My significant-other-in-law John has been installing a GPS in his car. The unit also has a radio, TV, reverse camera, CD/DVD player, and can land airplanes in heavy fog. This threatens to be a little more difficult to install than, say, putting proof of insurance in your glove compartment.

So, ladies, we’d start by reading the manual, yes? Ha! But having suffered the agony of defeat on his own, he finally looked at the instructions. This time, I must admit he has a point when he says they just get in the way.

Here are some excerpts from the warnings:

• Pls keep disk slot clean, wipe it off when there is some dirty on it. Pls wipe off the dirty on disk before slot it into the unit. If dirty on disk go into the slot, that is not quality problem. Pls ask professional to clean the laser. That will bring you some inconvenience.
• To avoid accident caused by scatterbrain, driver should not operate this unit or watch its screen.
• Clangorous effects: press once off clangorous, press again to come back
• We keep improving this product, if there is any change, forgive us do not announce.

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I was crossing from Bainbridge to Seattle via ferry on the first sunny day. Now I remember why we put up with all this rain.

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Pardon me for being such a blog slug. Much going on. I just picked up a new assignment that will pay some bills but takes some time. Also I’m up to my elbows in the book now. I believe I’m literally on the back nine with it, moving into the final 100 pages. Next step: look for an agent. And a word of warning to others about critique groups: they can be bloodsucking timewasters that poke you in your insecurities. So shop around, and be sure you find a good one. Not pushovers but not a bunch of bullies.