Technology IS okay!!!

Awe! Success!!!

For those of you who thought I was a lost cause, this is my note of jubilation!  (I may rant and rave and complain alot, but I never give up on a challenge!)
I did get my MP3  player going and I have been enjoying my audio books as I do dishes, and bake my muffins and go for my walk along the river valley promenade.  I love it!  Technology is okay for those who are young at heart --- and those that are too stubborn to give up!  Us old folks may be slow but backing down is harder to do at our age!    

Summer's Revenge

Rehabilitating That Incapacitating Drag

For months I have been deliberating

Cause winter was so aggravating

Its dismal gloom was so exasperating

That warm sunshine I’d been anticipating

Was just nowhere to be found.

Then suddenly temps were graduating

Sun’s rays their heat disseminating

That sunlight was so liberating

That excuses for procrastinating

Had lost their bitter edge.

So the garden needed cultivating

For veggies that we were propagating

But dandelions were proliferating

They actually demanded eradicating

We really did not want them there.

On horticulture we’d been educating

As exotic plants we kept incorporating

Joy and labor we were integrating

Cause Eden’s garden we are recreating

Right in our own back yard.

We sat there planning, contemplating

Those plots that we are allocating

For seeds that we had germinating

In peat flower pots originating

To give them a good start.

Good weather we’re appreciating

The warm days are so invigorating

We find them so intoxicating

All old grievances we’re repudiating

With sighs of sheer delight.

So we sit there prognosticating

Cause we find it so exhilarating

New ideas we’ll be coordinating

Make us really feel like celebrating

Cause it truly is so validating

And we’ve earned this sweet revenge!

Technology Woes

Frustration

Instructions are redundant

If the print is way too small

For I cannot see the letters

I can’t read them at all. 

I don’t understand this gadget

I don’t know how it works

Oh for youthful savvy

 I could really use those perks!

I struggle and I try so hard

I really work to train

But knowledge of these gadgets

I just cannot obtain

So I bug and pester and implore

My kids until they’re blue

They’re convinced that Mom’s a nuisance

With no patience and no clue.

This technology’s moving way too fast

For this brain to comprehend

 For no sooner as I think I got it,

New technology they expend.

Life used to be so simple

When we simply met and talked

There was no frustration

And our brainpower never balked!

Downside of Modern Technology

The Downside of Power

In addition to my frustration with this new technology, I have a bone to pick with companies (Philips, at the moment), who seem to assume that instructions for the operation of their gadgets are unnecessary (redundant?) perhaps.  Seems to me I used to hear the term "user friendly" once upon a time.  I guess the company has now become so big and powerful, that they no longer care about "customer satisfaction".

Because I am visually impaired (not blind)! I cannot read books, (a very important passion of mine.) I  do, however, have one alternative.  I can still access the literary field through audio books which I truly appreciate and thoroughly enjoy. I have downloaded audio books to my computer and listened to them that way but that harnesses me to my computer, and even my laptop  cannot go everywhere  I want to go.  I have also used audio cassettes with my Walkman and those help, but some cassettes are so old that they skip or distort sound, making listening to the book extremely frustrating. A further disadvantage is that cassettes have to be physically picked up and returned to the library (26 blocks away).

Somebody suggested an MP3 player.  I bought one.  But the instruction sheet on it has printing the size of the little toe on my flea's left foot.  If they made that writing any smaller it would totally disappear into the paper!

With an ageing population, Philips could have a lucrative business catering to seniors if they were just a little more savvy with the basics of supply and demand.  Some of us still require instruction sheets    ---  readable ones!

Searching For The Sun

Sunshine Blues

I hate being indoors these days. I've had more than my share of it this winter (it's like that every winter and spring)! I just wish I had a balcony so I can get outdoors into the sunlight without all that terrible MOVING! - special table, chair, umbrella, extension cords, laptop, keyboard, mouse, etc. etc. (I can't stand the laptop keyboard or mousepad, so I bought an external keyboard and mouse). So anyway, I get out there on that public balcony, and I get myself all set up to work. Then either the weather changes or someone comes to visit and I've done all that work to get organized and I accomplish beans! Still I don't want to be imprisoned indoors forever and I will not give up writing. That computer is my lifeline! Guess I just have no hope of winning this battle!

I really do love my apartment but I would so love to have a private, easily accessible, balcony right outside. Unfortunately, few, if any, "Seniors" apartments have balconies. Seems like us old folks are prone to depression and balconies present too easy an access to ending it all, OR, perhaps seniors just forget how to stay safely away from danger. Perhaps the really expensive ones might offer me that option, but my millions have not been printed yet. So I struggle along with the big move each time, and I fail more often than I succeed.

Owning my own home with that wonderful deck was wonderful, but maintaining the place was a killer - much worse than this inconvenient move up to the twelfth floor balcony! 

Them's the breaks, lady! Suck it up!

Armchair Cruising

Getting the most out of your Holiday Buck

Over the years (and there have been many)  I have been fortunate to have tried several ways to enjoy  my "off-time" - travelling, camping, fishing visiting friends/family,  etc. etc. etc... Spring, especially, brings out the wanderlust in me.

Many of my former pursuits are somewhat impractical, improbable, or impossible for me now.  At best, I can still go for some very inadequate facsimiles of each of those most gratifying pastimes, but alas, few can replicate the pleasures that those activities once provided.

I am fortunate, however, to have detailed records of many of the highlights of those most memorable events of those carefree, happy days.  I am now so glad I took the time to record all those very minute details because it is so easy to relive them now.

Luckily, I did quite abit of travelling (one of my foremost passions) in my time, but since I was never rich, I had to stretch every dollar to make it reach the farthest. I loved touring because I got to see much of the world, but it was the cruising that gave me the most value (and comfort) for my money. Each cruise included some sightseeing on land, but it also included  great concerts and entertainment, plus meals and accommodations, (complete with laundry and housekeeping service), and I did not have to pack and unpack my luggage to see a completely different place the next  day!

To me, cruising was worth every  penny! You could be as active or as inactive as you chose to be.  (I liked the "active" part those days!)

BTW my favorite cruise was  on the Sun Viking through the Norwegian Fiords.   What a spectacular cruise that was!!!!!!! With lots of tours on land plus all that scrumptious Norwegian fooood!!!!!

Winter's Demise

Life After Winter

I have been enjoying the demise  of winter lately and to take advantage of it I have forgone the comfortable temperatures of my apartment and gone out walking - down city streets - of course. I guess the city's cement sidewalks are not the most comfortable surfaces to walk on, but for some reason, people get irritated if I walk on their lawns. (There are the city parks , of course, but people look at me funny when I walk in circles.)

Last Monday, it was so nice and warm that I walked for miles and I enjoyed it (till the last few blocks) because the blisters on the soles of my feet hurt so much. Still, I was determined to enjoy that warm weather so I refused to hop a bus and instead, I limped my way home.With all that walking I should have lost at least twenty pounds but all I lost was an earring and that did not even weigh an ounce!  As the pounds, I brought them all back - down to the very last one!

Nonetheless, I am going to take advantage of every opportunity to enjoy that sunshine! Heaven knows I have waited long enough for it. So I have earned it!!! For now, I  simply drained my blisters, applied antiseptic to the area and put on bandages where required and I'm back on the sidewalks again.

Mind you, I got pretty cold yesterday and today as the the wind has not yet been informed that winter is done.  Somebody send a memo. Pleeeease!

Spring Hurrah

Spring’s Hurrah

Winter’s over, the snow has gone

My heart is singing, the battle’s won

I meander down the city street

Till I get blisters on my feet.

But I care little about the pain

I’m just so happy to be out again.

Nature’s finally turned the tide

And opened up the countryside.

Life again is full of bliss

As summers breezes softly kiss

My cheeks still pale from winter’s gloom

But now so eager for summer’s bloom.

So I keep walking, though my feet complain

This new-found freedom is worth the pain.

More “cabin  fever” I can’t abide

Those winter doldrums I just can’t hide

I’m ready now for the soft caress

Of summer’s breezes to assess

And catch the zeal of the sun’s bright rays

To counter that “captive” malaise

So burning blisters won’t keep me home

Cause I’m determined now to roam

And if by chance I have to shed

Some skin that blistered till it bled

T’is but a little price to pay

For the recompense of a lovely day!