Finding my Way

When I first had GPS on my car, I used the system to find a new client’s address. The system led me to an unlikely spot. Once a residential area, it was now spotted with street front shops, some offices, a few auto repair sites and the rest, homes. The system’s voice simply said, “you have arrived at your destination.”

Well, it was a curbed parking space in front of an elevated wall next to the sidewalk. An opening in the wall presented a short set of steps through a hedge which over hung the sidewalk and wall below. No address was evident. I rechecked the GPS setting and the client’s address. I noted I was on the right side of the street. Odds and evens of the street numbers told me that. So, I walked up the steps to a front door and rang the bell. Yes. This was the place proven when the client appeared at the door and welcomed me.

The experience made me value the GPS more, but the doubt seeded by the difficulty of knowing where I was, kept me nervous about GPS for some time to come. A few times I asked for help from the car’s information system. The operator simply told me the GPS showed him that I was sitting directly in front of the address. That made me feel stupid; he was right. The system put me exactly in the right spot.

My consulting career had me visiting clients all over the Midwest. I drove to most of them. The navigation system proved more valuable over time as I became more used to it. Before then, I relied on voice directions and some printed ones. Almost always a phone call nailed down the location for me, but directions were sketchy and often erroneous. GPS created reliable standards and definitions. Soon following its commands and believing them, worked well.

Eventually I came to value most knowing what side of the street the numbering system followed. Right hand or left is basic. We often don’t think about this until we need it. So simple, yet so helpful.

Those were early days when the system cost a lot of money. Today we have GPS on our phones and don’t need it in the car except a larger screen for reference. I rarely get lost these days. It doesn’t matter since I am retired, but finding a new doctor’s office or clinic is useful. Stores don’t matter; I simply shop online!

Too bad we don’t have GPS of the brain. Finding my way in other matters would be such a help!

June 14, 2024

 

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