Dear Dr. R.V. Shrink:
I think my husband and I might be the fossils you were talking about last week. We are beginning to do weird things. For example, we have a new GPS with a woman's voice. My husband does not get along with her at all and I do not believe her half the time. We have started to call her Sacajawea and talk to her as if she was a real person. Do you think we are going nuts in our new RV or have you heard of this behavior before?
--Directionally Challenged in Chaco Canyon
Dear DC:
I sometimes wonder, but I am hoping it is normal behavior. Like your husband I have had relationship issues with the female voice on my GPS. I broke up with the first one. She was a Garmin. I bought a TomTom and that relationship is rocky. My wife won't let me call her what I want so I call her a witch, as in (which) way do you want me to go this time! It only makes sense that voice recognition and synthesized voice communication give cold plastic hardware a personality. In most cases the GPS voice tells us exactly what we ask for. A study shows that 80% of those using these units have never read the manual and do not understand many of the basic functions. It's actually a great way to see a lot of country you would normally miss. Besides, if you didn't have her to argue with, you might be arguing with each other. I consider mine a stress reliever. I think when they get a bit more sophisticated they will have a GPS unit that can argue back and really tell us where they would like us to go..
--Keep Smilin', Dr. R.V. Shrink
16 comments:
We call our GPS Rhoda (because she takes us all over the road). My husband says if he ever leaves me for another woman it will be Rhoda...he is used to a woman telling him where to go. She does get annoyed if we opt not to go the way she tells us...but she gets over it and we love her.
I guess that does sound a little weird. LOL...
My mom can't remember the letters GPS, so she calls it my "XYZ Thingie"
Mom will call me on the phone and ask me to look things up on it for her like distance or what exit to take, but won't own one herself.
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Karen and Steve
(Our Blog) RVing: Small House... BIG Backyard
http://kareninthewoods-kareninthewoods.blogspot.com/
I named my GPS Gypsy and talk to her, as in "I could use some direction here, Gypsy" and "It's okay, Gypsy, you don't have to recalculate for a reststop" or "No, that doesn't look like a good road. Recalculate for me." She's a part of my team.
"Amy Garmin" has surely shown us parts of the U.S. we might not have visited intentionally ... like the Oklahoma panhandle on a five-mile gravel road (instead of a nice paved highway like we wanted). My hubby likes "Amy"; I despise her.
I call mine Gertrude and I argue with her all the time. She really seems to get upset when I don't do what I'm told.
I have a love hate relationship with my GPS. Once she guided me on what I thought was a shortcut which ended up me going down an old logging road in eastern Washington state. Never so scared in my life, but I survived. Minor damage to the truck and travel trailer. However, another time that lovely voice guided me through Montreal, Quebec flawlessly during the evening in a rain storm. Don't know how I would do without her.
The WOMAN on our GPS got way too irritated when "re-calculating"! We swithched to "Jack", who has a better attitude. Crazy huh!
We think it is VERY normal to talk to one's navigator. We use Tom Tom's Mandy. She is British and does a right lovely job. We like it when she tells us to "Turn left and take the Motorway" instead of the Freeway.
Our travel friends have a "Cathy" which they call "Chatty Cathy" because she is always telling them to "Turn Around When Possible".
We have a GPS in our motorhome that we call "Gus". After 4 or 5 times in a row of not taking the dirt road between corn fields that "he" seems to think is the best route to where we're going, he stops talking to us (although the directions still show on the screen) until we finally are back on the prescribed route, then he's happy again and starts taking.
"Gertie", our Garmin is much more tolerant.
Our late GPS was Gertrude. Sadly, Gertrude, died in a tragic accident a few years ago. . Tuck her under the driver's seat and hubby crushed her screen when he moved the seat back. So Erma stepped in. Erma, named for the ghost of dining place in Williamsburg, Va, drives the hubby nuts with her directions. Then hubby and Erma start to argue over the way to go, I sit back and wait to hear "recalculating" from both of them. TARDIS
Our GPS is named Claudia and we do treat her as another co-pilot that we DO argue with. To get back at your GPS, enter a "round-about" and just keep going around and around and around.... "recalculating, recalculating, (oh %$#^)..."
I not only argue with my GPS unabashedly, but enabled 'her' to argue back. On the Invion/Navigon/Destinator software, all the prompts (and much of the grammar) are plain text files, which are easily edited when plugged into a PC. So, rather than "Turn around at the next safe spot" mine now says "You f***'d up, go back dumb*ss!", and "speed warning!" screams "Smokey's gonna get you!" or similar progressive messages. The only downside: don't turn it on in "delicate" company or let someone else borrow it -- my friend almost drove off the road the first time it cussed at him. Nerd humor, but it makes long drives that much more amusing...
I downloaded Han Solo on my Tom Tom and so far, he and I have gotten along fine. Hubby doesn't like him much, though. I like listening even when I know where I'm going, just keeps me on track.
My GPS is "Yes, Dear". Turn left. Yes, Dear. Turn right. Yes, Dear. She does a pretty good job of navigating all over the country but has tried to get me to drive on water a couple of times. I'm just not as divine as she seems to think. I swear too if I ignore her too many times she cops an attitude in her voice. She doesn't like to hear No, Dear.
our TomTom had a British femmale "Bonnie" she had a bad attitude...I went online & downloaded a southern voice.."cletus".. more laid back than Bonnie..we understand one another LOL...
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Wife and I laughed our a$$ off over the comments. We call ours Jill and she had tired to get us to drive the 34ft class A acrossed a lake to get to the campground once. She does seem to get shrill when you don't do what she says.
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