Geek Habitat

Yes, Justin and I have done it again. We always seem to splurge for something just before the holidays that would end up on one of our wishlists, anyway! One rationalization goes like this: by keeping it off the wishlists, it prevents my parents (all too generous year-round, but particularly around the holidays) from buying it for us, and thereby spending far too much money! That, and it lets us indulge in some geek gear appreciation a month or so earlier than the holidays/birthdays/anniversary allows!

So, I am now the proud owner of a new Garmin Streetpilot 2720 GPS with WAAS, the best color touch screen on the market, text-to-speech capability and 3D maps (no more {GPS} “Go south… [pause] Rerouting!” {Me} “Damn, I thought a right turn there would have put me going south!”)

Amazon.com has the Streetpilot 2720 marked 35% off retail ($769.99 vs. a tough-to-swallow $1,184.99).

This is one of my first real no guilt geek purchases in awhile, actually. With four of my five eBay auctions paid and concluded, I had more than enough for the new Streetpilot. Once I finally find a legitimate (read: paying) buyer for my older Garmin Streetpilot III GPS with City Navigator version 6, I’ll even have some seed funds for my new computer purchase in early 2006.

Geeks that we are, we got in the car this evening after the GPS was delivered and started fiddling with its options. I’m already in love, and plan on playing chauffeur for/with it tomorrow. You know, so I can “break it in”. <grin>

Aside: UPS “Next Day” delivery means that even though your package gets loaded on the UPS truck and sent “Out for delivery” at 7 AM, you are guaranteed not to receive it until at least 7 PM that same day. Since I work at home, I know the UPS delivery schedule in our neighborhood fairly well — if I don’t get a package around 11-11:30 AM, the next likely delivery time is usually 1-1:30 PM, and after that perhaps 3-3:30 or 4 PM if they’re busy. But every single time we splurge on “Next Day” delivery, not a single UPS truck will visit our tract until 7-8:30 PM!