No Texting in the Outfield

"Wait how am I supposed to text with this thing on?"

On our vacation in Michigan, we piled my brother's kids and ours into the car and took them to play some softball.

We let the kids bat first.  My not-so-sporty kids were at least able to hit the ball.  Though the bat looked like it weighed more than my son and Jess and Alyss decided to ballet leap to first instead of run.

When it was the kids' turn in the field, I handed Jess my glove.  She put it on and looked down at her hands confused and asked, "Wait, how am I supposed to text with this thing on?"

I laughed but wondered if there is any hope for her.

Kathy :)

Space Age Silliness

      I was sitting at the table writing this morning.  All of a sudden an Instant Message popped up.  It was Jess.  She wanted to know if I was working on my novel.  I was.  I asked what she was working on.  We chatted for about 5 minutes.  It was a fun little conversation with lots of "lol" and :) ;).

It amazes me that as quickly as I can type something, my words can magically appear on someone else's screen almost instantly.  The funny thing is that Jess was sitting only 10 ft. from me at her computer.  So why didn't she just look up and ask me herself instead of typing it?  I don't know and why did I type back instead of verbally answering?  Because it is enchanting to have a wordless conversation.  It's almost like reading each other's minds.  I know it's silly but that is also part of the fun.

What silly/fun things have you been up to lately?  Have you made some good progress on you WIPs since the new year?

Kathy
            

Old Dog, New Tricks

Gramps with his free tech support.

The old cliche says that you can't teach an old dog new tricks.  But I happen to know this is not true...at least not  all the time. In fact it depends on what the dog wants.

For a long time my grandpa, who turns 90 in 3 weeks, marveled at the capabilities of our laptop.  He kept saying he should get one of his own. Finally he did.

His new laptop doesn't have a ton of capabilities but he can create any sort of document he could want and more importantly he can access the internet.  He says, "Back in the 1930's we had to go to a library or search in an encyclopedia for information, sometimes it could take weeks, now we have anything at the touch of a button!  It's amazing."

It's not all fun though.  He gets frustrated when pop-ups appear. He doesn't realize he can close them.  Or a page will load slowly and he thinks it's his fault. But as with anything else in his life, he keeps at it.   Then yesterday, my daughter Jessica said, "Mom look, I'm talking to Gramps on Google chat!"    Move over Smith Corona this old dog has just gone digital!


Do you know any "old dogs" that have learned a new trick recently?  and what inspired them to do so?


Have a great day!

Kathy :)

Wrestling on the Stairs

Today as I was wrestling with the vacuum on the stairs, I wondered how it's possible that humans have not been able to invent a lightweight vacuum that is capable of sucking up more than dust.  I tried a handheld battery powered one once.... I think the carpet looked dirtier after using it.   Then I tried a light weight plug in variety.  I slow roasted a brisket faster than I got the steps clean that day, but at least they were eventually clean.  So now I'm stuck lugging my over-sized vacuum up and down the stairs.  Of course the head of the vacuum doesn't fit on the step so I kind of have to balance it with one hand while I use the other to control the hose end.  Even with this mega vacuum's power, I have to loosen the strands of hair that are stuck like velcro deep in the carpet fibers.

If we could only harness the unbelievable power of computers and put that to use on a new age vacuum.  Maybe Apple could come up with special sucking app for the i-Pad.  Then I could vacuum the steps and blog at the same time.


Kathy