Teach Your Children

My wife and I have been watching the TV series Once Upon a Time by Netflix DVD rental. I really like watching TV this way as there are no commercials. I'm spoiled. The show is full of fairy tale characters and it is interesting how the writers have intertwined the characters of the different fairy tales to make a progressing story line on the series.

So far, we've seen Snow White, Prince Charming, the dwarfs, and the evil Queen, Jiminy Cricket,  Pinochio, Rumplestiltskin, Captain Hook, Peter Pan, Belle, Frankenstein, Ariel, Mr. Shmee, Robin Hood, Tinkerbell, and now the Wicked Witch and flying monkeys from Oz.

We are now at the point where we try to guess who the next character introduced into the show will be.  In the current season, the Wicked Witch is the meanie. My wife keeps asking, "Why don't they just throw some water on her and melt her?".  I say, " Maybe they want to bring Dorothy in to do it.". Sure enough, Dorothy shows up, dashes water on the Wicked Witch and melts her down! (Doesn't put an end to her though, guess she plays the evil too good).

I don't think today's kids know nursery rhymes and fairy tales very well. Whatever they do know comes from an iPad or computer and that's sad to me.  They have heard of some of the characters, but, they don't know the stories very well, so, I'm afraid that eventually, this method of parent to children interaction will be lost, along with part of the way parents communicate to their children that they want them to grow up to be "good" rather than "evil".  The TV programs and computer games that they watch and play make the difference between good and evil a bit of a gray area. I mean, from what I've seen, the hero/ heroine contributes about as much to the violence and mayhem as the villain!

I realize that the world changes with every generation,  but, that change is controlled to a great extent by the people living in that time, and if the difference between good and evil is a gray area, what will life be like?  Teach your kids the difference! Take them to church, talk to them, let them know you want them to be good people, tell them fairy tales and nursery rhymes...be a parent!  They will love it and you will too!

"Smart" Cars and DTV

Last February, we bought a 2013 Ford Taurus and we really like it. The car is a six cylinder with power everything and it provides us with a quiet, comfortable ride. From the outside, the car is easy on the eye, but appears as normal as any other machine of its type. That's where the normality ends. The car has no ignition switch or key! It's a "smart" car. It comes with a keyless remote that allows you to unlock and open the doors simply by walking up and pulling the door handle. You don't have to ever take the remote out of your pocket or purse...I like that. Once you enter the car, the steering wheel telescopes out and the seat adjusts to where it was the last time you rode...when you turn the engine off, the steering wheel telescopes down and the seat moves all the way back..that's good...makes it easy for us old codgers to get in and out. To crank the engine you mash the brake pedal and press a button...the thing fires right up. It has bluetooth technology, dual zone heating and cooling, GPS, radio and CD player, and many other buttons and whistles that I have yet to discover. Everything is accessible through a touch screen or buttons on the steering wheel. It's an amazing machine! Wait..it is a machine isn't it? One day shortly after we got it my wife got out of the car and left her remote on the seat. The car immediately started blasting the anti-theft horn...how did it know to do that? Does it have a mind of its own? Twice now I have found the car sitting in my garage with both front windows down and the doors unlocked...I don't like that! We always lock the car at night, so I know neither of us just forgot and left it that way. What's going on with this thing? Imagine taking a trip somewhere and leaving the car in a busy parking lot, locked when you left it, but wide open when you got back! Shortly after it happened the first time, I asked the manager of the service department at the local dealership if he knew why this might happen. He had no clue about it...said he'd never heard about it before. I just shrugged it off as a freak occurrence that would probably never happen again, but then, it did! Now I'm really scratching my head, so, when all else fails, read the instructions! I pull out the manual (about 3 inches thick) and start searching for the reason that my car would do this. No luck there, so, I do the modern day thing....Google! It turns out that my car along with many other late models from all companies have a feature on the remote that not even the salesmen nor the mechanics know about. If you press and hold the unlock button on  the remote for about 5 seconds, the doors will unlock and both front windows will come down! I carry my remote in my pocket all the time and apparently the button was being pressed by some other item in my pocket long enough for this to happen. Mystery solved...maybe...or is this "smart" car just trying to aggravate me? Hmmm! I know it couldn't happen, but what if that thing decided one day to crank itself up and drive off somewhere? Sure hope it tells me where it's going before it leaves! Naaa...it couldn't do that...could it?

We now watch digital TV via microwave technology. This is supposed to be quite an improvement over the old analog TV which received the radio waves. I really can't tell any difference between digital and non-digital broadcasts, they look the same to these old eyes. I agree that the picture is sharper and clearer, but I'm not convinced that it is because of the microwave signal..might be that TV sets are just made a lot better. *shrug* What I don't like about it is that if the wind blows just right or there's a cloud in the sky, you have no picture or sound at all! With the old system, there would be a picture, maybe fuzzy but watchable, and sound, either the actual program or frying. At least you knew the set was working properly. Now you get a silent dark screen with a message "No signal or weak signal" and that's it!, or the screen freezes right in the middle of what you are trying to watch. It drives a person nuts!

Technology challenged? As fast as new things come out, who's not at least a little bit challenged? We try to keep up, but, change is a slow process for us. My kids tell us all the time that we need new and updated stuff. Why? Our old stuff still works..I don't have to watch movies on my phone! I still use the old fashioned dial a number and talk to someone approach. I don't need a text plan....shoot...I don't text much! Facetime is great, I can see my grandkids regularly, but, I lived 55 or so years without it and made it all right. It's a wonderful, fascinating techno world that we live in, but hey, I know how to live without it and still be happy.

If you see a car moving down the road with no one driving it, it'll probably be mine taking a trip without me! If you do, just don't try to out"smart" it!

God bless us all!

The Silent Type

"You're not talking to me today?", my wife said not fifteen minutes after I had wished her good morning and inquired as to how she had slept. I mean c'mon now...we just got up and not much conversation sparking things happened to either of us during the eight or so hours that we were asleep.  I answer her with "Well...yes..I'll talk to ye, just don't have a whole lot new to tell you right now...dahhhhh-lin."  For some reason beyond my comprehension, this seems to aggravate her even more. She snaps back "You never talk to me...I'm not saying anything else to you again!".  I'm thinkin " Sheesh!"!

This scenario seems to play out quite often at my house. We are both retired now and we are in close proximity to each other most all the time. I rather like it and we get along fine...except when it comes  to me just making chit chat. I could go for days and not say a word....would'nt bother me a bit! My wife on the other hand is a big talker and is well practiced in the art.  I think she expects me to talk to her...even when she already knows everything that I know!

Thank goodness for cell phones, FaceTime, and messenger. This technology takes some of the pressure off us men folk. While the wives are on these devices, they don't want us talking to them! Trouble is, when they finish, they feel compelled to recount their whole conversations and their only available audience is us men! This is not all bad, we learn much pertinent information this way.  You know, stuff like "The fair has nearly killed her!", or "So and So's baby has the colic.", or "Somebody is renovating their kitchen.". Men really are interested in such things, we just don't want to "appear" that way. Our responses to questions regarding these newly discovered facts are always manly answers.."Yep!", "Nope!", "Uh huh!", "Naw", "Whatever!" to name a few. We also use the nonverbal manly communication gestures ...nods, shoulder shrugs, head scratching, and the infamous eye roll. Responses such as these are fairly common for men everywhere I would think, and are innocent enough, but women interpret them as indifference prompting them to say things like " You wish I'd just shut up don't you?", or "is that all you have to say?" ..heh heh..."Yep or nope" fits well here but adds fuel to the fire!

I reckon "the silent type" fits me pretty well most of the time. I can carry on a good conversation when I have something to say. I can write and speak correctly, even eloquently at times, if I consider my topic worthy.  Chit chatting is my weakness and even while writing this post  my wife asked, "Why won't you talk to me?"? * Rollin eyes*...the cycle continues! *Smile*