Going Nowhere Fast

One of the things that I was REALLY excited about when I got the "Nanamobile" back in December was the fact that I could synch my iPhone to the stereo system and not only receive calls and answer the phone through the radio speakers but also that I could link the phone to the radio in such a way that I could listen to the podcasts that I have on my phone.  (And how is THAT for a run-on sentence?)  Of course, the "I" was relative because this little puppy wasn't going to be linking anything.  Frankly, it was all Greek to me.  I was really relying on the Commander to set it all up for me.

Well, he synched (sunk) my phone the day we brought the van home and shortly thereafter I was tooling down the turnpike with my phone hooked to the car via its USB cable and all set to listen to a podcast.  I had browsed through the car's manual (no small feat, that) and had read that I was to hit the "Aux" button once I was hooked up and then it should connect to the iPod portion of my phone.  I did and it did, sort of.  My music library started playing but I couldn't figure out for the life of me how to access the podcasts.  However, I COULD figure out how to move from one song to another so I was happy for that small victory.

When I got home, I told the Commander my tale of woe and he urged me to be patient until the kids had returned to Texas and he could sit down with the manual (good luck with that) and figure out what was wrong.

Today was the day.  It was a lovely Spring day (almost 60 degrees in January in PA) so we backed the car out of the garage and let it sit there idling in the driveway while we resynched the phone.  The Commander is used to using voice commands because that's how he programs his Ford Escort so we talked our way through getting the Toyota to recognize my phone again.    Somehow it had forgotten it so it was a good feeling when I saw the word "Connected" on my phone.

The Commander decided to give it a try by giving me a call.  Of course, I was sitting right beside him but what the hay?  His phone dialed mine and the dulcet strains of my customized ringtone for him from the song "Gasoline and Matches"......."Baby, baby, baby....when it's cold and dark......" came blasting out of the car's stereo.  And I DO mean blasting.

"Hello?" I squeaked and the reverb was loud enough to shatter windows.  I hung up on him.

"Well, I guess we know that the phone part works.  Now how about the podcasts?" I asked.

Thirty minutes later, we were still fiddling with the radio buttons and the phone.  We could get the podcasts to play if we went strictly with Bluetooth.  However, I figured that it would be better to play them via a USB hookup so that the phone would be charging as I listened.  When we did that, we could see the list of podcasts but couldn't hear them.  Then the Commander went through a long, convoluted work-around and came up with a way for me to hear them but we both agreed that there had to be a better way.  Besides, by the time I would go through all those steps, I'd be off the road and halfway into a cow pasture.

Finally I said, "If you don't mind, I'm going inside to start supper.  Call me if you figure it out."

He was out there long enough that I was considering sending the dog out to him with his coffee mug tied around her neck but finally he came inside.

"Did you get it set up?" I inquired.

"No, I'm going to Google it.  On the plus side, I figured out how to lower the volume on the speakers when you get a phone call," he answered.

I'm looking on the bright side.  I finally found NPR radio on the XM Satellite stations.  Now if I can only remember which preset I assigned it.