Time for a smart phone?

Technology has passed us by.

For several days this week our Triple Play wasn't working. That's advertising-speak to say that our TV, internet, and telephone weren't working. Those are all things that I can certainly live without, but golly, they are really convenient. If we didn't have any of them on a regular basis, we'd have to change the way we do things here.

First of all, there's the weather. During this season of ice and snow, we do a lot of checking of the weather and the road conditions. This helps us to plan our day to travel in the safest way. We usually do this with the TV local news or local weather channel. Also, we sometimes use the internet to get the same information. The first morning of the outage, I was at a loss until Ward reminded me that we could use old fashioned radio waves to get the information we needed. So we turned on the radio and found out what we needed--sort of. We didn't get all the details we wanted during the 30 second-blurb that happens every ten minutes. We got some generalities, but the not the specifics for our out-of-the-way community.

Next, we have a very serious family situation going on right now in which there are frequent updates. Many of these are done with email with the occasional phone call. The internet is definitely missed in this situation. And during this very serious time, our nerves have been on edge. And when this happens, I find old reruns of Andy Griffith and I Love Lucy the most calming for me. Ward plays a couple of different computer games to slow his thoughts down. Those were not an option when we felt like we really needed them.

We could have handled all of these problems if we had had a smart phone*.

And you're probably thinking, "Okay, so they don't have a smart phone, don't they at least have a cell phone? Or what about at work? Couldn't they use the internet there?" Well, yes.

We do have cell phones--very old flip phones. In most circumstances, they have been just fine for our needs. However, their poor quality was noticeable during the important family calls. And yes, I can use the internet at work, but I'm not supposed to use it for personal reasons. Consequently, when changes were happening frequently with the family situation, I checked for updates, but not as often as I wanted.

So during the time when our Triple Play was out, I really missed all of our services for some serious and not so serious reasons. I thought about how nice it would have been to have a smart phone. I thought hard about it.

I have been almost ready to get a smart phone for a while now. I like the idea of having a good camera and the internet at my fingertips. I like the fact that you can pay for things with it and get good coupons and deals with it. (I really don't like the fact, that many of these are not available to those of us without smart phones.) And while not necessary, I like the fact that I can look up something easily. I have seen this feature used quite well during our book club discussions. And what about all of those Youtube videos and streaming tv shows I can watch on it.  And the list goes on. When I think about it, a smart phone is a miracle device.

So, am I going shopping for a smart phone today? Well, no. Everything is working again, so the edge is off. But soon, very soon I may join the 58% of Americans that already have one. Up until now, we have chosen not to spend the money on what we considered a luxury. However, it may be making it's way to the top of the list soon.

Do you have a smart phone?

*(We are really technologically challenged. We don't have a tablet either.)

A Second Look--February 25, 2015

After many snow and ice events and plenty of frigid temperatures, we finally had a big snow with more than a foot of accumulation over the weekend. The birds were out all day in it and they provided a great show for the cats who were pinned to the windows watching them. Ward and I were right behind them wondering when it was going to stop while at the same time appreciating how pretty it was.

Here were a few things I saw this week 

during a Second Look.

(All of the birds have a seed in their mouth or suet on their beaks in the pictures below. See if you can find it.)

These deer were visiting during last week's snow.

There go the azaleas. :(

We put out fresh suet before it started to snow which this squirrel really appreciated.

Bluejay

Female cardinal

Junco

White-throated sparrow

Complaining

I overheard someone the other day say that they had given up complaining for Lent. My ears perked up because I thought that was an interesting idea that went beyond the usual sacrifice of chocolate or TV.  Was this something I might try? I generally consider myself a positive person looking on the bright side things, but upon closer examination, I'm wasn't sure that was true. In certain circumstances, I am very positive, but in others, I can join the rest of the crowd with their, "Isn't it awful," complaints.

But if I were going to try to go cold turkey on complaining, what would that entail? Trying to define complaining was harder than I thought it would be. I think we'd all agree a statement like, "Liver and onions for supper Again?" Or "The grocery store never opens up enough lanes when I need to check out," involve complaining. But what about, "I'm cold." Is it not complaining if you say, "I'm cold. Could you hand me my sweater?"

I think context and tone of voice have a lot to do with the intent of the comment. I think most of us would agree that anything said in a whiny voice (especially by our kids) is usually a complaint. However, is it a complaint if we state a problem and then follow that by a proposed positive action to fix the problem? (the cold, sweater example above.) And is it okay to complain if it is going to get a problem fixed?

Basically, after trying to think through the concept of complaining, I'm confused. So, here is what I plan to do. I've decided to try not to complain about something if I'm not ready to take action to fix it. This may mean being quiet and reading the checkout magazine headlines, instead of complaining about how slow the checker is. Or it may mean writing my congressman about what I would like to see happen instead of saying what a bunch of bozos are in congress. (But does it count if they really are? Said with an attempt of humor. Ha, Ha)

Wish me luck.

Thankful Sunday--February 21, 2015

I am thankful for my entertaining cats.

Lucky

I have been featuring the cats on my blog recently because we're spending more time indoors with them. Today we are snowbound, and when we become tired of the TV and working on the taxes, one of them has always been there amusing us with their antics. And for that I am thankful. 

A Second Look--February 18, 2015

What can I say? It's winter and we've been dealing with frigid temperatures in the single digits with snow thrown in then and again. What amazes me is the birds are out in it all acting like there is nothing going on. Even when there have been 30 to 40 mph sustained winds, they seemed unphased. However, I have not functioned so well in the inclement weather, so you may notice that most of pictures this week were taken from inside the comfort of my house.

Here are some things I saw this week 

during a Second Look.

The sun came out after the snow ended yesterday. A very beautiful sight although the brightness was a little hard on the eyes.

Mourning dove. A pair of doves spent the day with us but we haven't seen them since.

Can you find the camouflaged sparrow in this picture? (Hint: Look on the branch.)

You can see this sparrow better with its fluffed feathers trying to keep warm.

This junco has also fluffed up trying to keep warm.

Starling and Red-bellied woodpecker. I finally got a good look at the red-bellied woodpecker to see where it's name came from. See the red stripe on it's belly in the second picture. Although it has a dominant red head, in this naming, it's the belly that counts.

These three deer were part of a herd of ten that were visiting one afternoon. Notice their darker winter coats.

Sunset

Presidents' Day

PRESIDENTS' DAY QUIZ
 

How much do you know about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln whom we honor on President's Day? See if you learn something after taking this quiz like I did when I put it together.

The statements below apply to either Washington or Lincoln.

1. _____ Stood 6'2” tall.

      2. _____ His mother was born in what is now the state of West Virginia.

3. _____ Used his hat to carry important papers.

4. _____ The first president to wear a beard.

5. _____ Had three hoe cakes and tea most mornings for breakfast.

6. _____ Introduced the mule to America.

7. _____ Had red hair when he was young.

8. _____ His formal education was only 18 months.

9. _____ He patented a system to alter buoyancy of steamboats.

   10.  _____ Had no biological children

Bonus: Both Washington and Lincoln were born in February. What days are their birthdays on?
Answers:

PRESIDENTS' DAY QUIZ

Answers

1. Washington-- Stood 6'2” tall.

     Washington and Lincoln were both tall for their time. Washington stood at 6'2” tall and Lincoln towered at 6'4” tall.

2. Lincoln-- His mother was born in what is now the state of West Virginia.

      Lincoln's mother, Nancy Hanks, was born in what is now Mineral County, WV. She died when he was nine years old. You can visit a replica of the cabin she was born in as well as a memorial marker there. 

3. Lincoln-- Used his hat to carry important papers.

     Lincoln's hat was more than a fashion statement. He also used it to carry important papers. If you want to see one of his top hats, visit the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution. 

4. Lincoln-- The first president to wear a beard. 

      The story goes that Lincoln received a letter from an 11 year old New York girl, Grace Bedell, who suggested that his thin face would look better with a beard. He grew a beard soon after that. Who knows? It may have helped him win the election. Other presidents with beards were Grant, Hayes, Garfield, and Harrison. Truman supposedly grew a beard while he was on vacation. 

5. Washington-- Had three hoe cakes and tea most mornings for breakfast.

      Hoe cakes were made from cornmeal and were originally baked on a hoe.

6. Washington-- Introduced the mule to America.

     Washington was looking for something that might work better than a horse for work around the farm. The mule, which is a cross between a male donkey and a female horse, seemed to fit bill. 

7.  Washington-- Had red hair when he was young.

     Washington had red hair when he was young and contrary to popular belief, he never wore a wig. However, he did powder his hair which was fashionable at the time. 

8. Lincoln-- His formal education was only 18 months.

     Lincoln only went to school a few weeks here and there when he was not working. However, he always had a book in his hand including when he was plowing a field. 

9. Lincoln-- He patented a system to alter buoyancy of steamboats.

     His device was never manufactured, but he is the only US president to hold a patent. 

10. Washington-- Had no biological children.

     However, he raised two step-children from his wife, Martha, and helped raise two of his step grandchildren when their father, John, died. Lincoln was the father of four boys of which only one survived into adulthood.

Bonus: Both Washington and Lincoln were born in February. What days are their birthdays on?

Lincoln: February 12

Washington: February 22

Sources:

http://www.wvgenweb.org/mineral/nancyhanksmem.htm

http://www.amazon.com/Abe-Lincolns-Step-into-Reading/dp/0679849777

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Presidents_of_the_United_States_with_facial_hair

http://www.amazon.com/George-Washingtons-Breakfast-Jean-Fritz/dp/0698116119

http://www.amazon.com/Lincoln-Photobiography-Houghton-Mifflin-studies/dp/0395518482

http://www.mountvernon.org/content/meet-george-washington

http://www.mountvernon.org/content/facts-falsehoods-about-george-washington-0

http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/education/patent.htm

Thankful Sunday--February 15. 2015

I am thankful that my children 

grew up to be readers.

Wally in his younger days reading a book from the library.

Some people like to read and some people do not. There are many reasons for this difference, but I'm glad I have a family who enjoys it. Ward and I both enjoy reading, and Ward comes from a family that especially likes to read. The kind of reading that leaves no book unopened, the kind of reading that makes them miss planes, and the kind of reading that had Ward reading every book in his school library. I am thankful that my children have inherited this love of reading. It will serve them well for the rest of their lives.

Clothespins

Recently my aunt found an old clothespin bag from my grandmother and sent me a few of her clothespins as a memento. Seeing the clothespins immediately sent me down memory lane. I remembered the sheets hanging on my grandmother's line when we visited and the overalls that were worn by both my father and Theo that had hung on the same line. But mostly, my thoughts centered around hanging up clothes during my youth.

Our family got a dryer when I was a baby and my mother always talked about how happy she was when she got it. She was finally going to have a way to dry diapers and everyone else's clothes on a rainy day. However, we still hung most of our clothes outside. I remember that my father put up a clothesline just for me and it was my job to hang up all of the washcloths. And as time went on, I took my turn hanging up all of the wash. I learned how to stretch the clothes to have the fewest wrinkles and hang shirts from the tails instead of the shoulders. I also learned about sublimation at home long before I learned about it in school because we hung out clothes all times of the year even when they froze on the line. But they did get dry even if it took a little longer than in the summer.

And I learned at church to remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. So when my mother had no other choice than to do the wash on a Sunday, I worried about what the neighbors would think when they saw it hanging outside. Now I understood that they thought here is a woman with a big family that sometimes had to catch up on things after church. But most of all, I learned the wonderful smell of clothes dried in the sunshine. There was nothing better than climbing into bed with freshly washed sheets that had dried outside.

Today, I don't hang up clothes outside because of allergy problems in the family. We dry them either in the dryer or on folding drying racks. Most of the time I don't think much about this part of our laundry routine, but today as I go down memory lane, I sure do miss the smell of freshly dried sheets from the line outside.

A Second Look--February 11, 2015

The winter weather continues typically for our region with temps ranging from teens to actual fifty's over the weekend. Too bad I had to work during that time, but it was good just knowing that it was warm outside. We also went almost an entire week without precipitation, but we are back to the old routine with freezing rain yesterday. However, February shows more hope for the coming of spring than January. Maybe I'm seeing what I want to see, but I think I see more birds and squirrels about. And I'm noticing more buds on trees. Actually they've been there since last fall, but I like to believe that they are a sign of spring.

Here are a few things I saw this week 

during a Second Look.

Female cardinal among maple buds

Rhododendron bud

There are fresh chips in the hollow of this tree. I vote for a woodpecker since there are other holes in this tree made by them. A sign of spring?

Dogwood buds

Male downy woodpecker. Down for a bite...

Up for a swallow.

Miss Landers sent me this picture. It reminds me that I don't have to be in a natural setting to enjoy the beauty of Mother Nature.

Thankful Sunday--February 7, 2015

I am thankful for my alarm clock.

Leo wakes us up every morning. However, he's not so happy when we wake him up.

We learned years ago that if we want a decent night's sleep, we have to banish the cats to the basement for the night. We have a cat door in our basement door, and we lock it at night so they can't get out. That works well except for one of our cats--Leo. He has learned to outsmart the lock and get out while still leaving it locked to the rest of the cats. So Leo spends the night where ever he wants which is usually on the couch in the den. However at 6:48 AM every morning, he walks all over us with loud meows which promptly wakes us up. And luckily, that's about the time we want to get up anyway. Sometimes with the late sunrises this time of year, we have the tendency to oversleep. But not with Leo, our feline alarm clock. We don't use any other kind. For Leo's wake up call every morning, I am thankful.

Smile

There so many clever and amazing things to see on the Internet these days that I pretty much ignore them.  Or else I wouldn't get much done. However, a friend showed me this clip that really made me smile and it only took 15 seconds to watch. Fits my bill perfectly. See if you find it as entertaining as I did.

15 second clip

A Second Look--February 4, 2015

Here's what I saw this week 

during a Second Look.

Even in the winter, dandelions are providing color in the yard.

Blue Jay and Downy Woodpecker. The blue jay has just taken off to land on the feeder below.

Front door hole and back door hole for the local groundhog. (The front door hasn't been used much.) I don't know if he even bothered to come out Monday for Groundhog's Day. If he did, he wouldn't have seen his shadow because it was raining that morning.

The birds have been using this nesting box to keep warm. There was a little material left from the last nest in the bottom, but I found new feathers on top of that from whatever has been using it.

And speaking of nesting boxes, you can see that something has enlarged the hole on one of them. It could have been a woodpecker or an squirrel. I vote for squirrel.

This is the first time I've noticed a white-throated sparrow this winter. They travel in flocks, so I don't know where the rest of them were.

With the snow, we can more clearly see the evidence of where the deer have been in our yard. Everywhere!

Sunrise

Tattoos

Tattoos

Let's get this out of the way at the beginning. I don't have a tattoo and have never had the desire to get one. However, I know that many people do have them. In fact, it seems like everywhere I turn there is a person with a tattoo--multiple ones in fact. I wondered if my perceptions were right, so I consulted Statistic Brain to see what the actual numbers might be. Here are a few of the statistics. (These are for the US)

Percentage of all ages that have a tattoo--14%
Percentage of 18-25 year olds with a tattoo--36%
Percentage of 26-40 year olds with a tattoo--40%

So you can see from these numbers, in the under 40 crowd, more that a third have a tattoo. It didn't give statistics for those of us over 40, but from my experience, tattoos were not so popular in our youth which has me wondering about the whole process.

While I appreciate the art I see in many tattoos, I still don't understand why you would get something on your body that is essentially irreversible?  I understand a wild haircut or color because your hair grows out, or maybe a henna tattoo, but not an ink tattoo. I've heard that they can be removed, but a bit of research suggests that is not as easy as it sounds. Removal can be expensive, be very painful,  produce scars, and may not be successful. So in my mind, I still don't quite understand the tattoo mind set.

I am a planner and cautious person by nature. Not the sort of person even in my youth who would have gotten a tattoo without a lot of research. That research would have led me to problems with removal which would have deterred me right away. But if I made it past the permanence issue, I don't think I would have ever been able to decide what the tattoo would be. What would I want for the rest of my life? I thought about both of these issues recently when we were on a tour with a young woman. She had a very nicely done tattoo of Miss Piggy on her shoulder. I'm not sure why she chose Miss Piggy, but I can imagine she liked the humor and strength that Miss Piggy symbolized. But in 10 or 20 years from now, will she want a cartoon pig tattoo her shoulder? I wonder if she thought about that?

A few years ago, when tattoos were becoming popular, I had an interesting discussion with a nurse that worked in veteran's hospital. She said many of the men in there had tattoos, and every single one of them was sorry that they had gotten them. That was one of the things from their youth that they wished they could do over.

On the other hand, one of my friends got a tattoo when she turned 50. For years, she said if she made it to 50 she would get a tattoo. She got a phoenix on her back to symbolize all that she had made it through in her life (and it was a LOT). Her tattoo, I understand a little better. She had a lot of life experience behind her decision.

So what do you think? Do you think tattoos are here to stay or the youth of today will regret their tattoos when they are older?