As I walked the walking trail there was a house beside me that had at least a half a dozen roosters. They evidently have been thrown way off by the daylight savings time changes though their lives because they were crowing like it was the crack of dawn. There were kids and adults playing on the playground laughing and having fun. And over to the other side of the track were a couple softball fields. The fields were empty but I could have just stood there for an hour looking at them and closing my eyes to imagine the sights of the kids out there playing and visioning Kailee out in left field. As crazy as it sounds I could smell the dirt from the fields because I have sat through so many games of that sport.
There wasn't a whole lot of traffic on the streets because most of the offices and some businesses close at 12 on Wednesdays. It was just a nice peaceful walk being surrounded by all the things that I love so much about where I live - especially the roosters.
I had taken my cell phone with me (when you have kids out and about you never go anywhere without it) and I had to make a call so I got out my trusty flip phone [that some would argue survived being on the ark with a partner and Noah] and made my call. Everyone gives me a hard time over that old cell phone telling me I need to give it up and join the rest of the real world with smart phone. I'm just fine with my phone though, it serves it's purpose - I communicate with my kids, my loved ones and my friends on it and to me that's all I really need it for. I can shoot out a text in 10.7 seconds on that phone and have every feature of it memorized. I have actually grown kind of attached to the old thing, in fact on more than one occasion I've thought it was a goner through negligence or carelessness and I thought I was going to cry.
I think that it was a sign that the world of technology was quickly passing me by when 17 years ago I had to take my 6 year old daughter Jessica with me to tell the guy in the electronic store what kind of computer I needed and how many bytes of this and bytes of that I would require.
Everyone around me has a smart phone including my mother (who would rather me not mention her age) and kids of all ages. I feel somewhat intimidated when I see a 5 year old whip an IPhone out of their backpack and go to town on it. My niece Brook even has a Pinterest and knows how to create boards and pins! My kids all could have went to work for an electronics store at the age of 8 or 9. Not me though I'm the one who sits in the restaurant and hides my good ole flip phone beside me in the booth or under a tablecloth so I won't be shamed by just the average citizen for not upgrading. Just the other day Patrick and I were at Outback Steak House and this man who was obviously in the upper years of 70 (judging by his walking cane and numerous wrinkles) was tweeting or something. I myself attempted to enter that world of Twitter and was completely certain that it was not my cup of tea when I couldn't even figure out just how and when to use a #hash tag.
Don't get me wrong I think all these things are great to a degree - they are very entertaining and somewhat educational in a lot of ways. I envy the people who are smart enough to catch onto new things and master them in no time. I think though that some of the "smart" things are probably disasters just waiting to happen. You know like the smart car. What the heck is that about? I mean I'm sure it's great on gas, but how awesome is that car going to be when you total it just hitting a small animal crossing the road? Every new season there's a new electronic device to make life a little easier. The phone book is obsolete, the dictionary is never heard of and why in the world do they even keep those folded maps in the convenient stores anymore?
Now trust me I do love the world of Google - it is perhaps my favorite part of technology. But for the life of me I'm not sure how we ever functioned when I was in high school. I guess it was the wonderful world of Britannica encyclopedias that got us through. Kinda makes you wonder what happened to all those door to door salesmen that made a living selling those things ONE LETTER BOOK AT A TIME! Wonder if any of them ever made it to retirement without being replaced by a search engine online?
I guess that life just passes me by too quickly and I have a hard time catching up. Either that or I'm just a little old fashioned and I like the simpler things in life that don't require an act of congress and two Philadelphia lawyers to figure out.
Granted I love to play a good game of Candy Crush and to compete with my Mom on Words With Friends. I like to get on Facebook and read my friend's status updates and look at pictures. But the rest of it I'm just not ready for.
During my walk though today with all those wonderful and simple things surrounding me I was perfectly fine with the slower pace of things. It was nice to just take the time to enjoy the simplistic side of life. Maybe one day I'll trade in the trusty little LG flip phone for a smart phone but for now I'm fine with the only tweeting that I understand being the birds outside my bedroom window each morning.
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