuvi, you plug it into your computer and register
with Garmin and they update maps and will send you a notice when new
maps are available. Someone in the Garmin ng said this could happen 4
times a year.

Neat. This sounds like a winner. Amazon has it for $120.

In article ,
" wrote:


I have, but as you say, it depends on the reporting which in the wilds is
nonexistent.

I've used my cell phone a bit more around here, over the past few days. I'm
not sure what the problem is but I've become more disenchanted with it. In
the far burbs (of Atlanta) it (the navigation feature) seems to lock up
constantly. If I cancel the navigation and start over it does fine, so I
don't think it's losing connection. I may have to buy SWMBO another GPS. :-(
...and this time it WON'T be a Magellan.

I haven't had any major problems with TomTom except for a couple areas
around the Miami Cruise Port. The streets are a little cramped with big
buildings and it seems as though it loses lock with enough satellites.
Of course, if you ever driven the MCP, the signage isn't exactly the
greatest, either. So, I was doubly lost

--
People thought cybersex was a safe alternative,
until patients started presenting with sexually
acquired carpal tunnel syndrome.-Howard Berkowitz

On 3/28/2012 12:33 PM, zzzzzzzzzz wrote:
On Wed, 28 Mar 2012 08:24:27 -0400,
wrote:

On 3/27/2012 7:20 PM, Robert Green wrote:
wrote in message
...

my first garmin cost over 650 bucks, it paid for itself in a matter of
months......

I got a new Garmin with lifetime maps and traffic. Hardly used it yet
but it works great.

I can see how the additional traffic feature could be very useful in
metropolitan areas and holiday driving. What did yours cost?

--
Bobby G.



It is a Garmin Nuvi 1450LMT and cost about $125 on sale at Best Buy on
line before Christmas. It has a 5 inch screen and you can get a 4
incher, something like 1350LMT for about $15 less. I bought one of the
latter for my son's birthday as he was calling us occasionally while in
his car for us to get on line and give him directions.

My wife has an older Nuvi without maps and traffic and using it last
year to go to a friends wedding anniversary celebration it worked great
but a bridge was out for repair and we had to turn off the gps as it
kept wanting to steer us back to the outage. Not sure how my new one
would react to this situation.

There is no way to delete/mark-no-go a segment of the trip and recalculate the
route?

Roads don't change that often but businesses and other points of
interest do. A map upgrade currently costs about $75 so the lifetime
maps option is a good thing.

Actually, that's been my problem with too many map programs (DeLorme Street
Atlas is horrible). They don't add new streets nearly often enough. My
street still doesn't exist, though it went in over five years ago. Same deal
for the house we're moving to.

When you first get the Nuvi, you plug it into your computer and register
with Garmin and they update maps and will send you a notice when new
maps are available. Someone in the Garmin ng said this could happen 4
times a year.

Neat. This sounds like a winner. Amazon has it for $120.

I have not explored all the options of the gps but believe that if there
is a street or address not on the map, that when you are there you can
mark and record the location to get back to it. Someone told me years
ago he did this when his son moved to a new house. You should be able to
get map coordinates to give out to someone to enter into their gps.

Besides the Nuvi, I have a Garmin Etrex I use for hunting. It was more
expensive and maps were not detailed enough so I bought US street maps
for another $90 and later found I could go to a site where area contour
maps were free. The Etrex can be used in a car but will not talk
directions to you and without voice is difficult to use as you don't
want to be always looking at it.

When I hunt, I mark where I park and mark where my stand is in the
field. I gave an old Etrex without maps to my brother in law and he'll
mark where he parked his car.

You can get anything you want in a gps. One son has a built in one in
his Mercedes and with blue tooth and voice commands you can just turn it
on and tell it where you want to go. The system broke down and was
repaired under warranty and the dealer told him that if not for the
warranty, it would have cost him $3,000.

Kids are telling me now they can use their cell phones as gps's and with
aps can get map and voice directions. Of course the kids are paying
$100+ per month for phones with all these bells and whistles.
Not for this old man

On Wed, 28 Mar 2012 09:10:18 -0500, dpb wrote:
:-) I've still got a couple that I want to hook up[1] one day ...

[1] possibly with some interface box of tricks to get them talking to
the modern system...

Indeed, I didn't think there was anywhere in the US that hadn't replaced
pulse w/ tone dialing.

That and these are UK phones (the newer one's a GPO 706, the older one -
if I remember right - a GPO 232). They're still designed for strowger
exchanges, but I expect that there are a few differences between such
exchanges in the US and UK such that something will be needed to
translate. I *think* the voice transmission side of it is the same, but
actually dialling might need a little help.

I'm still not into the carry-the-stinkin'-phone-around 24/7 though and
never will be. I do carry it when travel or if really have some need,
but other than that it lives on the sideboard in the dining room until I
want it.

Mine's been in the bottom of a box in the office closet since I moved
over here in 2007, and I don't really miss it. Every once in a while I'll
borrow my wife's cell if I'm going somewhere where I need to contact
someone along the way, but other than that I don't feel the need to be
always reachable every minute of the day. If people want to contact me
they can call the land-line or email, and if I'm out, I'm out... :-)

cheers

Jules

On Wed, 28 Mar 2012 14:17:38 -0400, Frank
wrote:

On 3/28/2012 12:33 PM, zzzzzzzzzz wrote:
On Wed, 28 Mar 2012 08:24:27 -0400,
wrote:

On 3/27/2012 7:20 PM, Robert Green wrote:
wrote in message
...

my first garmin cost over 650 bucks, it paid for itself in a matter of
months......

I got a new Garmin with lifetime maps and traffic. Hardly used it yet
but it works great.

I can see how the additional traffic feature could be very useful in
metropolitan areas and holiday driving. What did yours cost?

--
Bobby G.



It is a Garmin Nuvi 1450LMT and cost about $125 on sale at Best Buy on
line before Christmas. It has a 5 inch screen and you can get a 4
incher, something like 1350LMT for about $15 less. I bought one of the
latter for my son's birthday as he was calling us occasionally while in
his car for us to get on line and give him directions.

My wife has an older Nuvi without maps and traffic and using it last
year to go to a friends wedding anniversary celebration it worked great
but a bridge was out for repair and we had to turn off the gps as it
kept wanting to steer us back to the outage. Not sure how my new one
would react to this situation.

There is no way to delete/mark-no-go a segment of the trip and recalculate the
route?

Roads don't change that often but businesses and other points of
interest do. A map upgrade currently costs about $75 so the lifetime
maps option is a good thing.

Actually, that's been my problem with too many map programs (DeLorme Street
Atlas is horrible). They don't add new streets nearly often enough. My
street still doesn't exist, though it went in over five years ago. Same deal
for the house we're moving to.

When you first get the Nuvi, you plug it into your computer and register
with Garmin and they update maps and will send you a notice when new
maps are available. Someone in the Garmin ng said this could happen 4
times a year.

Neat. This sounds like a winner. Amazon has it for $120.

I have not explored all the options of the gps but believe that if there
is a street or address not on the map, that when you are there you can
mark and record the location to get back to it. Someone told me years
ago he did this when his son moved to a new house. You should be able to
get map coordinates to give out to someone to enter into their gps.

When the whole subdivision isn't there, it gets dicey. Most map programs show
my house out in the middle of a field.

Besides the Nuvi, I have a Garmin Etrex I use for hunting. It was more
expensive and maps were not detailed enough so I bought US street maps
for another $90 and later found I could go to a site where area contour
maps were free. The Etrex can be used in a car but will not talk
directions to you and without voice is difficult to use as you don't
want to be always looking at it.

Right. It's gotta have text to speech. That's the biggest problem with the
Magellan. It's voice directions sometimes differ from its map directions. The
map directions are correct. :-(

When I hunt, I mark where I park and mark where my stand is in the
field. I gave an old Etrex without maps to my brother in law and he'll
mark where he parked his car.

You can get anything you want in a gps. One son has a built in one in
his Mercedes and with blue tooth and voice commands you can just turn it
on and tell it where you want to go. The system broke down and was
repaired under warranty and the dealer told him that if not for the
warranty, it would have cost him $3,000.

Believable. Someone has to pay my salary. ;-) When I finally break down and
replace SWMBO's car, I'll get the factory GPS feature.

Kids are telling me now they can use their cell phones as gps's and with
aps can get map and voice directions. Of course the kids are paying
$100+ per month for phones with all these bells and whistles.
Not for this old man

We're spending just under $150/mo for our two smart-phones. SMS not included.
I like it. I have something to do now when standing in the DMV line. ;-)

On Tue, 27 Mar 2012 14:14:55 -0700 (PDT), bob haller
wrote:


I've played a lot of video games but none matched the thrill of trying to
evade the huge metal handtruck that blew off a Coca Cola truck. *For a while
it's still traveling along pretty quickly from the momentum. *For a while.
Thick rubber tires can really bounce around, too. *I was driving on the
Verazzano Bridge plaza when a truck full of truck tires lost the rear gate
and squadron of tires began flying through the gaps in the traffic.

--
Bobby G.

I drove over a extension ladder recently. boy was I surprised....

saw a sprite truck open up and dump many many cubes of sprite all over
the road. geez did those bottles spray big time.
On the express of I 95 thru I think part of NY, a truck spilled a
whole load of telephone poles. We would have been stuck for many hours
it I hadn't had my CB on and the wit to call a local base and find out
that if I took the exit I was near I could get on real easy just
beyond the spill.

On Tue, 27 Mar 2012 18:57:30 -0400, Frank
wrote:

On 3/27/2012 5:28 PM, Stormin Mormon wrote:
Sunday, I went to visit a friend, and help with some church paper work. He
has a working rotary dial phone. Now, THAT is quaint.


Bet he's still paying the telephone company a couple of bucks a month to
maintain it
I have more than a few of those dial phones and they work just fine.
Don't use them much as I have top of the line cell phone.

On Wed, 28 Mar 2012 13:36:35 -0400, Kurt Ullman wrote:

In article ,
" wrote:


I have, but as you say, it depends on the reporting which in the wilds is
nonexistent.

I've used my cell phone a bit more around here, over the past few days. I'm
not sure what the problem is but I've become more disenchanted with it. In
the far burbs (of Atlanta) it (the navigation feature) seems to lock up
constantly. If I cancel the navigation and start over it does fine, so I
don't think it's losing connection. I may have to buy SWMBO another GPS. :-(
...and this time it WON'T be a Magellan.

I haven't had any major problems with TomTom except for a couple areas
around the Miami Cruise Port. The streets are a little cramped with big
buildings and it seems as though it loses lock with enough satellites.
Of course, if you ever driven the MCP, the signage isn't exactly the
greatest, either. So, I was doubly lost

Some of the "GPS" chipset manufacturers are adding GLONASS and European
satellite receivers so they can "see" more satellites in the "urban canyons".
Apparently it works quite well. These will probably show up first in the
integrated car (head) units.

"The Daring Dufas" wrote in message
news:jku4b8$pfg$1@dont-

stuff snipped

Many years ago, one of my Yankee Italian aunts was driving along with
her son when a car suddenly came at them head on. My aunt started
screaming, took her hands off the steering wheel and covered her face.
My cousin grabbed the steering wheel and steered the car to safety. It
became a family legend to be told every holiday. ^_^

I once taught a real German baroness to drive. She was in her 70's and her
husband, who had always done the driving, was sick in the hospital and she
needed to learn how to drive to visit him. I was sitting next to her in her
son's powder blue, brand new Cadillac DeVille, driving down 8 lane I-95 in
Virginia when she suddenly had to sneeze. She just took her hands off the
wheel, looked down and began rummaging through her purse, looking for a
tissue, completely abandoning the task of driving the car. I managed to
grab the wheel and guide us back off the shoulder and onto the roadway. So
I know *just* where you're coming from. My GF in the back seat began
hyperventilating as we started drifting off the Interstate at 60 mph.

--
Bobby G.

"joevan" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 27 Mar 2012 14:14:55 -0700 (PDT), bob haller
wrote:


I've played a lot of video games but none matched the thrill of trying
to
evade the huge metal handtruck that blew off a Coca Cola truck. For a
while
it's still traveling along pretty quickly from the momentum. For a
while.
Thick rubber tires can really bounce around, too. I was driving on the
Verazzano Bridge plaza when a truck full of truck tires lost the rear
gate
and squadron of tires began flying through the gaps in the traffic.

--
Bobby G.

I drove over a extension ladder recently. boy was I surprised....

saw a sprite truck open up and dump many many cubes of sprite all over
the road. geez did those bottles spray big time.
On the express of I 95 thru I think part of NY, a truck spilled a
whole load of telephone poles. We would have been stuck for many hours
it I hadn't had my CB on and the wit to call a local base and find out
that if I took the exit I was near I could get on real easy just
beyond the spill.

I don't think I've ever been attacked by telephone poles on the road. Damn
near everything else, though. I think I still have a CB radio or two left
over from the old days. Do people use them anymore?

--
Bobby G.

"Kurt Ullman" wrote in message
m...
In article ,
"Robert Green" wrote:

"Frank" wrote in message
...

my first garmin cost over 650 bucks, it paid for itself in a matter
of
months......

I got a new Garmin with lifetime maps and traffic. Hardly used it yet
but it works great.

I can see how the additional traffic feature could be very useful in
metropolitan areas and holiday driving. What did yours cost?

--
Bobby G.

I love the part about traffic features. Kept me out of a couple major
jams roaming on Interstates. I, too have some concerns with them in
rural areas. Although I find if I keep it on fastest instead of shortest
route, they tend to be a little more comprehensible.

I might end up having to get a new one at some point. I like the Maylong's
small size and 16GB storage. I've got music and videos loaded for long
waits in doctor's offices. In the DC area, alternate routes clog up about 5
minutes after the main routes clog up so getting traffic updates mostly
means knowing that you're screwed no matter what.

I also like the part where it tells you which lane to get in about a
mile ahead of time. Especially useful driving through ATL in general and
other places where the Interstate-to-Interstate interchange runs off to
the left instead of the right.

One of my major peeves. Left hand high-speed exits on main interstates.
It's like asking for last minute four lane dives at speed. We have one on
the next Beltway exit over and if you don't pay attention to the people
making the four lane dive to the left, you can get creamed in a heartbeat.
I remember a friend in an Austin that had truck tire marks all along the
right side of her car as a trucker, who didn't even see her, pushed her off
onto the shoulder trying to make a dive across four lanes to get to the left
exit. Boy was SHE freaked out.

I still find some interesting quirks. We were out on the Indiana Uplands
Wine Trail last year with a group and we were in two cars. For one
winery, the two GPSs (one Tom Tom and one Garmin) indicated two
different places about 30 miles apart for the same address. Looked
around for a bit and finally used an older version (the MarkI Gas
Station) and found it right across the street about half way between the
two. This was on the built up outskirts of Anderson and not in the rural
areas.

So far I've been "escorted" to two empty fields by my GPS's. I've also been
to areas that just show up as blank on the GPS but have been there for
years. Go figure. Still, I am always impressed just a little when I turn
the little bugger on and suddenly it knows where I am!

--
Bobby G.

"Frank" wrote in message
...
On 3/27/2012 7:20 PM, Robert Green wrote:
wrote in message
...

my first garmin cost over 650 bucks, it paid for itself in a matter of
months......

I got a new Garmin with lifetime maps and traffic. Hardly used it yet
but it works great.

I can see how the additional traffic feature could be very useful in
metropolitan areas and holiday driving. What did yours cost?

--
Bobby G.



It is a Garmin Nuvi 1450LMT and cost about $125 on sale at Best Buy on
line before Christmas. It has a 5 inch screen and you can get a 4
incher, something like 1350LMT for about $15 less. I bought one of the
latter for my son's birthday as he was calling us occasionally while in
his car for us to get on line and give him directions.

That's not too bad.

My wife has an older Nuvi without maps and traffic and using it last
year to go to a friends wedding anniversary celebration it worked great
but a bridge was out for repair and we had to turn off the gps as it
kept wanting to steer us back to the outage. Not sure how my new one
would react to this situation.

That reminds me of a while back when they first introduced elevators buttons
that worked by detecting the heat from someone's fingertip. Worked great
until there was a building fire. All the elevators ended up going to the
floor that was on fire, reacting to the heat as if someone had pressed the
call button. (-:

Roads don't change that often but businesses and other points of
interest do. A map upgrade currently costs about $75 so the lifetime
maps option is a good thing.

Yow! I would have thought it would be a $5 or $10 charge. Who knew?

When you first get the Nuvi, you plug it into your computer and register
with Garmin and they update maps and will send you a notice when new
maps are available. Someone in the Garmin ng said this could happen 4
times a year.

I only use my GPS four times a year!

--
Bobby G.

On 4/1/2012 8:19 AM, Robert Green wrote:
"The Daring wrote in message
news:jku4b8$pfg$1@dont-

stuff snipped

Many years ago, one of my Yankee Italian aunts was driving along with
her son when a car suddenly came at them head on. My aunt started
screaming, took her hands off the steering wheel and covered her face.
My cousin grabbed the steering wheel and steered the car to safety. It
became a family legend to be told every holiday. ^_^

I once taught a real German baroness to drive. She was in her 70's and her
husband, who had always done the driving, was sick in the hospital and she
needed to learn how to drive to visit him. I was sitting next to her in her
son's powder blue, brand new Cadillac DeVille, driving down 8 lane I-95 in
Virginia when she suddenly had to sneeze. She just took her hands off the
wheel, looked down and began rummaging through her purse, looking for a
tissue, completely abandoning the task of driving the car. I managed to
grab the wheel and guide us back off the shoulder and onto the roadway. So
I know *just* where you're coming from. My GF in the back seat began
hyperventilating as we started drifting off the Interstate at 60 mph.

--
Bobby G.


I really wonder how often it happens and how many fatal accidents have
occurred because of it? o_O

TDD

On Monday, March 26, 2012 12:19:13 PM UTC-4, Steve B wrote:


I understand the argument the way some of these screens are set up. Mine is
just to the left of my rear view mirror on the windshield of my truck. It
helps me get into the correct lane. It tells me the name of the street
______________

My Navigon(my parents', about 4 yrs old) is mounted in the lower LH corner of my windshield. It's postioned so that I see only the screen, not the suction-mount directly behind it.

It's always just in my periphery so I never have to turn my head to see the display, and doesn't block my view at all.

-CC

On Sun, 01 Apr 2012 09:26:32 -0500, The Daring Dufas
wrote:

On 4/1/2012 8:19 AM, Robert Green wrote:
"The Daring wrote in message
news:jku4b8$pfg$1@dont-

stuff snipped

Many years ago, one of my Yankee Italian aunts was driving along with
her son when a car suddenly came at them head on. My aunt started
screaming, took her hands off the steering wheel and covered her face.
My cousin grabbed the steering wheel and steered the car to safety. It
became a family legend to be told every holiday. ^_^

I once taught a real German baroness to drive. She was in her 70's and her
husband, who had always done the driving, was sick in the hospital and she
needed to learn how to drive to visit him. I was sitting next to her in her
son's powder blue, brand new Cadillac DeVille, driving down 8 lane I-95 in
Virginia when she suddenly had to sneeze. She just took her hands off the
wheel, looked down and began rummaging through her purse, looking for a
tissue, completely abandoning the task of driving the car. I managed to
grab the wheel and guide us back off the shoulder and onto the roadway. So
I know *just* where you're coming from. My GF in the back seat began
hyperventilating as we started drifting off the Interstate at 60 mph.

--
Bobby G.


I really wonder how often it happens and how many fatal accidents have
occurred because of it? o_O

A talk radio host (sorry, don't know who, I was on the road flipping stations)
was just saying that he was on the opposite side of an undivided four-lane
highway because a mosquito was buzzing him. He *just* got it pulled over to
his side (remarkably missing the person in the right lane) when he heard the
Doppler effect of the car coming the other way. HE almost killed himself and
who knows how many more, because of a stupid mosquito. We do dumb things.

On Sun, 1 Apr 2012 09:35:27 -0400, "Robert Green"
wrote:

"Frank" wrote in message
...
On 3/27/2012 7:20 PM, Robert Green wrote:
wrote in message
...

my first garmin cost over 650 bucks, it paid for itself in a matter of
months......

I got a new Garmin with lifetime maps and traffic. Hardly used it yet
but it works great.

I can see how the additional traffic feature could be very useful in
metropolitan areas and holiday driving. What did yours cost?

--
Bobby G.



It is a Garmin Nuvi 1450LMT and cost about $125 on sale at Best Buy on
line before Christmas. It has a 5 inch screen and you can get a 4
incher, something like 1350LMT for about $15 less. I bought one of the
latter for my son's birthday as he was calling us occasionally while in
his car for us to get on line and give him directions.

That's not too bad.

My wife has an older Nuvi without maps and traffic and using it last
year to go to a friends wedding anniversary celebration it worked great
but a bridge was out for repair and we had to turn off the gps as it
kept wanting to steer us back to the outage. Not sure how my new one
would react to this situation.

That reminds me of a while back when they first introduced elevators buttons
that worked by detecting the heat from someone's fingertip. Worked great
until there was a building fire. All the elevators ended up going to the
floor that was on fire, reacting to the heat as if someone had pressed the
call button. (-:

Roads don't change that often but businesses and other points of
interest do. A map upgrade currently costs about $75 so the lifetime
maps option is a good thing.

Yow! I would have thought it would be a $5 or $10 charge. Who knew?

When you first get the Nuvi, you plug it into your computer and register
with Garmin and they update maps and will send you a notice when new
maps are available. Someone in the Garmin ng said this could happen 4
times a year.

I only use my GPS four times a year!

I use mine every time I'm in a new place, though from now on, I'll likely use
it whenever I'm on the road. Last Friday night I was driving back home and
there were two complete stops on I85. One was on the GA side of the border -
no idea what that was about. The second was about 20mi further on the AL side
that had traffic backed up for ten miles, or more. The (phone) GPS pointed
out the exact location of the tieup. If I'd been smart I would have gotten
off and taken the back road. My wife was about 2mi ahead of me, though, and I
decided to hang in.

Bad weekend for I85. Saturday, we drove back to Atlanta and there was a
carbeque on our side that had the Northbound lanes stopped for a half hour.

On 4/1/2012 11:57 AM, zzzzzzzzzz wrote:
On Sun, 01 Apr 2012 09:26:32 -0500, The Daring Dufas
wrote:

On 4/1/2012 8:19 AM, Robert Green wrote:
"The Daring wrote in message
news:jku4b8$pfg$1@dont-

stuff snipped

Many years ago, one of my Yankee Italian aunts was driving along with
her son when a car suddenly came at them head on. My aunt started
screaming, took her hands off the steering wheel and covered her face.
My cousin grabbed the steering wheel and steered the car to safety. It
became a family legend to be told every holiday. ^_^

I once taught a real German baroness to drive. She was in her 70's and her
husband, who had always done the driving, was sick in the hospital and she
needed to learn how to drive to visit him. I was sitting next to her in her
son's powder blue, brand new Cadillac DeVille, driving down 8 lane I-95 in
Virginia when she suddenly had to sneeze. She just took her hands off the
wheel, looked down and began rummaging through her purse, looking for a
tissue, completely abandoning the task of driving the car. I managed to
grab the wheel and guide us back off the shoulder and onto the roadway. So
I know *just* where you're coming from. My GF in the back seat began
hyperventilating as we started drifting off the Interstate at 60 mph.

--
Bobby G.


I really wonder how often it happens and how many fatal accidents have
occurred because of it? o_O

A talk radio host (sorry, don't know who, I was on the road flipping stations)
was just saying that he was on the opposite side of an undivided four-lane
highway because a mosquito was buzzing him. He *just* got it pulled over to
his side (remarkably missing the person in the right lane) when he heard the
Doppler effect of the car coming the other way. HE almost killed himself and
who knows how many more, because of a stupid mosquito. We do dumb things.

I'm sure screaming rug rats have caused more than their share of auto
accidents. o_O

TDD

"The Daring Dufas" wrote in message
...
On 4/1/2012 8:19 AM, Robert Green wrote:
"The Daring wrote in message
news:jku4b8$pfg$1@dont-

stuff snipped

Many years ago, one of my Yankee Italian aunts was driving along with
her son when a car suddenly came at them head on. My aunt started
screaming, took her hands off the steering wheel and covered her face.
My cousin grabbed the steering wheel and steered the car to safety. It
became a family legend to be told every holiday. ^_^

I once taught a real German baroness to drive. She was in her 70's and
her
husband, who had always done the driving, was sick in the hospital and
she
needed to learn how to drive to visit him. I was sitting next to her in
her
son's powder blue, brand new Cadillac DeVille, driving down 8 lane I-95
in
Virginia when she suddenly had to sneeze. She just took her hands off
the
wheel, looked down and began rummaging through her purse, looking for a
tissue, completely abandoning the task of driving the car. I managed to
grab the wheel and guide us back off the shoulder and onto the roadway.
So
I know *just* where you're coming from. My GF in the back seat began
hyperventilating as we started drifting off the Interstate at 60 mph.

--
Bobby G.


I really wonder how often it happens and how many fatal accidents have
occurred because of it? o_O

Probably too often. It demonstrates that some people don't quite get it
when it comes to the lethality of automobiles. I used to drive back and
forth to NYC with my Dad's boss. He had a sneezing fit and went right onto
the shoulder at 55mph or more. I nearly totalled a car when a giant wasp
got in the window and starting buzzing around my eyes.

What bothered me the most during the driving lesson was how long it took ME
to react to the fact that the baroness had shifted focus from driving to
nose-blowing. Completely.

The Doors said it best: "People Are Strange."

--
Bobby G.

wrote in message
news:15917135.663.1332944694542.JavaMail.geo-discussion-forums@vbhy1...
On Tuesday, March 27, 2012 4:31:11 PM UTC-4, Robert Green wrote:
You can use a GPS pretty safely if mount it where you can see it, use
the
audio mode (which I wish was able to mute the stereo, give the report
and
unmute the stereo) and don't touch it when you're actually driving.

I have yet to come across a GPS where the audio mode did not require some
screen interaction to activate. Otherwise, the GPS would be constantly
trying to interpret anything it "heard" as instructions.

God help you if you like country music and some song about a "long and
winding road" comes on. You have no idea where the thing is going to take
you.

I once tried to program my GPS when Bruce Springsteen's "Thunder Road" was
playing. They got to the "oh oh oh, Thunder Road," and my GPS gave me
directions to 000 Thunder Road somewhere in Florida.

The law of unintended consequences in full bloom. I can think of a dozen
songs that would be an issue.

Baker Street, E Street Shuffle, Sesame Street, Dancing in the Street, 42nd
Street, Give My Regards to Broadway, Electric Avenue, Tobacco Road, Exile on
Main Street, Positively 4th Street, Street Fighting Man, Abbey Road, On The
Road Again, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, etc.

Eventually we'll get into our cars and tell them where we want to go and
then sit back and surf the net. Eventually.

--
Bobby G.

On 4/5/2012 3:47 AM, Robert Green wrote:
"The Daring wrote in message
...
On 4/1/2012 8:19 AM, Robert Green wrote:
"The Daring wrote in message
news:jku4b8$pfg$1@dont-

stuff snipped

Many years ago, one of my Yankee Italian aunts was driving along with
her son when a car suddenly came at them head on. My aunt started
screaming, took her hands off the steering wheel and covered her face.
My cousin grabbed the steering wheel and steered the car to safety. It
became a family legend to be told every holiday. ^_^

I once taught a real German baroness to drive. She was in her 70's and
her
husband, who had always done the driving, was sick in the hospital and
she
needed to learn how to drive to visit him. I was sitting next to her in
her
son's powder blue, brand new Cadillac DeVille, driving down 8 lane I-95
in
Virginia when she suddenly had to sneeze. She just took her hands off
the
wheel, looked down and began rummaging through her purse, looking for a
tissue, completely abandoning the task of driving the car. I managed to
grab the wheel and guide us back off the shoulder and onto the roadway.
So
I know *just* where you're coming from. My GF in the back seat began
hyperventilating as we started drifting off the Interstate at 60 mph.

--
Bobby G.


I really wonder how often it happens and how many fatal accidents have
occurred because of it? o_O

Probably too often. It demonstrates that some people don't quite get it
when it comes to the lethality of automobiles. I used to drive back and
forth to NYC with my Dad's boss. He had a sneezing fit and went right onto
the shoulder at 55mph or more. I nearly totalled a car when a giant wasp
got in the window and starting buzzing around my eyes.

What bothered me the most during the driving lesson was how long it took ME
to react to the fact that the baroness had shifted focus from driving to
nose-blowing. Completely.

The Doors said it best: "People Are Strange."

--
Bobby G.


After reading the post again, I seem to recall it taking quite a while
and thousands in currency to obtain a German drivers license. That may
be why your baroness lacked a license or experience driving. ^_^

TDD

"The Daring Dufas" wrote in message
...
On 4/5/2012 3:47 AM, Robert Green wrote:
"The Daring wrote in message
...
On 4/1/2012 8:19 AM, Robert Green wrote:
"The Daring wrote in message
news:jku4b8$pfg$1@dont-

stuff snipped

Many years ago, one of my Yankee Italian aunts was driving along with
her son when a car suddenly came at them head on. My aunt started
screaming, took her hands off the steering wheel and covered her
face.
My cousin grabbed the steering wheel and steered the car to safety.
It
became a family legend to be told every holiday. ^_^

I once taught a real German baroness to drive. She was in her 70's
and
her
husband, who had always done the driving, was sick in the hospital and
she
needed to learn how to drive to visit him. I was sitting next to her
in
her
son's powder blue, brand new Cadillac DeVille, driving down 8 lane
I-95
in
Virginia when she suddenly had to sneeze. She just took her hands off
the
wheel, looked down and began rummaging through her purse, looking for
a
tissue, completely abandoning the task of driving the car. I managed
to
grab the wheel and guide us back off the shoulder and onto the
roadway.
So
I know *just* where you're coming from. My GF in the back seat began
hyperventilating as we started drifting off the Interstate at 60 mph.

--
Bobby G.


I really wonder how often it happens and how many fatal accidents have
occurred because of it? o_O

Probably too often. It demonstrates that some people don't quite get it
when it comes to the lethality of automobiles. I used to drive back and
forth to NYC with my Dad's boss. He had a sneezing fit and went right
onto
the shoulder at 55mph or more. I nearly totalled a car when a giant
wasp
got in the window and starting buzzing around my eyes.

What bothered me the most during the driving lesson was how long it took
ME
to react to the fact that the baroness had shifted focus from driving to
nose-blowing. Completely.

The Doors said it best: "People Are Strange."

--
Bobby G.


After reading the post again, I seem to recall it taking quite a while
and thousands in currency to obtain a German drivers license. That may
be why your baroness lacked a license or experience driving. ^_^

TDD

She was a Nebraska girl who married into royalty:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...2005Jan12.html

Mrs. Stackelberg was known in print and among her friends as Baroness
Stackelberg. She had married an Estonian, Baron Constantine "Steno" von
Stackelberg, a cousin to Lord Louis Mountbatten. . . .By her estimate, she
had visited 72 countries, most in the name of travel writing, and spent the
past few decades penning a weekly society column loaded with boldfaced names
for the Palm Beach Daily News, the social bible known as the "Shiny Sheet"
for its slick paper.

She knew *everyone* in Washington and gave my career quite a boost by
introducing me to some very influential people. That's when I came to the
conclusion that being lucky (meeting the right people) means more in this
world than being hard working. (-: Definitely one of those "life changing"
people you meet in your life.

I think she never learned how to drive because she didn't *need* to know how
until her husband got sick.

--
Bobby G.

On 4/9/2012 7:47 AM, Robert Green wrote:
"The Daring wrote in message
...
On 4/5/2012 3:47 AM, Robert Green wrote:
"The Daring wrote in message
...
On 4/1/2012 8:19 AM, Robert Green wrote:
"The Daring wrote in message
news:jku4b8$pfg$1@dont-

stuff snipped

Many years ago, one of my Yankee Italian aunts was driving along with
her son when a car suddenly came at them head on. My aunt started
screaming, took her hands off the steering wheel and covered her
face.
My cousin grabbed the steering wheel and steered the car to safety.
It
became a family legend to be told every holiday. ^_^

I once taught a real German baroness to drive. She was in her 70's
and
her
husband, who had always done the driving, was sick in the hospital and
she
needed to learn how to drive to visit him. I was sitting next to her
in
her
son's powder blue, brand new Cadillac DeVille, driving down 8 lane
I-95
in
Virginia when she suddenly had to sneeze. She just took her hands off
the
wheel, looked down and began rummaging through her purse, looking for
a
tissue, completely abandoning the task of driving the car. I managed
to
grab the wheel and guide us back off the shoulder and onto the
roadway.
So
I know *just* where you're coming from. My GF in the back seat began
hyperventilating as we started drifting off the Interstate at 60 mph.

--
Bobby G.


I really wonder how often it happens and how many fatal accidents have
occurred because of it? o_O

Probably too often. It demonstrates that some people don't quite get it
when it comes to the lethality of automobiles. I used to drive back and
forth to NYC with my Dad's boss. He had a sneezing fit and went right
onto
the shoulder at 55mph or more. I nearly totalled a car when a giant
wasp
got in the window and starting buzzing around my eyes.

What bothered me the most during the driving lesson was how long it took
ME
to react to the fact that the baroness had shifted focus from driving to
nose-blowing. Completely.

The Doors said it best: "People Are Strange."

--
Bobby G.


After reading the post again, I seem to recall it taking quite a while
and thousands in currency to obtain a German drivers license. That may
be why your baroness lacked a license or experience driving. ^_^

TDD

She was a Nebraska girl who married into royalty:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...2005Jan12.html

Mrs. Stackelberg was known in print and among her friends as Baroness
Stackelberg. She had married an Estonian, Baron Constantine "Steno" von
Stackelberg, a cousin to Lord Louis Mountbatten. . . .By her estimate, she
had visited 72 countries, most in the name of travel writing, and spent the
past few decades penning a weekly society column loaded with boldfaced names
for the Palm Beach Daily News, the social bible known as the "Shiny Sheet"
for its slick paper.

She knew *everyone* in Washington and gave my career quite a boost by
introducing me to some very influential people. That's when I came to the
conclusion that being lucky (meeting the right people) means more in this
world than being hard working. (-: Definitely one of those "life changing"
people you meet in your life.

I think she never learned how to drive because she didn't *need* to know how
until her husband got sick.

--
Bobby G.


Wow, the grand old gal lived through a lot of history and mingled with a
lot of the big mucky mucks of the times. The more you travel, the more
interesting people and things you come into contact with. I sat next to
an older Black gentleman on an airline flight back in the 80's and while
we talked, he revealed to me that he was one of The Tuskegee Airmen
after I told him I was from Alabama. I've been places and seen things
that many people will never experience but alas, I haven't been on an
airline since 1989 and I doubt I ever will again because of the TSA
nonsense that has taken over the airports. o_O

TDD

"The Daring Dufas" wrote in message
...

stuff snipped

She was a Nebraska girl who married into royalty:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...2005Jan12.html

Mrs. Stackelberg was known in print and among her friends as Baroness
Stackelberg. She had married an Estonian, Baron Constantine "Steno" von
Stackelberg, a cousin to Lord Louis Mountbatten. . . .By her estimate,
she
had visited 72 countries, most in the name of travel writing, and spent
the
past few decades penning a weekly society column loaded with boldfaced
names
for the Palm Beach Daily News, the social bible known as the "Shiny
Sheet"
for its slick paper.

She knew *everyone* in Washington and gave my career quite a boost by
introducing me to some very influential people. That's when I came to
the
conclusion that being lucky (meeting the right people) means more in
this
world than being hard working. (-: Definitely one of those "life
changing"
people you meet in your life.

I think she never learned how to drive because she didn't *need* to know
how
until her husband got sick.

--
Bobby G.


Wow, the grand old gal lived through a lot of history and mingled with a
lot of the big mucky mucks of the times. The more you travel, the more
interesting people and things you come into contact with. I sat next to
an older Black gentleman on an airline flight back in the 80's and while
we talked, he revealed to me that he was one of The Tuskegee Airmen
after I told him I was from Alabama. I've been places and seen things
that many people will never experience but alas, I haven't been on an
airline since 1989 and I doubt I ever will again because of the TSA
nonsense that has taken over the airports. o_O

TDD

She got me into every high society event in the Washington DC area. The
very, very rich live quite different lives than most of us. I had to buy a
tuxedo I went to so many different balls. She was a savvy marketer, and
marketed me quite nicely. It's alway better to have someone *else* say how
good you are. I remember taking a girlfriend up to their apartment - the
entire 7th floor of a building and filled with 100's of items from around
the world. The baroness gave her a beautiful hand-painted Chinese fan she
was admiring and my lady-friend went glassy-eyed. (-: Never stopped
talking about it.

The Baroness was definitely one of those large-than-life people. So was
Franklin Perdue, the Chicken Man (he really was quite tall, well over 6
feet) and I can call him that only because he's passed. He started from
nothing, well $50 worth of chickens from his dad to become a billionaire.
Even so, after a run-in with the NYC mafia, he began to travel with an
entourage of no-neck Southern gentlemen bodyguards who looked as comfortable
in a suit as the Hulk.

My flying days are over, too. It's not like they were treating people
nicely BEFORE the TSA struck. It's just too much insult. I've taken the
train and enjoyed not have my ears popped or my junk copped. I might even
take the train to California to visit my nephew and his wife (I remember
diapering that boy!). My wife flies for business and has her Army Reserve
ID so they pretty much leave her alone. Not me.

--
Bobby G.

On 4/10/2012 10:20 PM, Robert Green wrote:
"The Daring wrote in message
...

stuff snipped

She was a Nebraska girl who married into royalty:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...2005Jan12.html

Mrs. Stackelberg was known in print and among her friends as Baroness
Stackelberg. She had married an Estonian, Baron Constantine "Steno" von
Stackelberg, a cousin to Lord Louis Mountbatten. . . .By her estimate,
she
had visited 72 countries, most in the name of travel writing, and spent
the
past few decades penning a weekly society column loaded with boldfaced
names
for the Palm Beach Daily News, the social bible known as the "Shiny
Sheet"
for its slick paper.

She knew *everyone* in Washington and gave my career quite a boost by
introducing me to some very influential people. That's when I came to
the
conclusion that being lucky (meeting the right people) means more in
this
world than being hard working. (-: Definitely one of those "life
changing"
people you meet in your life.

I think she never learned how to drive because she didn't *need* to know
how
until her husband got sick.

--
Bobby G.


Wow, the grand old gal lived through a lot of history and mingled with a
lot of the big mucky mucks of the times. The more you travel, the more
interesting people and things you come into contact with. I sat next to
an older Black gentleman on an airline flight back in the 80's and while
we talked, he revealed to me that he was one of The Tuskegee Airmen
after I told him I was from Alabama. I've been places and seen things
that many people will never experience but alas, I haven't been on an
airline since 1989 and I doubt I ever will again because of the TSA
nonsense that has taken over the airports. o_O

TDD

She got me into every high society event in the Washington DC area. The
very, very rich live quite different lives than most of us. I had to buy a
tuxedo I went to so many different balls. She was a savvy marketer, and
marketed me quite nicely. It's alway better to have someone *else* say how
good you are. I remember taking a girlfriend up to their apartment - the
entire 7th floor of a building and filled with 100's of items from around
the world. The baroness gave her a beautiful hand-painted Chinese fan she
was admiring and my lady-friend went glassy-eyed. (-: Never stopped
talking about it.

The Baroness was definitely one of those large-than-life people. So was
Franklin Perdue, the Chicken Man (he really was quite tall, well over 6
feet) and I can call him that only because he's passed. He started from
nothing, well $50 worth of chickens from his dad to become a billionaire.
Even so, after a run-in with the NYC mafia, he began to travel with an
entourage of no-neck Southern gentlemen bodyguards who looked as comfortable
in a suit as the Hulk.

My flying days are over, too. It's not like they were treating people
nicely BEFORE the TSA struck. It's just too much insult. I've taken the
train and enjoyed not have my ears popped or my junk copped. I might even
take the train to California to visit my nephew and his wife (I remember
diapering that boy!). My wife flies for business and has her Army Reserve
ID so they pretty much leave her alone. Not me.

--
Bobby G.



Back in the late 80's I worked as an electrician for a contractor
building the mission control center for the Kwajalein Missile Range
now called the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site. I
did a lot of flying on different types of aircraft. On a three day
weekend, me and some of the guys I worked with took a flight to the
island of Pohnpei and one of the sights we visited was Nan Madol an
ancient ruin of some mystery. If I were to win some mega millions
lottery, it would be one of the places I would visit again. I loved
the island of Pohnpei and would really like to have an extended stay
there. ^_^

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pohnpei

http://atlasobscura.com/place/nan-madol

TDD