GPS – Jana Bouc, Artist

I was actually on time for once, but couldn’t remember how to get where I was going so I plugged my GPS into one of the outlets in my car. When I pulled it back out to move it to another outlet, the charger thingee seemed to explode, flying to pieces.

Using my key chain flashlight I found something that looked like a fuse, and a spidery silvery thing that seemed to fit atop the cylinder but everything else was missing. I searched the floor and the seats but it was dark, getting late and I had to go.

I quickly checked the GPS to see the route from Highway 80 to 580 to 24 to the Claremont Exit. Then I turned it off, saving the last bit of battery for it to guide me on the final confusing steps around the one-way streets that would take me to my destination, where I arrived, late as usual.

Buying a new charger unit would be expensive because it has a built-in traffic receiver. So the next day I searched my car again and found two missing pieces in one of the many storage compartments, and another two pieces hiding on the floor (easier to see in the daylight).

Amazingly, for spatially-challenged me, I figured out how to put it all back together. And even more amazing: it still works!

So of course I had to celebrate in my sketchbook.

Loster Than I’ve Ever Been

What was I thinking? Somehow, despite printed instructions, my GPS unit and mapping software on my iPhone, I managed to get more lost than I’ve ever been in my life today (except for the time I was driving across country on highways and somehow ended up on a dead end street). I arrived so late at our painting site that there was no time to set up all my gear so I just did this quick, wonky sketch.

The paint-out was on Mare Island, a former naval base and shipyard with historic buildings, factories and old officers’ mansions. First I was a little late leaving the house, and then, after going over the Vallejo-Carquinez bridge four times, and multiple wrong turns (second guessing the GPS), and driving in circles, I was REALLY late.

Part of the problem was not being able to get to sleep the night before and drinking way too much coffee to try to wake up in the morning. But the biggest problem was that I hadn’t taken the time to pinpoint where I was going and so the information I put into the GPS wasn’t accurate. And the stupidest thing was that my plein air group had provided me with perfectly simple instructions which I complicated by using my GPS incorrectly. (A perfect example of GIGO: Garbage In: Garbage Out).

By the time I got home I was tired, hungry, disappointed and frustrated so it seemed like a good day to work on the rebuild of my website. At least I made good progress on that and accomplished something today.