Garmin nuvi 40LM

I bought a GPS, Garmin nuvi 40LM for Christmas, at Walmart. It was as good deal. I paid under $100.00 on sale. When I tried it out I found the keyboard was slow to respond so I took it back, but to another Walmart location. Walmart's policy with GPS is returns only up to 14 days. The lady who sold me the GPS told me I had 30 days. When I wanted to return it it had been in my possession for 28 days. The woman I dealt with at this other location was not very helpful. She told me I would have to deal with Garmin directly. When I told her no other store would tell me that, especially since I had paid an extra $10.00 for an extended warranty, she said it was their policy, and there was nothing she could do for me. Only after one year had passed Walmart would deal with me directly. I've never heard of that before, and that snotty young woman did not leave me a satisfied customer and very little respect for Walmart's return policy. So I went back to the location where I bought the GPS. The man I dealt with was friendly and courteous. He said he couldn't give me back my money but he exchanged mine for a new one. I was okay with that. Well, this new one works and I' m happy with it. I've downloaded a number of different voices, but the one I really like, American English, Michelle, doesn't say the street names. Too bad. I really like her voice and I can understand her clearly.
Now I'm using my GPS whenever I drive, just to practice. This one doesn't say 'Recalculating'
when you make a mistake. Hearing that constantly can be annoying, but sometimes it is useful to be told you missed your street or exit. I liked my old GPS, a Garmin nuvi 255, but that one didn't have lifetime maps. That was the reason I bought a new one. The 40LM doesn't have the 'Where am I feature' which I miss, but there is a way to mark your present location by clicking on the vehicle that shows where you are and then putting the location in Favorites. It's a bit more complicated and takes another step. But once you get used to that it's not a problem.
Last year I used a GPS for the first time when we went for a holiday in the US and I found it extremely useful, almost a necessity. It is great when in a strange city. You just mark the location of the hotel you are staying at and you cannot get lost. It will almost lead you back. A GPS is also great for planning the route you want to travel and you always know how long it will take until you arrive at your destination.
However, you can't just blindly follow the suggested route, because sometimes it may lead you down an untraveled road, one that is old and hardly used. So, you can't rely exclusively on the GPS. It is good to have a map handy, just in case.
What I found interesting is the feature that warns you of Red Light Cameras. The first time I head the 'ding' I wondered what the heck was wrong until I looked at the GPS and saw the black line with the warning. But when I wanted to upgrade the Red Light Cameras I discovered that it would cost me $27.00. So I didn't upgrade. It is not so important. I just hope there is no time-limit on the ones I have on my GPS.
That seems to be the thing they do when you buy a gadget. My new computer had a partial Windows Word program. If you want the complete version you have to buy it. The same with the Virius program. I also had a six month trial period for changing a written story into the PDF format. I didn't realize that until I used it for the first time yesterday, only to be told my trial period has ended. To buy the program would cost me about $70.00. That was a special price.Well, I didn't buy it. I don't really need it. Why do they even tease you like that? How many times do you read: Get (this) for free. Then when you go to the site and want to download the program you find out it is free for 30 days or so, and after that they'll automatically deduct an x-amount of dollars from your account. Sadly, we live in a world that is rife with misleading advertising and you have to be on constant alert not to get taken. Not much is really free. There is always something attached to the free gift.

Last Resort

Last night we watched the series finale of Last Resort. Only a couple of days ago I wondered where the show was going. Well, we found out last night. The ending seemed a bit rushed but they wrapped it up pretty good. Not much was left open. I liked that show. Too bad it came to an end. The upside to that (there always is an upside) now we can add another show to our TV time. Don't know which one yet. Perhaps a new show will come up. I really miss a good Science Fiction series like Star Trek. Even The Event was good, but it was cancelled. What else is new? All the good shows I like these days seem to get cancelled. Terra Nova didn't last long. I've always liked dinosaurs. Why? you ask. Could it be because I myself am already a dinosaur? Hmm. Sometimes I wonder. Can't keep up with new gadgets anymore, for one thing. But then again, who, for instance, needs a new cell phone or computer every year? Or a new tablet or laptop? What's wrong with the old one? I bought a new computer a few months ago, 2 Terabytes, with a 23 inch monitor. That is nice, but the only reason I bought another computer was because my old one was getting so slow I could have made a sandwich while I waited for it to change screens. It took forever to download my emails. Sometimes it just refused to do anything. But I liked Windows XP. In fact, I liked it better than Windows 7. Perhaps because I was comfortable with it after having used it for so many years. I saw no reason for a change. Now I have to get used to Windows 7. By the time I'm comfortable with this one Windows 8 will be old. All the new computers have Windows 8. Besides, Windows 8 is not supposed to be that great. I don't  know. It's just what I read. But I wandered off my topic: dinosaurs. I like them. That's why I wrote 3 books about a planet populated with dinosaurs and other nasties: Lizard World. You can find out more about them on my writer's blog Herbert's World.
Another show we started watching is Vegas. In fact, one of the characters in that show is played by Jason O'Mara, one of the main actors who appeared in Terra Nova. Of course, Vegas is not a SciFi show. It's all about Vegas in the 1950s. It's a good show. Will it last?

The Mob Doctor

Last night we finally got around to watch the series finale of the Mob Doctor. What a great show. Good acting, lots of action, serious, and not filled with stupid bantering between the characters, but, for some unexplainable reason, it was cancelled. I don't understand that. There are so many crummy shows on Television, but the really good ones don't seem to last. What kind of stuff do people actually like? Some of the shows are so stupid. They are supposed to be funny but they are not. Even the serious ones can be boring. We started watching Deception. It sounded good and there are good actors playing in it. I always liked Victor Gerber. But the show is boring, like a soap opera. Nothing really happens. Too much talking. I wonder if it will last.
Why are some shows cancelled? Who decides that they are not good? Somebody must take surveys. I remember the original Star Trek. After it was cancelled, they discovered that whoever took the surveys made a mistake. Star Trek had a huge following, but then it was too late. The set had been dismantled and the actors moved on to other things.
We are still watching  NCIS: Los Angeles and still like it, but sometimes the bantering between the characters gets a bit too much. It is borderline to what we can stand. The producers should decide if a show is supposed to be a comedy or a serious show. One of our favorite shows is Person of Interest. I hope it stays around for awhile. Another great show we watch is Hawaii Five O. A little bit bantering between the main characters, but acceptable.
The Last Resort, good show. Don't know where they are going with it.
Still watching Vampire Diaries, Blue Bloods, Last man standing, Modern Family, Once upon a Time, Bomb Girls, Mike and Molly, Big Bang Theory, and, surprisingly, Two and a half men. They toned down Kutcher's character, he's not so bumbling and moronic anymore, and it is much better now.
Can't wait for Game of Thrones to come back in March. Now, that's a terrific show.

Winter can be fun, too.

 We are having a snowstorm today with a blizzard warning for this afternoon and tonight, but it won’t be as bad as it is right now on the east coast where they are getting 80 cm of snow and more. Our weather people predicted only about 20 cm, which can be bad enough with high winds that create snow drifts. The streets are slippery and there have been a few accidents again. It’s the idiots that never learn, but sometimes even careful drivers slide off the road into the ditch or worse into another car. The best thing is to stay at home until the storm has blown over. Of course, not everybody can do that. People still work. As a retiree I have the option to stay home and I am exercising that option today. We did our grocery shopping yesterday.

Some people don’t like winter. I don’t really mind it, especially when I can look outside from a cozy and warm place. Except for snow blowing and feeding the birds there isn’t much to do outside, not like all the work we have starting in Spring until Fall.

Looking out

Our backyard on a sunny winter's day

I’m not into riding snow mobiles or other sports in the winter. I don’t play hockey, and don’t put me on skates. It wouldn’t be a pretty site. When I was a kid in Germany I wanted skates, but my parents couldn’t afford to buy me any, if they even were available after the war. So my dad, who was quite handy, made me a pair of skates. He carved two pieces of wood to be tied to my shoes. For runners he used a long piece of thick wire which he hammered into the underside of the carved wood pieces. Needles to say, my legs were all over the ice. It was impossible to break with those round wires under my home made skates. I managed to survive those years without breaking my ankles. But I was happy. I had skates. We didn’t have fancy hockey rinks. We skated on 2 inches of ice on ponds. I’m surprised nobody ever broke through the ice and drowned. But as kids we recognized the dangers and were careful not going on the ice if it started cracking when the first kid who tried it out to see  if it was thick enough to hold anyone.

We didn’t have adult supervision either, and no cell phones to call home to tell our parents what we were doing. Everyone carried a pocket knife, but we didn’t stab each other. We used the knives for carving or playing games like throwing the knives into the ground in a game where you tried to build an empire by claiming land inside a square scratched into the ground. We carried slingshots in our back pockets to do target shooting, but not each other. Sometimes we shot at birds or rabbits. Never got any though. Things were different when I grew up. I would almost say more civilized with fewer laws to protect us. We didn’t need them. We were smart enough. We played outside. We talked with each other in person, not on iphones. We had real friends we knew and played with, not a hundred or more, ones we never met in the flesh and didn’t really know. We had respect for teachers, cops, older people. We would have never dared to threaten anyone, because we knew we’d get punished. The only guns we carried were made out of wood and shot small homemade arrows. We made bows from willow branches and used long willow branches to ride on, pretending they were horses. We used our imagination to play and make up games.

But I’m getting carried away with my lamenting. Back to fun stuff. I went ice-fishing last week with my son and grandchildren. We fished on Lake Winnipeg. There were so many fishing huts strung along shore like pearl on a string, but many anglers put up tents. We had one. Amazing technology. It stores inside a bag about five feet long and can easily be carried by one person, but it pops open into a tent large enough to hold four people with chairs and still room to have four holes in the ice. The ice was about 4 feet thick, strong enough to drive on, and with a good auger it takes not even a minute to drill one hole. The sun was shining, but it was nippy in the north wind. We had a heater inside the tent, barbequed sausages for lunch and had a great time, even though the action wasn’t as good as we’d hoped. We caught only a couple of walleyes, but we had nibblers that stole our frozen minnows off the hooks.

Winter doesn’t have to be boring. There is a lot of fun stuff to do, but it is important to get out and do something, especially for young people before they get stupid ideas from the video games they play and from watching too many violent shows. So many people do nothing and complain about the long winter and the cold. With warm clothing and insulated boots it is fun to be outside. Of course not on a day like today when it’s miserable out there. High winds and blowing snow. That’s when it’s time to stay inside and spend some time on the computer without feeling guilty about it.

Our cozy tent on the ice of Lake Winnipeg

There are fish under the ice after all

The Next Best Thing

I am taking part in a Blog Hopping. Readers and authors will be directed to the page on my Author's blog. Here is the link http://hegro.blogspot.ca/p/blog-page_9.html