Life is passing you by!

  I am not old but I remember when driving one's car was a wonderful escape from the daily grind at work . You were unreachable in your car. You could concentrate on driving while admiring the beautiful scenery. One might have kept a map in their car or just jotted down the directions to where you were heading on a piece of paper. Life was simple.
  I have been in pharmacy sales for many years and I recall driving to different cities and towns. Heading to the first gas station, finding the phone booth, ripping out the yellow pages for pharmacies and then driving to each store stopping many times on the way to ask directions. I am one of those guys who never minded asking for directions.
 Today your car is an office. You have a phone, a computer and a GPS. Usually you also have a pad of paper and a pen to write notes and reminders. You have no time to relax and admire the scenery.
   I am told I need to embrace technology. I have a GPS.  I think it is cool having a "Global Positioning System" in my car and it usually is correct, although I still don't trust it 100%. The problem with a GPS is that it takes all the thinking out of driving. You put in the address and you follow the directions. I headed out today to visit a customer whom I have visited on numerous occasions, I put the address in the GPS and off  I went. Driving for 45 minutes, passing farms, cows, golf courses, driving to absolutely no where. Only to realize the location is Dundas East not West. I knew that, I had been there before, but the address said West and once the GPS was turned on my mind was turned off.
  I took my GPS on a trip to Washington a couple years ago. It must have been jet lagged because It was about 100 meters slow. Whenever it told me to turn I was already a 100 meters past the turn. Then of course the dreaded "recalculating" came up like a good scolding.
 Once when driving with a passenger my GPS recognized the passenger's accent and switched the language to Afrikaans. It did it all by itself, I don't even know how to switch the language on my GPS.
 Technology is great and fun but sometimes we just need to escape the daily grind. Maybe next time on the road turn everything off for half an hour, open your windows, take off your shoes, crank up the music and enjoy those precious few moments. Everything else can wait!