After four long days of driving between 400 and 680 km a day, I arrived home safely on Sunday and went straight to Penola Nursing Home to see Mum. She had been unconscious for seven days by then, had lost her swallowing mechanism and wasn't able to eat or drink. When I got close to home, family members told her I was on my way and she definitely responded to me when I arrived, trying to open her eyes, moving her mouth and holding my hand tightly. She didn't regain consciousness but seemed just heavily asleep. Since then she has barely moved but continues to hold on. Her breathing is slow but still regular and her pulse is still visible at the base of her throat. Beyond that, she is slowly slipping away. I am sure she knows we have all said goodbye and there is sometimes a slight movement of the eyes when several of us are there and talking. It seems incredible that the human spirit can hold on so long. Poor dear Mum. It is a long hard struggle even to let go. I am spending several hours a day with her, as are most of my siblings.
My trip home was memorable only by its lack of variety. My purpose was to get home quickly and safely. I stayed in motels each night because I wanted to be rested enough to face a long drive. After poking around for months, sometimes doing less than a hundred kilometres over a few days, each day seemed longer than the one before. Despite a good sleep, I made an early start each day and drove for an hour or so before stopping for breakfast. After another hour or so, I needed to pull over and sleep before moving on towards lunch. (This was the time I would have been waking up in my other life.) An afternoon nap was needed to get me to my destination each evening. After Adelaide, I stopped at Mildura, Ardlethan, Gilgandra and Toowoomba - four days to get home after four months getting to Adelaide!
My GPS angel is Kerry and I have decided that she is a ditherer. She finds it hard to get going and to make a decision. Once we are on the way, she is generally efficient. But when I key a destination into her litte memory, she immediately says something like, Continue 150 metres. By the time I've done that, she's telling me to make a U-Turn. Then suddenly she wants me to make another U-Turn and go back the way I was already heading. She seems to get into a panic for a minute or two. Unfortunately this is the minute or two that I am getting into a panic also as I try to decide which way to go. It is not a good time for either of us. I am trying to remember if I made a turn when I stopped or if I am still facing in the direction I was travelling. So, while I am driving up and down the same stretch of road, I try to get a decision from her before I commit too much trust to her directions.
I have a real problem with the concept of GPS. I have had it explained to me. In fact, I heard an interview with one of the voices of TomTom who talked about the process and how all the information needed was recorded in about 50 hours. That I find impossible to comprehend. How can one person take millions of drivers through any part of the world with just a few directions? Perhaps it is possible with generic instructions like, Turn left in 200 metres, though I still find that hard to believe. How does she ever know to say, Turn left into Ascot Avenue in 200 metres? And I don't care if she is attaching herself to six or seven satellites. And how does she do that anyhow? As Professor Julius Sumner-Miller used to ask, How is it so? (Or was that, Why is it so?)
I have decided that there is really only one way for us to get personal attention from those satellites and friendly GPS voices. I believe that we are each given a guardian angel (separate from the one who walks with us all the time) who comes with the GPS when we buy it. The angel probably is given the choice of who to work with because I am sure I have been targeted (I mean, chosen) by a specific angel.
By the end of my career, I can honestly say that I was a very good teacher, maybe even an exceptional teacher - without being too boastful. But in my early days, I am sure there were students who didn't do as well as they should have. I think I have one of my early students as my angel. I also think that she was very happy with her education and thought I taught her well. That is why she is so obliging but panics a bit because she wants to do well for me. Before I became immersed in literacy teaching, I may not have been quite as specific as I was later about syllabification and pronunciation. This could well by why her intonation is often odd, with the emphasis put on the wrong syllable. But she does try and she is consistent. (That sounds like something I may have written on her report card.)
Unsurprisingly with me for a teacher, Kerry Angel sometimes has problems with maths.She doesn't differentiate between 100 and 110 kmh zones and keeps beeping me for speeding when I am pushing along at the right speed. She also misses a speed sign occasionally. I am not sure how she gets her messages. There is probably a little beam of light coming from the top of the sign post. I see a number, she sees a light. The other issue with her is that she can tell me one minute that there is a petrol station 17.8km away. When I tap that in, she changes her mind and tells me to do a U-Turn and go back 4km or continue 123km. I am never sure then whether she is just dithering again, if I should turn back for 4km, hope that the 17.8 was right, or risk running out while I continue 123km.
When I had GPS Jane as my angel, she didn't give me nearly as many directions as Kerry does. My Toastmaster friend, Barrie, had suggested getting a GPS when I was travelling alone. He said I'd have someone talking to me. He was right, in a way. Jane talked to me through the area close to home that I already knew, got me as far as the Bruce Highway and said, Continue 288 km, and didn't talk to me again till then, unless I took a detour or stopped too long. On the other hand, Kerry tells me every 20km. She waits till I am in a white-line-induced trance and suddenly says, Continue 60km, which wakes me up with a start. When I am comfortably cruising again with my mind in neutral, I get Continue 40km, which is almost enough to stop the heart altogether with the unexpected voice contact. I am not sure whether Jane or Kerry is better to have on a long trip.
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