Unnerving Dependence on Technology

My children, the young'uns that they are, have no idea that there was a time when cell phones did not narrate directions to you turn by turn, never mind that there was a time when cell phones did not exist at all and people had to use (*gasp*) paper maps to navigate.  When we have these conversations, I feel very VERY old.

I spent a lot of this weekend in the car.  Friday night was that birthday party of Thing Two's I almost forgot about.  Saturday I had a baby shower for one of Himself's cousins to attend in the afternoon and then the end-of-year party for Thing One's soccer team that evening.  Today, it was Mass, Home Depot, Petunia's soccer game and then a haul out to the boys' tournament site to catch the last two games (sadly, I missed all four of Thing One's games this weekend and the first two of Thing Two's...the realities of time and space sometimes suck.)

I'm familiar with the park where the birthday party was held despite its 30-min distance from home, but needed directions to avoid the major highway leading to it at rush hour.  I am totally unfamiliar with the areas where the bridal shower and tournament were held (each at least an hour from home in opposite directions) and the soccer party was at a house so far off the beaten path that two of the three direction-finding apps on my iPhone didn't even acknowledge its existence!  Mapquest and the basic maps app were both clueless...Google Maps was the only one that came through on this particular occasion.  I felt like one app or another was telling me where to go all damned weekend between the to-ing and the fro-ing.

All things considered, the apps did pretty well.  I got lost going to the park on Friday and suspect that I came home from the tournament by an exceedingly roundabout route, but I did eventually get to where I was going in both cases.  And considering that my alternative in each case was having an elementary schooler navigate from printed directions, the apps were a much handier alternative, although it is always disconcerting to be relying entirely on a device that may well be leading you completely astray for all you know!  (see e.g. the park debacle, in which case I ended up on the wrong side of town entirely and had to switch to a different app in a random parking lot somewhere.)

Oh, and the kids' record for their nine games of soccer this weekend??  1-8.  Thing One's team won once and that was it.  Thing Two did shine today, though, particularly in the second game, in which he played goalie for the second half against a far superior team and shut them out entirely except for a freak goal they scored in the last 30 seconds of the game.  That's his last game of the season and all three coaches were effusive in their praise after the game, so at least his season ended on a high note from a personal standpoint even if they had just lost four games straight as a team in two days.

Now we are home, and it is quiet.  The kids are in bed and there are no electronic voices to be heard.  It is a major relief to me that I do not need direction-finding assistance to get me anywhere I need to go tomorrow!