Lucy

 Last night I spoke on the phone with the man I called on last Saturday morning, the one who expressed interest in a Bible study. Let's call him Larry.

Larry suggested we visit him around 11:00 a.m. today. At 10:30 a.m. I began punching address details into our car GPS device that I call Lucy (Lucy in the sky with directions). With information carefully entered I double checked the destination with Google Maps on my iPhone. All looked good. Next, we departed.

Soon Carol felt Lucy was leading us astray. I began to feel this way too, but maybe Lucy had just chosen a different route.

Lucy announced arrival at our destination at 11:00 a.m. Alas, it was clearly not where we wanted to be. I looked at Google Maps again and this time we were way out of sync. I telephoned Larry to let him know we'd be late. Unfortunately I was unable to get through to him, but I left a message.

GPS is a great idea but why, every once in a while, does it go bonkers and lead one seriously astray?

Okay, I didn't need helicopter

rescue like some folks, but it

was deeply annoying just the

same.

By the time I got to Larry's door it was 11:30 a.m. There was no answer and the car he had been working on last week was gone.

Now we all understand the paramount purpose of an electronic device is to streamline things. When they mess up things instead it can be, and in this instance certainly was, highly frustrating. I could envision a trip to a hardware store, the purchase of one steel head sledge hammer, the placing of one GPS device on a large rock, and the transformation of it by kinetic means into a smooth, fine powder.

So far this has not happened. We simply drove back home while Carol coached me in singing the song, "Don't Worry, Be Happy."