Mr. FixIt has ruined me. Let me explain.
I’m updating the GPS unit I bought in 2014 as I was leaving Denver to drive cross-country to live on the farm. I do not believe it has been updated at all. I don’t know…maybe once? I’ve tried three different times over the last few days and I kept getting an error message. At first, it said to use the USB cord that came with the unit. I thought, if there was any chance whatsoever I still have the darned thing, it would be in the console of my truck. It took me a day or two to get it together and sit in 95 degree heat rummaging through stacks of unused paper napkins, CD’s (who even listens to those anymore?), receipts, packets of catsup and soy sauce, a slip of paper with a phone number on it that’s undoubtedly important, and that cool tool I bought to cut my seat belt and break the window if I ever find myself sinking to the bottom of a body of water in my F-150. Hey…I’m a Girl Camper…I’m always ready!
Anyway, after tearing through the console for ten minutes or so, the USB cord wasn’t there. It was two more days before I got around to trying again. You remember every year when I sit down to do my taxes, the laptop always needs a dozen updates and it’s slow and I need to run a virus scan and the cleanup program and before I know it, three hours have passed and I’m finally ready to get to work? Well, that was yesterday afternoon. Argh! I decided to just order a new cord from Garmin, but I couldn’t find the link so I chatted with customer service. Tyrrone came online and gave me the link I needed. I was ALMOST ready to hit “send” on the payment when I thought some more. Maybe that cord…or one like it that would work…was in this special bag where I keep extra things like that.
I set everything aside, pulled out the bag, and the second cord I tried worked! When I downloaded the update, i kept getting an error message that said, “File cannot be installed on this computer. Please try again.” After trying three times, I realized the Garmin Express file I had on my computer was outdated, so I tried updating it. Again, I got the same error message. I tried to uninstall the old version and got the error message, “Task cannot be competed.”
Breathe, Ginny…breathe.
I chatted with customer service again and he sent another link to work around that and…the computer froze. OMGosh! Why does this have to be so hard? I rebooted the computer, ran through the steps and the program magically disappeared. Yes! That allowed me to download the installer for the new version, which worked out fine. Then, when I started the update, our internet is SOOOOOOOOO slow, as I’m writing this, the predicted time to download is 4 hours, 47 minutes! Ok…fine. I set the whole thing aside on the floor by my chair so there’s no chance I’ll accidentally unplug the darned thing and have to start over.
Now, here’s where I tell you how my husband has ruined me. There was a time in my life when I would have just gone out and bought a new GPS. After all, this one is at least seven years old…it’s served me well. And, you can buy new ones now that are specifically geared towards campers. Sweet! However…they cost $300 or more. After being with my sweet West Virginia boy these last few years (West Virginians are known to be frugal and resourceful) his “frugality” is rubbing off on me! Darn it. I hate shopping now. I spend an inordinate amount of time researching things before I spring to buy them. I’ll often sit for a couple of weeks with items in an online shopping cart, only to go back in later and decide I didn’t really need that after all.
See? Totally ruined. lol
When we first got together, I just grabbed whatever I wanted off the grocery store shelves. Because, and this is my privileged past showing here, it had been many, many years since I had to consider the difference between the price of store brands versus name brands. At first, going shopping with him was immensely frustrating. Then something happened. He hugged me one day and told me we would never argue about money. Which told me, if there was ever anything we WOULD argue about, it would be money. I’ve learned to “watch my pennies so my dollars watch themselves.” We learned to compromise and he rarely buys store brand mayo anymore because it’s just gross. And…after all, the money we save takes us on great adventures! It’s important to be good stewards of the gifts God gives us…one of which is money. It’s even more important as we age.
So, yeah…I’m ruined. But totally in a good way!
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“Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful.”
1 Corinthians 4:2 ESV