I bought another Garmin nuvi 2599
It is absolutely worth having this as a backup for my backup.
While my primary GPS is a Garmin DriveSmart 66, the Garmin nuvi 2599LMTHD outfitted with a proper USB power cable (works on USB alone with no 12V required and enables FM traffic) and a 32GB microSD card is my backup in case the DS66 fails. I like it so much that I bought a second because they're relatively easy to acquire, inexpensive and have monster good legibility.
What I mean by "monster good legibility" is that even though the 2599 is a nine-year-old model from 2014 with only a 5" display, the fonts are easier to read compared to just about anything else. Yes, really. It's also quick to calculate routes, recalculate routes when necessary and easily read during bright daylight driving.
When you're willing to put in the legwork...
...you get something great.
Most people wouldn't want to bother with the 2599 because it's required to buy a 32BG microSD card to fit the latest maps, buy that USB power cable to enable everything, and connect to a PC to get everything updated. Initial setup, said very honestly, takes a good two hours.
But once it's all ready to go, the 2599 is amazing to use even now in 2023.
Other models and phone apps use teeny tiny and/or skinny fonts and/or skinny arrows and/or place other junk on the map that gets in the way. Not the 2599. Fonts are big and easy to read, highway exit number are bold making them super easy-to-read, and it's just a lovely system to use.
Yeah, I know, It's ridiculous to have GPS, backup GPS and a backup for the backup. But I like the 2599 enough to where I thought yeah, this is worth having a copy of.
I read user reviews of nav apps for the phone...
...and it's not pretty.
Developers of phone apps just love using skinny fonts, putting up on-screen boxes of "info" that have nothing to do with your trip whatsoever, and sometimes even change where buttons are.
You may not think that's not a big deal. It is.
Imagine you get in your car one day and instead of the fuel gauge or charge level being on the right, it's on the left due to an "update". You didn't ask for that. It just happened. And you can't switch it back.
Imagine the same thing happened to your speedometer or other gauge.
Now imagine if stuff was moved around and the font size changed to being smaller and skinnier.
How long would it take before you got fed up with that? You'd probably want to punch a hole in a wall the first time it happened. Developers of nav apps for the phone just love changing stuff around. A lot. And it's infuriating.
The 2599 doesn't do any of that crap. Fonts and arrows are big and stay that way. Menus don't shift around, nor do they change. They stay just the way you remember them.
There's value in that.
App developers don't seem to understand that if an app is used for driving, it should be treated like a car gauge that always stays the same. The last thing you want to deal with are gauges that randomly move around from an "update".
Fortunately, all the modern Garmin offerings (such as the Drive 53 I just talked about) act more or less the same way the 2599 does. That's a good thing.
I'm enough of a GPS nerd to where I was willing to put the work into a backup-of-backup 2599 because I like the model that much.
New for 2023: Garmin Drive 53 car navigation
I'm very glad Garmin still makes these.
Garmin recently released the Garmin Drive 53; this is a basic car navigator. I personally use a more advanced model, the Garmin DriveSmart 66. The bigger 76 and 86 are also available.
The North American version of the 53 is a back-to-basics navigator from Garmin, which is something they do very well. It doesn't have Wi-Fi so connecting to a computer is required to update the maps once or twice a year. It doesn't have Bluetooth so you can't connect a phone to it (which in this case is a good thing, I'll talk more on that in a moment). The only two flavors the 53 comes in is either with or without traffic reporting. The Drive 53 & Traffic model means it comes with a charge cable that also acts as a traffic receiver which covers most major cities.
Some may ask why a standalone car navigator is still made today. The answer is that it's necessary.
There are two main reasons for this.
Most people drive a car that's an average of 12 years old
It's 2023 as I write this, and a 12-year-old car means a 2011 model. To put that in perspective, the vast majority of '12 cars didn't have infotainment screens in them. Some had GPS navigation, but if you tried to update a '12 car's navigation system, yeah, good luck with that because that's almost impossible.
If the car, truck or SUV has no infotainment system, just use a phone, right?
No.
Phone coverage is nowhere near where it needs to be in the United States
If you take a look at any phone coverage map (all the phone carriers have one on their web site), you are given the impression you get true nationwide coverage just about anywhere you go in the US.
Do you?
Yes, conditionally.
The condition is that the only real thing you're more or less guaranteed with nationwide phone coverage is the ability to place and receive calls, and send an receive text messages. That's it.
Where navigation is concerned, the ability to place/receive calls and send/receive texts isn't good enough. If you're going to use Google Maps or Waze, it's required to have a strong data connection for those apps to work properly. Try to use either of those outside of a major metro and... well, good luck with that.
When your navigation absolutely has to work everywhere, you get a standalone navigator
Phones work by means of a terrestrial network. A standalone navigator gets its position by receiving a signal from satellites in space. Yes, really, and no, you don't have to pay extra for that as GPS satellites are funded by taxpayer dollars.
How do the maps work if the navigator doesn't connect to the internet? Answer: They're preloaded on to the device.
Does it cost anything to update the maps? No.
How often are the maps updated? Two or three times a year.
How do you update? Garmin Express, which is software provided by Garmin.
Things people complain about with standalone navigators
The #1 complaint is that the map data isn't as up-to-date as Google Maps.
For example, if there's some new apartment complex that was built just three months ago, that obviously won't be in the map data. The workaround for this is to get the coordinates and save as a favorite in the Garmin navigator. For whatever address isn't in the navigator, you can always get the coordinates and get to wherever you're going that way. This is very useful not only for newly constructed places but also anywhere that doesn't have an address defined.
How to get coordinates? If using Windows, load up Google Maps or Bing Maps in a browser and single-right-click the map.
If the coordinates display were 42.637692, -73.166859, this would be typed in as N 42.637692 W 073.166859 in a Garmin navigator. That spot is the parking area next to the Massachusetts Veterans War Memorial Tower on Mount Greylock. Obviously, that place doesn't have an address - but - with a Garmin navigator you can navigate to it when you have the coordinates. And yes, the navigator will work even when all the way up on top of a mountain.
Do you need to remember coordinates? No, because you can punch in the coordinates and save as a favorite in a Garmin navigator, then name the favorite whatever you want. After that, you can choose to navigate to that favorite whenever you need to.
The #2 complaint is that traffic reporting isn't as good as Waze.
Waze works by using crowdsourced reports from Waze users that connect to the internet over a smartphone data connection. Garmin navigators like the 53 don't do that because it doesn't connect to the internet. The 53 "& Traffic" model gets its traffic reports (for mostly highways and city areas) via TMC (Traffic Message Channel). No, you don't have to pay for it and it's automatically enabled if you're in an area with coverage.
There is no way a standalone navigator can compete with an app that uses crowdsourced reports, and there is no way a crowdsourced app can ever be truly good outside of a major metro.
When in the metro, that's where Waze works best because that's where the most cell towers are. When outside the metro, you are always better off with the Garmin - especially anywhere the phone has a weak signal or no signal.
The #3 complaint is "weird routes".
There is no navigation system that gets the route 100% right 100% of the time. Not possible. It doesn't matter what system you use, be it by Garmin, infotainment or your phone.
You will always find Amazon user reviews of Garmin navigators where people gripe and yap about weird routes. You will always find user reviews in the Google Play Store of Google Maps and Waze users that say the same thing.
How do you get better routes? You look at your route first before you go. With a Garmin navigator, once you pick a destination and route is calculated, all you have to do is tap the top green bar to get all the info. If any part of those directions looks weird to you, don't use them. Pick another road and the navigator will auto-recalculate and adjust. This has been a standard feature in Garmin navigators for well over a decade.
Who is the Drive 53 best for?
The Drive 53 is best for anybody that has any reason not to use infotainment or the phone for navigation, simply put.
Maybe you drive an older car. Maybe you travel to places where the phone can't hold a strong data connection. Maybe you prefer a dedicated navigator where the user interface always stays the same (which can't be said for phone apps where "updates" randomly move things around).
Again, if you have any reason not to use infotainment or phone for navigation in a car, then you want a Drive 53. Also remember that if you want the traffic charger cord, make sure to get the Drive 53 & Traffic model, which is $20 more than the no-traffic model.
The weird taste of nostalgia
Have you ever had a wave of nostalgia hit you just from tasting something? I just did.
Hostess Apple Fruit Pies, miniature size version. This is what I'm going to talk about.
Firstly, I am going to say I did not buy these; they were gifted to me. The individual who bought them did that because they were on sale. The whole box was literally a dollar when it's usually $4.
I accepted the gift because a) it's feels good when people do nice things for you, b) this is something I never would have bought at full price anyway so the low price didn't bother me, and c) oh my God, Hostess Fruit Pies. Sure, these are the mini version, but whoa...
This fruit pie in full-size version has been a staple food of America for a very long time. How long? Well over 50 years. Yes, the Hostess Fruit Pie has been around for longer than half a century.
The place where I remember seeing the fruit pie as a kid was in convenience stores. I'm pretty sure that every convenience store in America had the pies. You always saw that spinning Hostess pie logo there, which they actually showed in the movie Clerks from 1994. The present day logo is modernized, of course.
SO HOW DOES IT TASTE?
Okay, so I receive a box of these things. Before I opened one up, I thought to myself, "Will this taste the same as I remember it?"
Took a bite, and...
...yes. It tastes exactly the same as I remember it.
The crust is always firm and crumbly. Then there's the super thick sugar glaze. Think of it as a glazed doughnut, but dry. This glazing is not only for flavoring but I assume also acts as a preservative.
After that comes the fruit filling. Mine were apple flavored.
Are there any apples in this? According to the ingredients list, yes.
I was genuinely surprised by that because I was certain there weren't any. I was wrong. However, I can't taste the apple at all because the sugar is so overpowering.
I did eat two of the pies since they were so small, as the mini size is truly mini.
Shortly after eating them, the nostalgia hit happened.
The nostalgia hit was so hard with this one. It is so rare that a taste alone can bring me back in time to when I was a kid so fast. The Hostess Fruit Pie did it.
I am genuinely impressed that Hostess has somehow been able to keep their fruit pies tasting exactly the same for so long. That's a food engineering feat if I've ever seen one. Whatever team at Hostess is responsible for making that happen, pat yourselves on the back because you're definitely getting the job done.
When is the last time I ate a Hostess Fruit Pie? It has to be at least 25 years if not longer.
How often did I eat these things as a kid? Not often. I'd maybe receive one a couple of times a month at best. Even so, I still remember the taste from many years ago.
I never actually bought one of these pies to the best of my memory. As a kid, I'd have one at a friend's house where either the friend or his mom gave me one. In other words, if the pie was there and I was offered it, I accepted - just like what happened with the box of pies I received.
I did love the taste of that pie not for the pie itself but just for the nostalgia hit.
A very 2020s alarm clock
A combination of '70s, 2010s and 2020s all wrapped into one.
While there is a plain black version of the clock I'm talking about, you gotta love the wood grain version. The kitschy aesthetic of this just cannot be denied.
I'll start with the features first.
Dimmable display, dual alarms with separated weekend/weekday/7-day settings, 5 alarm tones including radio, FM radio, battery backup, USB ports in the front, current indoor temperature at bottom right, weekday displayed at top right.
As for the rest of it, what we have here is a '70s style wood grain mashed against a 2010s style display with 2020s features. Very cheesy design...
...and I love it.
I don't know exactly when faux wood grain started appearing on everything, but there was this span of time from around 1975 to 1990 where you saw it a lot. Fake wood grain was especially seen on alarm clocks and televisions. When the '90s rolled around, all the grain went away in favor of solid no-pattern colors.
Now in the 2020s, faux wood grain has come around full circle due to the fact it's so old it's new again.
Because I'm middle aged, I remember back when fake wood grain was a new thing and see it now as a retro callback of sorts. For somebody half my age, they just see the grain as a new style. And that's fine.
My favorite part of the clock is that the manufacturer even wood-grained the big snooze button. That's just funny.
This is the most useful diver wristwatch
Some dive watches are better than others.
Take an Orient Mako II, an example of a dive watch that has the most useful configuration. I'll explain why in a moment.
When it comes to dive watches, there are a ton of them out there cover all price ranges. I believe the cheapest you can go for a dive-style watch that actually works like it's supposed to is the Casio MRW200H. You can't do for-real diving with that timepiece, but at least it has the rotating bezel and anybody can afford one. The Orient Mako II on the other hand can be used for actual diving as it does have 200m water resistance, although it's probably a wise idea to have it pressure tested first just to be on the safe side. If you want something that is absolutely certified for diving, see Seiko Prospex. That says "DIVER'S 200m" right on the watch dial itself, and a watch can't have that printed there unless it's been certified for diving.
But let's say you don't dive, which counts for most dive watch owners. What's the most useful style?
Look back to that Orient Mako II above. You don't have to get that specific watch, but if you get one in that specific configuration, it is the most useful.
First-15 separation
It is really useful if the bezel has some kind of visible separation either with markers, colors or both to separate the first 15 minutes. Most things you will time with that bezel will be in that range.
As a cooking timer, that's where seeing the first-15 separation is really useful. Cooking things like potatoes, rice, hamburgers and so on all can all be timed with your trusty dive bezel.
Believe me, you will very much appreciate having that color/marker separation when the bezel is used as a cooking timer. Just rotate the bezel so the arrow lines up with the minute hand, and when the minute hand reaches the desired time, the timer has elapsed. Nice and easy.
Big markers or big numbers
The best dials on dive watches have either big numbers or big dots and blocks.
A fundamental reason why so many guys like divers so much is because you get maximum legibility. Even if your eyesight is poor, you can still read the thing.
The Seiko Prospex divers mentioned above not only have giant markers, but some models also feature a red minute hand border - and the minute hand is an arrow. There is no mistaking the minute hand for the hour hand on a Prospex diver. Great design.
Mechanical or Solar
The #1 reason to own mechanical or solar is so you don't have to mess around with battery changes.
Mechanical never needs a battery change because it doesn't use one.
A solar watch battery, in theory, should last 20+ years provided that you don't keep it in the dark. What I mean by that is when you're not wearing it, don't put it in a drawer. Keep the watch out in the light, even if it's just room lighting or sunlight coming into the room during the day, and that's enough to allow the solar battery to hold its charge.
An example of a very nice solar diver is the Citizen Promaster Eco-Drive.
The worst thing you can do to a solar-powered watch is let the battery go completely dead. That doesn't mean you have to perch the watch in the window directly facing the sun to keep it working. Again, it just means it has to be exposed to some light during the day and not be stored in total darkness in order to keep working properly.
Metal bracelet
A lot of dive watches come with rubber straps for the obvious reason that it's easier to strap that over a wetsuit. However, for day-to-day use, the metal bracelet is better.
Even if you prefer a leather strap, get a diver with bracelet anyway simply for the fact you'll have more choices available to you.
If the bracelet is terrible, get a Strapcode bracelet. It will be better. Alternatively, take the bracelet off and use leather. Most guys seem to have good luck with Hadley-Roma straps, and that brand even offers a few styles in silicone that look like leather.
If possible, stick with the metal bracelet simply for the reason it will outlast leather or silicone so it's one less thing to worry about.
Dark dial
This usually isn't a problem since the majority of dive watches have dark dials. You will however see a few with bright dials. Don't go there.
A bright dial means less contrast and makes it more difficult to read the time.
Stick with the standard dive dial colors of black or dark blue. Other colors like green or red are also good as long as they're dark. When you see the bright orange or yellow, stay away from that because it won't be doing you any favors.
Uncluttered dial
The Orient Mako II is a good example of a good clean dial design and is in fact cleaner than the Seiko Prospex dive dial which gets a little busy with its script above the 6.
One of the cleanest dive dials I've seen is the Bulova Oceanographer. The script on that dial is done in a way where it never gets in the way of the time, which is a good thing. The stubby fencepost style hands make reading the time very easy. Several color combos are available, almost all of which are great (except the orange dial version, which is terrible).
In the end, if you get the right dial configuration, then you've got yourself an awesome dive watch you'll enjoy wearing that looks good and is genuinely useful.