Gee PS

You try to depend on local government to get everything right so public life can flow smoothly but it doesn't happen. Yeah, I know it's tough, and they want to stay out of the babysitting business, but there are subtle elements that are handled all the better by the private sector.

Example:

Drive somewhere on a major road (not an expressway) and I dare you to know the name of the road. Street signs--if there--show the smaller intersecting ones but not the get-there road you're on for... miles? Nervous miles?

Most any GPS will tell you that. Useful? Yeah.

And those little helpers do more.

Try to tell someone the exact distance to a landmark. Most GPS units will show that. Also ETA. Also upcoming streets and landmarks maybe a mile away.

None of that shows through the windshield.

I recently gave directions to a lost stranger. "Take the next right, then the next left." It would have been all the more helpful if I'd known the distance. Those turns may have been a mile away, or ten. I don't carry that detail in my head, even though it's neighborhood. And said stranger would have done well on his own if he'd had a GPS.

No, I didn't buy any stock before I mentioned this.

I just crave useful information and am willing to go get it. And pass on how I did.