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Friday, 28 March 2008 11:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
daLGA, 6:50pm.
I saw my first Strand bag, 5 minutes off the plane, and it felt like home.
Soon after, I had my rental car, a zippy red Chevey Cobalt. Setting off onto the big scary Long Island Expressway was oddly anticlimactic since I had Betty riding shotgun. ..Betty? Betty's![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
psychedelicbike's Garmin GPS, who might (or not) have another name but she sounds like the twin of sulle_stelle's GPS, so I'll just call her Betty too. (I like the interface more than sulle_stelle's. So easy to use. I set her to follow my uncle's preferred route, which is a few miles longer than the Shortest Route, but he asserts it's faster. If I'm staying in his house, I might as well humor him..)
Anyway. Being able to keep my eyes on traffic instead of a map *or* my uncle's written directions: Win.
Unexpected bonus: safely and quickly reading road-signs in the dark. Big win.
When I got off the Northern Island Expressway, it was 7:30 and I wanted something to eat. I pulled over and asked Betty for sandwich shops along my route. She said there was a Starbucks 2 miles North. Fair enough. I added it as a waypoint and off we went. I wound up at Walt Whitman Mall, which still amuses me. OK: trying to find a Starbucks buried in a mall wasn't a bright idea; and it turned out to not have sandwiches at all. But I came across a Sbarros, which worked out OK.
Onward to my uncles', and greetings and non-hugs because we're all sick. Grandma's doing well. She's gotten piles of flowers, including one beautiful arrangement sent by... her dentist.
I was asked if I'd eaten; I said I stopped for dinner at Walt Whitman Mall. "Oh, that," says my dad, "your great-uncle Dick was involved with its construction." I made a non-assertive noise. He continued, "general contractor, I think." "..." (thinking, I don't think I'll be able to google that. Hm. Well, I'll write that, and source it later.)
"In fact, for a while, your grandfather was its night-watchman. And a few times he took me on his rounds."
...Well then. Maybe we'll go for a tour. (those few who have met my father might guess that it's *not* likely. I think the last time he was in a mall was likely before the new millennium.)
Dad was all impressed that I was in Toronto three and a half hours earlier. I said welcome to the 20th century. Neither of my parents have flown since well before I was born. I can't imagine. The last time he flew, he was returning from his European vacation in a body cast, but that's all I'll tell of that shaggy dog story.
Tomorrow is going to be busy. My cousin is coming at some point to decorate, and the big party's starting mid-afternoon.
I'll try and post photos.
I saw my first Strand bag, 5 minutes off the plane, and it felt like home.
Soon after, I had my rental car, a zippy red Chevey Cobalt. Setting off onto the big scary Long Island Expressway was oddly anticlimactic since I had Betty riding shotgun. ..Betty? Betty's
psychedelicbike's Garmin GPS, who might (or not) have another name but she sounds like the twin of sulle_stelle's GPS, so I'll just call her Betty too. (I like the interface more than sulle_stelle's. So easy to use. I set her to follow my uncle's preferred route, which is a few miles longer than the Shortest Route, but he asserts it's faster. If I'm staying in his house, I might as well humor him..) Anyway. Being able to keep my eyes on traffic instead of a map *or* my uncle's written directions: Win.
Unexpected bonus: safely and quickly reading road-signs in the dark. Big win.
When I got off the Northern Island Expressway, it was 7:30 and I wanted something to eat. I pulled over and asked Betty for sandwich shops along my route. She said there was a Starbucks 2 miles North. Fair enough. I added it as a waypoint and off we went. I wound up at Walt Whitman Mall, which still amuses me. OK: trying to find a Starbucks buried in a mall wasn't a bright idea; and it turned out to not have sandwiches at all. But I came across a Sbarros, which worked out OK.
Onward to my uncles', and greetings and non-hugs because we're all sick. Grandma's doing well. She's gotten piles of flowers, including one beautiful arrangement sent by... her dentist.
I was asked if I'd eaten; I said I stopped for dinner at Walt Whitman Mall. "Oh, that," says my dad, "your great-uncle Dick was involved with its construction." I made a non-assertive noise. He continued, "general contractor, I think." "..." (thinking, I don't think I'll be able to google that. Hm. Well, I'll write that, and source it later.)
"In fact, for a while, your grandfather was its night-watchman. And a few times he took me on his rounds."
...Well then. Maybe we'll go for a tour. (those few who have met my father might guess that it's *not* likely. I think the last time he was in a mall was likely before the new millennium.)
Dad was all impressed that I was in Toronto three and a half hours earlier. I said welcome to the 20th century. Neither of my parents have flown since well before I was born. I can't imagine. The last time he flew, he was returning from his European vacation in a body cast, but that's all I'll tell of that shaggy dog story.
Tomorrow is going to be busy. My cousin is coming at some point to decorate, and the big party's starting mid-afternoon.
I'll try and post photos.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: Saturday, 29 March 2008 06:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Saturday, 29 March 2008 04:30 pm (UTC)Better watch that cough, it's possibly catching.
Mom mentioned exactly that, this morning, two trips via Toronto.
If you're interested in wishing Grandma a happy 100th, we could try and do some sort of web-chat later.. Maybe 3 or 4?
no subject
Date: Saturday, 29 March 2008 04:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Saturday, 29 March 2008 04:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Sunday, 30 March 2008 06:34 pm (UTC)(yes, I do measure how much more quickly frequently seen co-walkers are travelling, because the rare person who walks at exactly the same rate is essential for such optimizations)
no subject
Date: Sunday, 30 March 2008 08:02 pm (UTC)Driving back to the airport on the LIE was fun. :)
no subject
Date: Sunday, 30 March 2008 08:56 pm (UTC)You like the Garmin? Which model? I ended up returning my Nuvi (only charged from the lighter, making it useless while walking, and only accepted uploads via a freakish micro USB connector -- not the mini one but something smaller).
no subject
Date: Monday, 31 March 2008 07:07 pm (UTC)I'm probably going to keep it in the car, so I don't know whether it's a very different situation from you.
I'll probably buy a 360, because the bluetoof phone features seem to add a fair bit. (it can d/l a phone's address-book and auto-add the addresses to the POI database, if I understand correctly. Also, it acts as a handsfree speakerphone and dialer.)
How old was the model you had? I believe
no subject
Date: Monday, 31 March 2008 08:14 pm (UTC)I'll want mine for car trips, hopefully being able to preload coordinates, but most of my trips are by foot or public transit, so a system that can be quiet and does not require mounting would be best.
The phone features.. eh, I have a phone for that. ;-) (a phone with a hefty monthly fee which I hardly ever use.. sigh)
no subject
Date: Monday, 31 March 2008 08:47 pm (UTC)Nuvi 250 can be muted. It's small enough for a shirt pocket, and doesn't have a stick-out antenna like many of them. The mounting gadgetry is non-destructive: suction-cup to the car dash connects to ball-joint connects to gripper clips connects to top and bottom of the Nuvi, and that doesn't get in the way of the mini-usb charger.
no subject
Date: Monday, 31 March 2008 09:36 pm (UTC)*checks Amazon* Wow, the Nuvi 250 isn't cheap. Not the most expensive I've seen, but in comparison the Mio C230 was $130 (on sale). Then again, a GPS device that works is way better than one that doesn't.
Can you upload POIs from your computer, and if so, do you need coordinates? One of the things I really want to be able to do is to flag some things on Google maps and easily be able to upload them. I haven't seen any indication for or against features like that existing.
no subject
Date: Tuesday, 1 April 2008 01:18 am (UTC)k, I was curious; googling "google maps gpx" gave me this interesting hack.
So the answer seems to be "yes".
no subject
Date: Tuesday, 1 April 2008 02:09 am (UTC)Sounds pretty likely, though. If my thing tomorrow turns into a job offer, it will come with a signing bonus, which may just turn into a few purchases...
no subject
Date: Monday, 19 May 2008 02:01 pm (UTC)I was gonna order from amazon.com, have it shipped to my parents, and have them ship it to me, because it would've saved me $50. Canadian electronics just cost too much, and amazon.ca fails to carry electronics.
But tigerdirect had a free-shipping sale, the GPS was on sale, and then I realized that amazon makes you pay for the car-mount separately, making them the same price in the end.
Did I mention I can't wait for it to get here?...
Did you end up with a signing bonus and did you get yourself a GPS? :)
no subject
Date: Tuesday, 20 May 2008 12:42 am (UTC)I'll be interested to hear how you like the Garmin.