Decisions, Decisions

The Grand Jury meeting was cancelled at the last minute yesterday due to the inclement weather.  So I stayed home and had to face the big dilemma of Thursday night - for me, anyway.  Which one of three programs was I going to watch?  They all began at 8 p.m. last night - The Blacklist, How To Get Away With Murder, and Vikings.   It was the last episode of the season for HTGAWM, and was a two-hour long program that was supposed to surprise and confound the viewers.  I really wanted to see it.  On the other hand, The Blacklist is not available to see (freely) on the internet until the next episode has aired; so one has to watch the following episode without knowing all that has occurred previously.  That was a large incentive for me to look at James Spader.  Then there is my Viking heritage that I have to combat.  I say I have to combat it because I've gotten to the point that I really admire the old Viking laws regarding the treatment of women - just like the ancient Irish laws - prior to the insidious teachings of the Christian church that women are chattel.  I was still trying to decide what to watch when it was 7:59, and my hand twitched on the television remote, punching in channel 269 - the History Channel - to see Vikings.   As always, the program was too short.  In the past, even last week, the History Channel has aired a second showing of the Vikings immediately after the first; last night the second showing was two hours later, at midnight.   (I did stay up and watch it a second time.)  But that meant that The Blacklist was over, and the second hour of HTGAWM was airing.  I looked at the news and then read a book until the next showing of Vikings.
   While walking back from Bop and Tico's yesterday, toward the bus stop, I slipped on the ice a bit.  My left foot skidded after I had planted it, and had all my weight on it - it made me windmill my arms, but it didn't hurt.  Until I got home and had been sitting for a few minutes.  I've damaged the knee cap multiple times, and the bursa above it; I've damaged the MCL to the inside of the knee.  Yesterday I apparently damaged a ligament on the outside of the knee - at least, that's where the pain is.  Oh, well...  I'll just wrap it and take Aleve and hope for the best.
   Boulder has had a record-breaking snow amount fall this month.  The old record was 32 inches, and we've had over 52 inches so far, mixed in with those 70 degree days back around Valentine's Day.  We're not expecting snow today, but there will be more measurable snow falling tomorrow afternoon, evening, and night, the last day of February.  It was all of 3 degrees (F) this morning, and it's risen to 8 degrees.  I need to go to the bank, go to the library, and return a key this morning, plus walk Tess.  Then I'll go back and walk Tess again this afternoon...   Going out for brunch tomorrow morning at Turley's Kitchen, again.  It's my favorite place for brunch, and their raspberry muffins are to die for...  Unfortunately, they haven't been available recently; they were listed on the menu board the last time I visited, and I ordered one.  When it arrived, I thought it was the wrong color, and, after I bit into it, I knew that the muffin was pumpkin, and not raspberry.  The server told me they'd already sold out of the raspberry ones, and wasn't the pumpkin a better choice?  I told him that it wasn't, but finished the muffin ,anyway, so it wouldn't go to waste.  I hope they have raspberry muffins tomorrow!

Electronic Things

As a child, I remember the basement of Williamson Hall at the University of Florida being cram-packed with huge computer components - mainframes from IBM.  I was fascinated by them, and I remember Dad telling me that computers were the way of the future - that the computers would give humans more time to relax and be with their families.  I remember hearing the same thing in the news reports on television, and being taught that maxim in school.  I grew up thinking that, as computers grew more sophisticated and smaller in size, they would "take over" doing mundane human tasks and that people would have more time to spend with their families, doing fun things.
  Now I'm 58 and am using my personal computer to blog on the wide wide web.Times have changed, computers have changed, but I don't see people relaxing and spending more time with friends and family.  What has happened to the utopia that was promised back in the early 1960s?  Of course I realize that computers can only do what they are programmed to do - and that takes human programmers.  With cell phones, cameras built into cell phones, SmartPhones, i-phones, i-Pads, i-Pods, and all of the other new miniaturized gadgets (Dick Tracey and Star Trek come to life), it seems that humans are more tightly attached to their electronic gadgets than they are to each other.
  I thoroughly enjoy watching a few programs on my television, and I usually have the local news on in both the morning and evening to be certain I'm aware of local events; but I am not sitting directly in front of the monitor, staring at it, and it alone.  Currently, I'm at my desk, with the television turned on - I've watched the local news and 30 minutes of the national news, while checking my e-mail and my usual electronic news.  I usually check the local newspaper two or three times a day, to see if there is any "breaking" news that affects me.  I use my personal computer to do research, to blog, and to stay in contact with distant friends.  I use my land line telephone to speak with friends at a distance.  I do own a cell phone, but it is only for business use - for people who need to contact me while I'm caring for their houses and pets.  The cell phone can take and make telephone calls, and take and make text calls - nothing else.
  The other day, while a friend was visiting, my home phone rang; I glanced at the caller ID, saw it was an 800 number, and ignored it.  My friend was almost literally twitching with each ring, and was amazed that I didn't answer it.  I told him that I paid for the phone service, and I owned the instrument itself; since I owned it, I was not a slave to it - the same with my cell phone.  I have the choice of answering, or not answering, the device.  It is NOT alive; I do not "owe" it an answer; it is a tool to be used, as I desire.
  Some people have declared that I am against technology and against using technology.  I don't think that I am against technology at all - but I refuse to make myself a slave to electronic gadgets.  Being able to look something up on the internet in minutes is fantastic- instead of having to go to the library and look up the information in an encyclopedia.  Being able to watch a movie from a DVD on my television is much superior than having to pay to see the movie in a theater, with loud obnoxious people that I don't know kicking the back of my seat.  Listening to my favorite music, whether it's recorded on vinyl, tape, or CD, is marvelous.
-  But I am the master and owner of these devices.  They do NOT own me, nor do they govern my actions.