A Trip To The Mall

I had several undercover assignments this week that necessitated me visiting one of the largest malls in Georgia and I asked Mom if she wanted to tag along. There was an extended silence on the phone as she shuffled through the pages of her day planner trying to see if she could work me in. (I'm the one who is supposed to have a full day planner, not my mom.) "I guess I'm available Friday. But, we need to get back early--I got something going on Friday night," she said. Mom had gotten me one of those GPS gadgets for Christmas and she was convinced that I wasn't using it. I tried to explain to her that I really didn't need to use it when I am just walking around the house. Hmmphh-I knew where the fridge was. Anyhow, we had decided to take it along with us and Mom was oohing and aahing over the silky smooth voice that told me to make a left turn and head in the opposite direction of where we were going. The voice and I didn't quite agree on the correct way to our destination. I told Mom to turn it off because it kept yelling at me to make a U-turn when possible. We drove for the next thirty minutes and then it was time to turn back on the voice. It wouldn't work. It kept telling me to make a left turn, make a left turn! The GPS voice by this time was practically a high-pitched squeal "WILL YOU MAKE A LEFT TURN, FOR PETE'S SAKE!" "I don't like this thing," said Mom. "Me neither," I replied. With that we unplugged the screaming banshee, banished her to the back seat and stopped and ask for directions. Later that night after I dropped Mom off at her Friday night soiree' I fished the GPS from the back seat thinking I was going to figure out why it had stopped working. It wasn't hard to figure out. It seems that when we had turned it off, we had turned it to the Reset mode, not the Off position. It had lost all of its programming.