Someone recently stole the miscellany from the glove box of my car — even the car’s manual. Who steals a manual? Everyone knows you can download them from the internet.  I’m guessing that whoever it was just took everything, regardless, and then threw most of it away.

The other things they stole included various cords that plug into the cigarette lighter that no-one uses for lighting cigarettes. Now it’s used for charging up electronic devices of various kinds. My devices included my phone, a laptop, an old phone that I no longer own, a Garmin GPS, and a Transcend dashboard camera.  There may have been other miscellany in the glove box that no-one uses for gloves, but I can’t remember what it was. I know it didn’t include any documents because I learned online that this was not advisable. Now I’m glad I paid attention to that.

Being both logical and frugal, I have been able to acquire replacement cords from the local thrift store for $3 apiece, so there is no great loss.

Surprisingly, the thief did not steal the dash cam that was fixed to the windshield. So, while sorting out the cord issue, I thought it seemed a good time to download the video recordings. Maybe, just maybe, there was a record of the thief in action. Instead I was reminded that I have no idea how to download dash cam videos.

When I bought the dash cam I planned to record my drive from San Jose to Edmonton, then edit it and speed it up for the amusement of my friends and family.  That was last year.  I quickly realized I didn’t know how to do that, so I abandoned the project.  Now, though, I have a lot more video to play with and I still don’t know what to do with it.

I had a quick look at the most recent recordings and saw myself scraping ice off the windshield, the record of my eldest son’s drives to and from work, my son scraping ice off the windshield, and our various drives around the city. I heard both of us listening to music, both of us occasionally singing, and one of us swearing for no obvious reason. So, most of it is of no value whatsoever. The thief isn’t on there—presumably because the thing only works when the car is running. Duh.

As you can tell, I was able to see the videos after only a little trial and error on the computer. What I wasn’t able to do was download the files to the computer. I couldn’t even figure out how to pause them. I had to watch each file through to the end before I could watch another.

I found out how to download the correct software driver and the manual, and I also downloaded a video editing program that is free for a little while. I doubt I’ll be able to make use of it before the little while expires, but we shall see. By the time I got to that point I had run out of patience.  I had already spent a couple of hours trying to figure it all out.

The Transcend manual optimistically suggests that Windows will automatically know how to deal with the videos from the dash cam, but they have not met my computer. It didn’t get the memo. YouTube videos didn’t seem to have the answers, and neither did Google. It’s not quite as intuitive as you might think. So, in order to preserve my sanity, I have abandoned the project once again.

If you want to know what the journey from San Jose to Edmonton looks like, you should probably drive it yourself. You might even enjoy it. If you want to see me scraping ice off the windshield, you are sadly out of luck. But, if can tell me how to do it, I’ll gladly send you a recording of either me or my son swearing.

*****

Image source: Transcend