USMB Coffee Shop IV

[Sherry]

If it's the Lord's will, then maybe our future grandchild will be conceived on their honeymoon cruise.

Baby dolphin, cool.

That's funny, because middle school through high school, my daughter was an avid collector of dolphin decor.

You forget, I lived under your bed for like two months. You think I didn't get snacks and look at frig pics?

"Frig" pics??

 

[Gracie]

MrG had half a steak, I had a salad and a small piece of cod. Food up here is atrocious.

 

[gallantwarrior]

If it's the Lord's will, then maybe our future grandchild will be conceived on their honeymoon cruise.

Baby dolphin, cool.

That's funny, because middle school through high school, my daughter was an avid collector of dolphin decor.

You forget, I lived under your bed for like two months. You think I didn't get snacks and look at frig pics?

"Frig" pics??

I'm thinking "fridge"...please, don't make me bleach my eyes...

 

[gallantwarrior]

MrG had half a steak, I had a salad and a small piece of cod. Food up here is atrocious.

It is what you make of it. Although, seafood might be a bit...tired?

 

[Gracie]

Seafood is great, lol. I miss crab legs. But here...too expensive.

 

[blackhawk]

Actually I'm at a higher level.

 

[saveliberty]

If it's the Lord's will, then maybe our future grandchild will be conceived on their honeymoon cruise.

Baby dolphin, cool.

That's funny, because middle school through high school, my daughter was an avid collector of dolphin decor.

You forget, I lived under your bed for like two months. You think I didn't get snacks and look at frig pics?

"Frig" pics??

Fridge? Shorthand to the point of ridiculousness? That and I am tired.

 

[Foxfyre]

Seafood is great, lol. I miss crab legs. But here...too expensive.

Food tends to be pricey here too but I think probably about average across the land. Hombre and I don't go without any needs but on a pretty fixed retirement income we can't really splurge either. He prices things by the half ounce. I price things by the cost per serving. So we don't have expensive seafood and only enjoy a good steak once in a blue moon, but we eat well if economically.

 

[Foxfyre]

And we continue to pray and/or send good vibes and/or positive thoughts and/or keep vigil for:

Harper (Save's granddaughter),
Pogo’s friend Pat and special comfort for Pogo,
Freedombecki,
Noomi!!!
Nosmo's mom,
Ernie's stop smoking project,
Rod, GW's partner,
The Ringels in difficult transition,
Boedicca's Dad,
Foxfyre's friend Dana and Aunt Betty,
Etherion and his grandma,
Kat's sister,
Gallant Warrior's chilly goats,
The Ringel's Gizmo and wellness for Ringel,
Special prayers and/or positive thoughts for Sherry's mom and her life saving medical treatment.
GW's daughter, her friend Sachendra, and Sachendra's husband Bob and son Gary in what is probably Sachendra's last days.
Mrs. Saveliberty with her knee surgery.
Hombre's sore toes,
The Gracies just because,
Special prayers and/or positive thoughts for Mr. Peach and Peach143 in the coming days and wellness for them both.
Ernie!!!
SFC Ollie and his special project.
All of us and those we care about who are looking for work,

And the light is left on for Alan, Noomi, Freedombecki, Oddball, Sixfoot, Spoonman, and all others we hope will find their way back.

Some of you know what this is:

 

[Nosmo King]

On GPS vs Maps:

I live in the Ohio River valley near Pittsburgh. I have a dear friend in the Bath Beach section of Brooklyn. She had a death in the family and I wanted to attend the funeral. She had lost a family member on a Saturday. I got to New York at 8:00 that night. The body had been moved to the city morgue in Brooklyn from the hospital where she succumbed.

My friend, her sister and I went to the morgue to identify the body. I reached for my tri-fold lamented map of southeast Brooklyn. I found the morgue by the index and then plotted a route there. "That's okay, hun!" my friend's sister said "I got GPS!"

And so, her sister entered the address of the morgue to the GPS and off we went.

According to my route, we would have taken the Belt Parkway to Ft. Greene. The GPS barked out the order to "Turn Left on Bay Street."

But the girls are chatty women. They gossiped back and forth oblivious to the request made by the GPS.

I plotted a course that would take us north on Roosevelt. The GPS, meanwhile had been 'recalculating'. And still the sisters chatted, argued, made up, and grieved.

"Are you gonna go on the Ft.Hamilton Parkway?" I dared interrupt. "Turn right on Ft. Hamilton Parkway." chimed in the robot map.

Eventually, we did get to the morgue, and giving me a tour of Brooklyn I never imagined.

The one design flaw, the one engineering mistake was not taking into account of a pair of Brooklyn sisters and their combined attention span where technology is concerned. You have to listen to the device if the device is to be effective.

We concluded our grim business with the Coroner's Department of the City of New York. We climbed back into the Ford Explorer and the forsaken GPS. The sister wondered if she had to turn north or south from the spot at the morgue. "Left". I said. "The take the close right onto Ft. Hamilton then to the Belt"

"How do you know that?" she shot back incredulous that a Yinzer from Ohio would have taxi driver caliber skills on the mean streets of Brooklyn.

"I paid attention." I answered.

 

[Ridgerunner]

On GPS vs Maps:

I live in the Ohio River valley near Pittsburgh. I have a dear friend in the Bath Beach section of Brooklyn. She had a death in the family and I wanted to attend the funeral. She had lost a family member on a Saturday. I got to New York at 8:00 that night. The body had been moved to the city morgue in Brooklyn from the hospital where she succumbed.

My friend, her sister and I went to the morgue to identify the body. I reached for my tri-fold lamented map of southeast Brooklyn. I found the morgue by the index and then plotted a route there. "That's okay, hun!" my friend's sister said "I got GPS!"

And so, her sister entered the address of the morgue to the GPS and off we went.

According to my route, we would have taken the Belt Parkway to Ft. Greene. The GPS barked out the order to "Turn Left on Bay Street."

But the girls are chatty women. They gossiped back and forth oblivious to the request made by the GPS.

I plotted a course that would take us north on Roosevelt. The GPS, meanwhile had been 'recalculating'. And still the sisters chatted, argued, made up, and grieved.

"Are you gonna go on the Ft.Hamilton Parkway?" I dared interrupt. "Turn right on Ft. Hamilton Parkway." chimed in the robot map.

Eventually, we did get to the morgue, and giving me a tour of Brooklyn I never imagined.

The one design flaw, the one engineering mistake was not taking into account of a pair of Brooklyn sisters and their combined attention span where technology is concerned. You have to listen to the device if the device is to be effective.

We concluded our grim business with the Coroner's Department of the City of New York. We climbed back into the Ford Explorer and the forsaken GPS. The sister wondered if she had to turn north or south from the spot at the morgue. "Left". I said. "The take the close right onto Ft. Hamilton then to the Belt"

"How do you know that?" she shot back incredulous that a Yinzer from Ohio would have taxi driver caliber skills on the mean streets of Brooklyn.

"I paid attention." I answered.

I never claimed to be the sharpest tool in the shed, but the one natural ability I have always been able to rely on was my sense of direction... I was very fortunate as a young whippersnapper and my parents were very mobile... We used to not only take vacations and travel, all by the automobile or Truck (sometimes train as I have been from coast to coast by train) I was lucky enough to have been in 44 States by the time I was 18...

I learned from a very early age that there was a wonderful world outside any window I had my nose stuck to... And for some reason I retained places we traveled most of the time... I have returned to previous destinations 20 years later and been able to navigate like I had been living there all along...

Paying attention is a good thing and being able to read a map is an absolute...

 

[Montrovant]

I'm arguing a bit with my English Comp instructor about my last test. I got a 94 on the test, so I don't need more points to get an A, but in a couple of questions, I disagree with the answers. I don't like to leave answers that seem wrong to me just hanging there. Luckily, I've had a good rapport with my instructor, so I don't expect any sort of negative feedback from my questioning the results.

In my Medical Terminology class, we have a writing assignment in which we not only have to correctly change phrases into the correct medical term (if the sentence says, "George went to a doctor that specializes in conditions of the heart," we would need to write, "George went to a cardiologist."), we also have to correct spelling and grammar errors. Unfortunately, there were a couple of occasions where I fixed a perceived error only to have it be marked incorrect. On two occasions, I changed the tense of one of the words in order to conform to the tense in the rest of the paragraph. Luckily, after I emailed my instructor, I was told that the writing assignments will be gone over after the allotted time to complete them ends, so my current grade of 78 may well improve.

Finally, I got my grade for the A&P exam I took on Thursday. I had felt good about that exam and hoped to be able to match the 96 I got on my first proctored A&P test. I did not get a 96 this time......I got a 102! I didn't realize any of the questions were extra credit, but apparently so, and I completely aced this one. I've got 2 proctored exams left, and a few labs and quizzes. There are a total of 35 points still available for me to get for the class, and I'm already at a 62.3 or thereabouts, so it's looking excellent for me in the class. If I can get an A on the next proctored exam, and continue to easily get all the points for my labs and quizzes, I will be at a B before I have to take the final. It would be nice to not have a lot of pressure for the final, because I'm not sure how much of the information from the past few months I will have retained.

Now, with my schoolwork going well, I have to hope that the little one will come home with good grades from her tests from two Fridays ago, before her week off for Spring Break.

 

[Montrovant]

On GPS vs Maps:

I live in the Ohio River valley near Pittsburgh. I have a dear friend in the Bath Beach section of Brooklyn. She had a death in the family and I wanted to attend the funeral. She had lost a family member on a Saturday. I got to New York at 8:00 that night. The body had been moved to the city morgue in Brooklyn from the hospital where she succumbed.

My friend, her sister and I went to the morgue to identify the body. I reached for my tri-fold lamented map of southeast Brooklyn. I found the morgue by the index and then plotted a route there. "That's okay, hun!" my friend's sister said "I got GPS!"

And so, her sister entered the address of the morgue to the GPS and off we went.

According to my route, we would have taken the Belt Parkway to Ft. Greene. The GPS barked out the order to "Turn Left on Bay Street."

But the girls are chatty women. They gossiped back and forth oblivious to the request made by the GPS.

I plotted a course that would take us north on Roosevelt. The GPS, meanwhile had been 'recalculating'. And still the sisters chatted, argued, made up, and grieved.

"Are you gonna go on the Ft.Hamilton Parkway?" I dared interrupt. "Turn right on Ft. Hamilton Parkway." chimed in the robot map.

Eventually, we did get to the morgue, and giving me a tour of Brooklyn I never imagined.

The one design flaw, the one engineering mistake was not taking into account of a pair of Brooklyn sisters and their combined attention span where technology is concerned. You have to listen to the device if the device is to be effective.

We concluded our grim business with the Coroner's Department of the City of New York. We climbed back into the Ford Explorer and the forsaken GPS. The sister wondered if she had to turn north or south from the spot at the morgue. "Left". I said. "The take the close right onto Ft. Hamilton then to the Belt"

"How do you know that?" she shot back incredulous that a Yinzer from Ohio would have taxi driver caliber skills on the mean streets of Brooklyn.

"I paid attention." I answered.

I never claimed to be the sharpest tool in the shed, but the one natural ability I have always been able to rely on was my sense of direction... I was very fortunate as a young whippersnapper and my parents were very mobile... We used to not only take vacations and travel, all by the automobile or Truck (sometimes train as I have been from coast to coast by train) I was lucky enough to have been in 44 States by the time I was 18...

I learned from a very early age that there was a wonderful world outside any window I had my nose stuck to... And for some reason I retained places we traveled most of the time... I have returned to previous destinations 20 years later and been able to navigate like I had been living there all along...

Paying attention is a good thing and being able to read a map is an absolute...

I have almost no sense of direction. If asked what direction something is in, or which direction I am facing, I have to think of the phrase, "The sun rises in the east and sets in the west" and extrapolate from there. I don't always get that phrase correct, either.

Of course, since I've never owned a car, don't travel much, and have almost never been responsible for knowing the directions when doing any traveling, it's not surprising.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Speaking of traveling... For the next couple of weeks I will not be hanging in the CS as much...

I have mentioned before my connection to Hawaii... My ex-wife lives there and I have lived there 3 different times since I met my beautiful bride in 1978... Well I have been talked into returning to Honolulu and living with my ex... This is a decision that has not been made lightly...

There are wonderful reasons to return... To many to get into in this rambling... She has been asking me to return for the last 2 years... We have a wonderful relation ship as it stands, 5000 miles apart... Her parents has passed in the last 5 years and she has 2 sisters living on Oahu within 2 miles of her... She still works as a Para-legal for a Law Firm downtown HNL... 4 or 5 years away from retiring... I am on SSDI...

This coming weekend my Son and Daughter is coming to my place and we are going to pilfer through my worldly possessions that I am leaving behind... Sunday I am going to my daughters house in Geneva, Il and stay till the 19th... I have a First Class ticket leaving ORD on Wednesday with a 2 hour layover in SFO... Not looking forward to flying at all... I have been saying for the last 10 years that I will never have to fly again... Never say never...

I have a smart-fone, but have refused to learn everything I need to know re: interweb connection with fone... I still use a desktop here at my desk... My son will ship any items I put a sticker on this weekend... It will take awhile for me to get my act together...

I will miss Indiana... More than likely will see our children just as much as I have living here in Indiana... I am looking forward to the beautiful weather in Hawaii...

As Marvin Gaye once said, "Wherever I Lay My Hat (That's My Home)"

 

[Sbiker]

Just started a new game of Half Life 2 . I played it all through twice, a few years ago but do not remember a lot of it, so its like a new game. It is still probably the best computer game ever made.

It might be the best FPS engine, but I wouldn't go so far as to call it the best PC game ever.

Well, as far as first person shooters go I have not played anything better.

Do you just have Half Life 2 or all of the games?

Hi Foxy, yes I have all the games from the first half life and its follow up games, blue shift and opposing force. I also have half life two episodes one and two.

Now I have Unreal 1 to relax some minutes periodically.. Half life 1 was very good, I've got it by side of Freeman and opposite... but game at guardian side had bugs and I could not play it... So sad

 

[Sbiker]

I'm in the process of reinstalling Windows on my second PC. I formatted the drive because I've been having some issues lately. Unfortunately, at least some of the problems seem to remain. I'm pretty sure that the video card, at least, is dying. Now I'm trying to decide what I want to do. I can either keep it running as is, hoping it lasts until I see good sales in the future (probably toward Christmas), or I can go buy a cheapo video card now, hoping it fixes the problem, or I can buy a somewhat expensive video card to put in my good PC, and use the card in there for the second PC, or I can just put together a whole new machine.

PC problems always take up a lot of my time, as I consider what I'm willing to spend money on.

You didn't tell about it, have you checked driver of video card after Windows reinstalling? Some video card don't work properly without to install correct drivers from vendor's disk (or site)...

 

[Foxfyre]

Speaking of traveling... For the next couple of weeks I will not be hanging in the CS as much...

I have mentioned before my connection to Hawaii... My ex-wife lives there and I have lived there 3 different times since I met my beautiful bride in 1978... Well I have been talked into returning to Honolulu and living with my ex... This is a decision that has not been made lightly...

There are wonderful reasons to return... To many to get into in this rambling... She has been asking me to return for the last 2 years... We have a wonderful relation ship as it stands, 5000 miles apart... Her parents has passed in the last 5 years and she has 2 sisters living on Oahu within 2 miles of her... She still works as a Para-legal for a Law Firm downtown HNL... 4 or 5 years away from retiring... I am on SSDI...

This coming weekend my Son and Daughter is coming to my place and we are going to pilfer through my worldly possessions that I am leaving behind... Sunday I am going to my daughters house in Geneva, Il and stay till the 19th... I have a First Class ticket leaving ORD on Wednesday with a 2 hour layover in SFO... Not looking forward to flying at all... I have been saying for the last 10 years that I will never have to fly again... Never say never...

I have a smart-fone, but have refused to learn everything I need to know re: interweb connection with fone... I still use a desktop here at my desk... My son will ship any items I put a sticker on this weekend... It will take awhile for me to get my act together...

I will miss Indiana... More than likely will see our children just as much as I have living here in Indiana... I am looking forward to the beautiful weather in Hawaii...

As Marvin Gaye once said, "Wherever I Lay My Hat (That's My Home)"

If you are sure this is the right move for you and that you and your ex have a good chance to make it work this time, I'll say God speed and blessings and safe travels and all that. Will miss you here, but the internet should never replace our priorities in real life. Unless those priorities are bad for us of course. We will patiently await your return.

Have you considered an inexpensive laptop to travel with? Hombre and I both have cheap ASUS laptops that we use mostly for gaming and social media while watching something tedious like baseball or golf or whatever on TV. These are dandy little machines with plenty of power and hard drive space for simple tasks, surfing the web, social media, and some installed games, are Skype and wifi equipped, and they cost under $300.

You can order one from Amazon and get it within a couple of days. If you decide to go that route and aren't used to using the laptop mouse pad, be sure to get you a wireless mouse or even one you have to plug in. It will cut down on your frustration significantly.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Speaking of traveling... For the next couple of weeks I will not be hanging in the CS as much...

I have mentioned before my connection to Hawaii... My ex-wife lives there and I have lived there 3 different times since I met my beautiful bride in 1978... Well I have been talked into returning to Honolulu and living with my ex... This is a decision that has not been made lightly...

There are wonderful reasons to return... To many to get into in this rambling... She has been asking me to return for the last 2 years... We have a wonderful relation ship as it stands, 5000 miles apart... Her parents has passed in the last 5 years and she has 2 sisters living on Oahu within 2 miles of her... She still works as a Para-legal for a Law Firm downtown HNL... 4 or 5 years away from retiring... I am on SSDI...

This coming weekend my Son and Daughter is coming to my place and we are going to pilfer through my worldly possessions that I am leaving behind... Sunday I am going to my daughters house in Geneva, Il and stay till the 19th... I have a First Class ticket leaving ORD on Wednesday with a 2 hour layover in SFO... Not looking forward to flying at all... I have been saying for the last 10 years that I will never have to fly again... Never say never...

I have a smart-fone, but have refused to learn everything I need to know re: interweb connection with fone... I still use a desktop here at my desk... My son will ship any items I put a sticker on this weekend... It will take awhile for me to get my act together...

I will miss Indiana... More than likely will see our children just as much as I have living here in Indiana... I am looking forward to the beautiful weather in Hawaii...

As Marvin Gaye once said, "Wherever I Lay My Hat (That's My Home)"

If you are sure this is the right move for you and that you and your ex have a good chance to make it work this time, I'll say God speed and blessings and safe travels and all that. Will miss you here, but the internet should never replace our priorities in real life. Unless those priorities are bad for us of course. We will patiently await your return.

Have you considered an inexpensive laptop to travel with? Hombre and I both have cheap ASUS laptops that we use mostly for gaming and social media while watching something tedious like baseball or golf or whatever on TV. These are dandy little machines with plenty of power and hard drive space for simple tasks, surfing the web, social media, and some installed games, are Skype and wifi equipped, and they cost under $300.

You can order one from Amazon and get it within a couple of days. If you decide to go that route and aren't used to using the laptop mouse pad, be sure to get you a wireless mouse or even one you have to plug in. It will cut down on your frustration significantly.

Been studying on this for quite some time Foxy, so I believe it is for the best... We divorced 15 years ago and I will always blame the empty nest syndrome... 2 children, 13 months apart... Turned around one day and the kids were gone, living their own lives... Not the only reason but a major contributing factor... I truly believe we have matured and will enjoy each others company... We had been married 23 years when we divorced... We seem to have a much better relationship as we get older and will be there to help each other... I hope to really work on my health and see if I can't get healthier...

As far as buying a laptop, don't think it is necessary... Would be something I put in a closet after I got settled in... Probably do me some good to unplug for awhile...

Thank you for your kind words

 

[Foxfyre]

Speaking of traveling... For the next couple of weeks I will not be hanging in the CS as much...

I have mentioned before my connection to Hawaii... My ex-wife lives there and I have lived there 3 different times since I met my beautiful bride in 1978... Well I have been talked into returning to Honolulu and living with my ex... This is a decision that has not been made lightly...

There are wonderful reasons to return... To many to get into in this rambling... She has been asking me to return for the last 2 years... We have a wonderful relation ship as it stands, 5000 miles apart... Her parents has passed in the last 5 years and she has 2 sisters living on Oahu within 2 miles of her... She still works as a Para-legal for a Law Firm downtown HNL... 4 or 5 years away from retiring... I am on SSDI...

This coming weekend my Son and Daughter is coming to my place and we are going to pilfer through my worldly possessions that I am leaving behind... Sunday I am going to my daughters house in Geneva, Il and stay till the 19th... I have a First Class ticket leaving ORD on Wednesday with a 2 hour layover in SFO... Not looking forward to flying at all... I have been saying for the last 10 years that I will never have to fly again... Never say never...

I have a smart-fone, but have refused to learn everything I need to know re: interweb connection with fone... I still use a desktop here at my desk... My son will ship any items I put a sticker on this weekend... It will take awhile for me to get my act together...

I will miss Indiana... More than likely will see our children just as much as I have living here in Indiana... I am looking forward to the beautiful weather in Hawaii...

As Marvin Gaye once said, "Wherever I Lay My Hat (That's My Home)"

If you are sure this is the right move for you and that you and your ex have a good chance to make it work this time, I'll say God speed and blessings and safe travels and all that. Will miss you here, but the internet should never replace our priorities in real life. Unless those priorities are bad for us of course. We will patiently await your return.

Have you considered an inexpensive laptop to travel with? Hombre and I both have cheap ASUS laptops that we use mostly for gaming and social media while watching something tedious like baseball or golf or whatever on TV. These are dandy little machines with plenty of power and hard drive space for simple tasks, surfing the web, social media, and some installed games, are Skype and wifi equipped, and they cost under $300.

You can order one from Amazon and get it within a couple of days. If you decide to go that route and aren't used to using the laptop mouse pad, be sure to get you a wireless mouse or even one you have to plug in. It will cut down on your frustration significantly.

Been studying on this for quite some time Foxy, so I believe it is for the best... We divorced 15 years ago and I will always blame the empty nest syndrome... 2 children, 13 months apart... Turned around one day and the kids were gone, living their own lives... Not the only reason but a major contributing factor... I truly believe we have matured and will enjoy each others company... We had been married 23 years when we divorced... We seem to have a much better relationship as we get older and will be there to help each other... I hope to really work on my health and see if I can't get healthier...

As far as buying a laptop, don't think it is necessary... Would be something I put in a closet after I got settled in... Probably do me some good to unplug for awhile...

Thank you for your kind words

Most people know themselves better than anybody they 'meet' on the internet possibly could. So I will bow to your better wisdom on the laptop. (I will say I told you so though when you are wanting to keep her company through say 'The Academy Awards' and wish you could be playing solitaire or arguing on a message board. )

 

[Foxfyre]

On GPS vs Maps:

I live in the Ohio River valley near Pittsburgh. I have a dear friend in the Bath Beach section of Brooklyn. She had a death in the family and I wanted to attend the funeral. She had lost a family member on a Saturday. I got to New York at 8:00 that night. The body had been moved to the city morgue in Brooklyn from the hospital where she succumbed.

My friend, her sister and I went to the morgue to identify the body. I reached for my tri-fold lamented map of southeast Brooklyn. I found the morgue by the index and then plotted a route there. "That's okay, hun!" my friend's sister said "I got GPS!"

And so, her sister entered the address of the morgue to the GPS and off we went.

According to my route, we would have taken the Belt Parkway to Ft. Greene. The GPS barked out the order to "Turn Left on Bay Street."

But the girls are chatty women. They gossiped back and forth oblivious to the request made by the GPS.

I plotted a course that would take us north on Roosevelt. The GPS, meanwhile had been 'recalculating'. And still the sisters chatted, argued, made up, and grieved.

"Are you gonna go on the Ft.Hamilton Parkway?" I dared interrupt. "Turn right on Ft. Hamilton Parkway." chimed in the robot map.

Eventually, we did get to the morgue, and giving me a tour of Brooklyn I never imagined.

The one design flaw, the one engineering mistake was not taking into account of a pair of Brooklyn sisters and their combined attention span where technology is concerned. You have to listen to the device if the device is to be effective.

We concluded our grim business with the Coroner's Department of the City of New York. We climbed back into the Ford Explorer and the forsaken GPS. The sister wondered if she had to turn north or south from the spot at the morgue. "Left". I said. "The take the close right onto Ft. Hamilton then to the Belt"

"How do you know that?" she shot back incredulous that a Yinzer from Ohio would have taxi driver caliber skills on the mean streets of Brooklyn.

"I paid attention." I answered.

I never claimed to be the sharpest tool in the shed, but the one natural ability I have always been able to rely on was my sense of direction... I was very fortunate as a young whippersnapper and my parents were very mobile... We used to not only take vacations and travel, all by the automobile or Truck (sometimes train as I have been from coast to coast by train) I was lucky enough to have been in 44 States by the time I was 18...

I learned from a very early age that there was a wonderful world outside any window I had my nose stuck to... And for some reason I retained places we traveled most of the time... I have returned to previous destinations 20 years later and been able to navigate like I had been living there all along...

Paying attention is a good thing and being able to read a map is an absolute...

I was told early on that some people are born with a natural sense of direction--I think I got it to some extent except I still get lost inside buildings--and hubby and daughter seem to have normal or better than average sense of direction. Our son. Brilliant engineer but has had no sense of direction sense he was a kid. Without a map or GPS, he is immediately lost.