Mary Anne Carter
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Monthly Archives: March 2009
Mar 5 2009

Tom-Tom GPS Unit

by Mary Anne

About 18 months ago we bought a Tom-Tom GPS Unit.  I bought it for my hubby, to help him get around the area when we moved here.

This unit’s built-in maps are obsolete for this area.  There are roads that have been here for over eleven years that are not in the system.  In addition, there are lots of roads that have been closed and turned into new subdivisions with different roads.  So there are a lot of times that Tom-Tom tells us to turn onto a road that is now just lawn and trees and houses.  Sometimes Tom-Tom tells us to go the wrong way down one-way streets, and sometimes it just plain and simple gives us completely wrong directions.

This makes using the Tom-Tom a challenge.  We are very disappointed in the product.  We have considered buying the new maps disk for Tom-Tom, but am afraid that those maps won’t really be any better than the ones it already has!  So, when I go someplace that I’m not SURE where I am going, I also prepare for the trip by bringing maps, and printing directions from MapQuest (which is not always right, either!)

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Mar 5 2009

Still have not finished moving all of our stuff

by Mary Anne

We are still in the process of moving all of our household and garage contents from New England to Virginia.  Money has been tight, so we have moving “on a shoestring.”  We have been doing this slowly by ourselves.  Most of our belongings that are still in New England are being housed in my hubby’s mother’s garage.  The rest are in the garage of the house that we still own, but are renting out.  We have been doing most of our moving by doing all of our packing ourselves, and renting one-way trucks and cars.

While we were still living in New England, we would rent a one-way truck, load it up, drive it down to Virginia, unload it, go pick up a one-way rental car, return the one-way truck, then drive the one-way rental car back to New England.  This was a lot of work, and put a lot of stress on all of us.  We were very tired and irritable a lot, for long stretches of time.  And to top it off, anything that broke was not covered by any kind of insurance or guarantee!

If we had been able to afford to hire a moving company, I would have done some Internet research at to help me do some comparison shopping on moving companies. 

At the time we started our move, I tried to find one of those self-service moving companies to use, but there just weren’t any doing business anywhere near where we lived in New England.

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Mar 5 2009

GPS units in general

by Mary Anne

Yesterday morning my hubby & I were watching the news (I think it was the Today Show) and they did a field test of three different GPS systems, I think one was Magellan, one was Garmin, and one was Tom Tom.  They gave a different one to three different reporters in Boston and had them all go from the same origination point to the same destination point, all programming their GPS units to go the fastest route.  None of them took the same route!  They all went different ways!  And each unit told the reporters to go the wrong way down one way streets!  So, I think there is a lot of room for improvement on the GPS units!

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Mar 5 2009

Pain relief

by Mary Anne

Last weekend my hubby went to New England to visit his mother.  She had just had her 80th birthday, and my hubby flew up unannounced, to surprise her.  My hubby is recovering from an accident that has left him with a lot of pain.  Due to airline security restrictions, he was unable to take with him the topical pain-relief ointments that he has been using here at home.

We didn’t think that would be too much of a problem, however, his mother’s house is virtually a pharmacy of pain relief therapies.   When he got to New England, and he asked for some kind of topical pain-relief ointment, she gave him some Great Value Muscle Rub ointment to use.  He liked it very much, and when he got home from his visit, he asked me to look for it at our nearby pharmacy and pick some up to have to use here at home.

So, the next time I’m at Wal-Mart, I’ll be looking for it!

Categories: Family, Health, Shopping | Comments Off

Mar 4 2009

When we buy a new car

by Mary Anne

Hubby is interested in buying a new vehicle.  He has been spending hours researching the different vehicles that he might like to buy.

We have been discussing the different “hidden costs” of a vehicle, such as the maintenance costs (tires, repairs, insurance, etc.) as an important thing to consider for each vehicle that he is considering.

So, he has decided that he needs to do some Internet research on the cost of insurance for the different types of vehicles we have been considering.

Up to this point in time, we have always just called the insurance company that we use for our homeowner’s policy and asked them for a quote on bundling all of our family cars into a combined multi-car discount and homeowner’s insurance policy.  The reason we have done this is that I have “heard” that is the best way to get the best premiums.  For our convenience, we have had them simply deduct our premiums monthly from our checking account.

My hubby has decided that perhaps we have been misled, and is going to be checking out the other options.  My ideal vehicle (which I don’t even know if it exists yet!) would be a hybrid minivan that gets great mileage.  Or better yet, a hybrid conversion van!  I love conversion vans!  I have never owned a either a conversion van, or a minivan, but always wanted to have one.  

Categories: Family, Finances, Life, Shopping | Comments Off

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