All of this reminds me of an Asimov story, called “Twilight” I think, in which a time traveler goes far into the future and finds humans as helpless, thoughtless beings for whom machines do everything. He says he could still seem a flame of humanity in their eyes, but it was about to go out.

I am pretty good with knowing where I am but I’ve really come to love the Garmin simply because I can be more spontaneous. It also makes getting around in huge cities like New York City much easier when you know which ten interstate interchanges you will need to take to get from point A to B.

I too like repairing stuff just for the act of doing so. I rebuilt the transmission on my wife’s mixer twice and salvaged one of the Magic Bullet mixers with a bad switch with a ten cent switch and some hot glue. We still use that sucker. But I draw the line sometime like my lawnmower with a bent crank on it. I’m frugal and unless I can repair it for cheaper than a new one, I will opt for the new one and grit my teeth when disposing of the old one.

But I say hang onto all those skills because they do come in handy. They are predicting 1″ of ice accumulation up here tonight and tomorrow which if true, will knock us out of commission for a few days if not a week or two. With the possibility of no gas, no electricity, no restaurants, people are running around like lunatics right now. I on the other hand, got out the kerosene heater to keep the plumbing warm, carried in wood to keep us warm and dug out my campstove and propane along with some good books.