My car has turned in to a technological nightmare.

The car itself is great.
A Jeep looks good no matter how dirty and beat up it is.

The problem is the stuff inside.

Let me explain…

I’m a gadget lover.
If electronics flow through it and it looks cool, I want to own it.
So I buy it.

Something that drives the frugal nature of the wife into insanity.

Remember – he who dies with the most toys win.
I’m ahead of the game.
Just look at my garage.

Back to the nightmare.

I have a whiz-bang radio that does everything.
Plays CDs and movies, AM/FM, navigation, weather and a sexy screen that shows everything including a picture of my favorite dog.

And it does voice commands and hands-free phone.
Expensive.

The navigation in the radio is nice but the in-dash navigation is a bit difficult to update so I have the latest Garmin GPS on my dashboard.

By latest – the most expensive.

And the best one they’ve ever made.
The screen is like looking at my iPhone.
Just gorgeous.

And it does hands-free calls too.
Did I mention expensive?

Then there’s this digital gauge that gives me real-time water temperature, battery voltage, RPM and miles per gallon.

Lots of things that makes a man’s soul sing.
It’s beginning to look like the panel of this plane I used to own.

I’m in heaven.

Until there’s an incoming phone call.

Everything starts yelling, screaming and flashing at me.

The Garmin GPS starts flashing its expensive screen and some lady’s voice is announcing, “You have a call. Press accept to answer”.

The radio unit starts blaring, “You have an incoming call” and things start flashing too.

I swear it’s information overload.
I feel like I’m in the Matrix.

Yesterday I answered the radio so today let’s answer the GPS.
Press accept.

Now the radio and the GPS start fighting for who actually gets to take the call.

It’s like two ten-year olds with sibling rivalry.

People at the other end say I sound like I’m mixed in with two cats fighting over a mouse.

The cure is turn one of them off.

That would defeat the purpose of owning all this stuff.

It’s enough to make someone grumpy.