Saturday, November 12, 2022

Driving the older car ~

Growing up I watched my dad drive the older car instead of the new one. When we were in Hawaii I remember he bought a Datson when there weren't very many Datsons out there. He spent many weekends tinkering with the car trying to get the distributor cap to work properly and making sure the engine ran because it was not in great shape. It was a very old so I didn't understand very much of what he was doing but I knew he said a lot of bad words while he was doing it.

The only time I remember him having a new or newish car was when we had a Ford Gran Torino. It was a big car but because it was a two-door it was hard for me and my little brother to get in and out of the back seat. We ended up taking a road trip with my grandmother in that car out to the Grand Canyon and back. My dad drove almost the entire time, Grandma was in the front passenger seat taking video with her movie camera of almost every interstate sign that we passed. My brother was six years younger than me so he was probably about four years old or maybe three. Mom sat in the backseat with us, my brother stretched out with his head in her lap. He slept most the time, that left me to sit in the middle between the bucket seats on all watching everything passed by. It was fun!

As I got into my teens we got a Volkswagen Bug. It was an old 1968 model that dad called "Hitler's Revenge" because it never ran right. No air conditioning, corner vent windows that you turned to get the wind as you were flying down the highway. It was fun to drive! I learned how to push a car and pop the clutch to get the engine started in that Volkswagen.

Dad ended up taking my old Ford Pinto when I moved up from it to a Subaru hatchback. I ended up buying the Subaru brand-new but being a four-cylinder engine Dad didn't think it would support air conditioning so I drove around Central Florida with no air conditioning for a couple of years.

But he drove that Ford Pinto for years until it stopped working. He didn't like that car but he drove it.

When he got a truck he bought an old Chevy pickup truck with a manual transmission and the shifter on the steering column. No air conditioning in that, but he loved driving the truck. He drove it all over the place and ended up driving it on a road trip to Tennessee and back.

As he got older he finally bought a new vehicle, a Mercury Grand Marquis. It was smooth and he enjoyed driving ita lot. After he died I got to drive that car for a little while and even though it was older it was still a smooth ride.

Through all of that my dad taught me that driving older vehicles is okay and usually saves money. Good lesson!

Monday, October 31, 2022

Filling in spaces ~

One of the things that bugs me is when people don't consider others when they're part of a group and they enter into a group space.

Like at concerts. If it's a concert that people want to go to the all try to get the best seat that they can imagine. Even though there's a large group of people coming there, rush to get there early and try to get in front and if they get there right when the doors open and then they try to beat others to get to the front.

Buses are fun, especially especially when you're part of a group that's riding about somewhere. But I've noticed that most people just drop into the first seat that they come to and then everybody else on the bus has to walk over them and pass them in order to get to the next open seat. And if you're one of the last people getting on the bus then you're having to walk by and bump into everybody on the way on and it's gonna take you the longest get off the bus.

Worse, when you are on a bus and you're in a window seat and when it's time to get off the bus many people just jump up and start getting off the bus immediately and don't consider the second person in a row or a seat that then has to stand there and wait for nearly all of the bus to get off before they can get off of the bus.

Benches are funny to watch people use. In a park or in a business or almost anywhere people will sit in the middle of the bench in an effort to prevent anybody else from sitting down with them. I have done that in the past, but I have tried to make an effort share benches with people or at least leave part of the bench open and make it obvious so that somebody should sit down with me. I had that happen recently at an amusement park where I just wanted to sit on a bench with my wife that was plenty big enough for somebody else to sit there and not make it feel weird. And a woman actually sat down and said she was tired and waiting on her kids and sat down we didn't have to talk or anything we just enjoyed sharing a bench.

Churches are always fun about the way people fill up space. Typically when you walk in the doors of the church worship area or sanctuary you're walking in the back of the room. Many many people sit in the back row so that they can get out as soon as the services over or sneak out before it's over. Or because they don't want to get too close. That means that everybody coming in now has to walk past you or over you to get to any open seats. In the first two or three rows are almost always left empty and anybody who sits up there is automatically judged as being late and not a very good church going person. Which is hilarious!

In my church I've made an effort to walk to the furthest point in the room and try to sit toward the middle-of-the-row so that others can fill in around and in front of and behind me. It frustrates my wife to no end when I do this, but that way I don't have to walk over people and crawl over people to get to my seat or apologize for interrupting their worship experience when we walk in late again.

I experienced a lot of frustration on a recent trip to Israel. I was with a group of hearing-impaired and hearing people, about half-and-half. When in a group setting I tend to be toward the back of the pack because that's where I feel like I can be the most help. I watch out for others, I watch to make sure we're not leaving anything behind, and I don't have to be in a big rush with a whole herd of people right on my tail trying to make me go faster. That tendency of mine led to me not having room or any ability to see when we went to new places to visit and learn about. Very often it led to me missing out on several of the key points of the trip. Or me not getting to see what the tour guide was talking about until after everybody was done looking and walked away and then I could look and go home that's what he meant.

I try to approach it with a servant's heart and attitude but at times my humanness comes out and I have to assert my presence and will just sit wherever I please. Or push my way over and past everybody that's been rude and just stopped when they walked in the door and make my way to the empty space on the far side of whatever area that we're in.

And sometimes I give up completely and don't even try and just go outside once I see that there is no way for me to get to the empty space without having to be extremely rude and interrupt everybody since the show or the tour or the explanation has already started and been underway for a couple of minutes.

Sometimes I wish I was wired differently. But I'm not!

Tuesday, October 25, 2022

People on the phone ~

I love my phone! My smart phone does so much more than just allow me to take and make phone calls. In fact, I do that rarely with my smart phone. I use it mostly to read things on, browse the Internet, manage my calendar and tasks, and send either short or long messages to people. I also program but that's a whole different thing.

Because most of the people around me have mobile smart phones I see other people using their phones a lot more than I actually use mine, and I use mine a lot! Guys at work spend their breaks looking at their phones instead of talking to each other. When I go shopping I have to dodge people that are so engrossed in whatever they're looking out on their phone that they just run right into me if I don't get out of the way. I find that rather rude, but it happens pretty often.

What I find funny is when somebody is talking on the phone and how they try to get away from people so that they have a semblance of privacy. They turn away from anybody near them, they start walking towards the corner or a door so that they can duck around the corner. It's like whatever they're talking about is private in their mind and they will keep it that way.

It reminds me of when I was trying to play video games and I tried a first-person shooter game several years ago. I don't even remember the name of but the graphics were cool and it boasted of fancy new artificial intelligence built into the characters that were not live players. I don't like the live online games so everybody else in the game except me is an artificial intelligence usually.

But the computer people thrown into the game to add something random to talk to or interact with acted a lot like people do that are talking on their phones in public. They would go wander off into corners. If I would run up to them in the game and try to interact with them they would say random stupid statements or "leave me alone" and stand in the corner.

It's just funny to think back on the way the artificial people in that game acted and how real people that are on their phones today act being so similar.

Very weird similarities.

Wednesday, October 19, 2022

All in our pocket now ~

I saw a meme the other day that made me think for a few minutes. On multiple days!

It was a picture of a guy standing behind the table that was covered up with media items that have been so popular in my life time. He was holding a boom box while standing in front of console TV. He was surrounded with stacks of VHS tapes, CDs, and DVDs. There were stacks of paper in multiple sizes with writing and pictures on them. There was a professional looking camera with a telephoto lens on the table. There was a Walkman with the old headphones on the table. As well as magazines and newspapers and books galore. A guitar, drums, and a portable keyboard. All of that and lots of other things on the table. It was amazing!


The caption of the meme was "we now carry all of this in our pockets".

One of the things I didn't mention above was the telephone that was on the table. Our mobile devices have become so lambasted by people talking about addiction and negative effects lots of time with family and depression and anxiety and all of the other negatives about the things our device bring that sometimes we don't stop and think about the positives. To be able to look up something about somebody I've never known that starred in an obscure movie filmed where I grew up is amazing! To be able to carry a library of books and periodicals and to be able to access the news from multiple sources at the flick of my thumb is astounding to me still.

I love how technology is going. I wonder about where we're headed with augmented reality and all the dangers that will bring.

I really like the meme!

 Check it out at https://twitter.com/whollydavid/status/1582885292213534720?s=20&t=9cPdLFfkkAgBGrjtNT5P4ghhttps://twitter.com/whollydavid/status/1582885292213534720?s=20&t=9cPdLFfkkAgBGrjtNT5P4gttps://twitter.com/whollydavid/status/1582885292213534720?s=20&t=9cPdLFfkkAgBGrjtNT5P4ghttps://twitter.com/whollydavid/status/1582885292213534720/photo/1

 

#technology

Thursday, October 13, 2022

Return to Lake Wobegon ~

In my quest for more content for my personal podcast I bought and downloaded some stories from Lake Wobegon by Garrison Keillor. I added them to my rotation and have enjoyed them so far.

I always enjoyed the storytelling exercise that Garrison Keillor would go through. A very liberal comedian but what I always found funny was his stories didn't sound so liberal, I enjoyed Prairie Home Companion radio shows several times and enjoyed the thought of it for many years. I always loved it when I hear him telling the fictional news from the fictional place in Minneapolis that his character that he played in the radio show came from. News about people in the cold and stuck in their religious practices at church and the funny ways that he would go to great lengths to describe things it was always entertaining for me!

Garrison Keillor is one of those artists that I always feel guilty when I enjoy his work because he's so against what I believe in what he says. Not necessarily in his comedy but in what he says and what he spouts he's against me, but his stories tell a different story about him.

You can check out some of of the Lake Wobegon stories on Amazon at 

Friday, October 7, 2022

Careful what you let in your head ~

Be careful what you let in!

Pretty funny - I've been listening to this old-time radio show from 1950 that was sponsored by Wheaties. The show would start with a blurb about Wheaties. In between Act I, Act II and after the conclusion of the show they would talk about Wheaties. One commercial would be about "Wheaties at seven help you at 11" and how it's important to eat Wheaties with milk and fruit. Sometimes they'd have a sports figure on, and it would be very straightlaced and he would comment about how Wheaties gives him energy to do whatever sport he does. Usually baseball because that was the big one at that time.

I've never eaten Wheaties. When I was growing up I loved the sugar-filled cereals like Cap'n Crunch, cornflakes, Cheerios, and other stuff. When mom decided to get more healthy it was Raisin Bran and I would try to find all the raisins and put sugar on the flakes. But never Wheaties!

Recently I was in the grocery store to pick up the items that were on my list. And when I saw the cereal aisle I started to go down it looking for the Wheaties. Just to see the box and probably pick one up. So that they could help me too.

Then I shook my head and thought about just how much influence those commercials were having on me.

Just another reminder to be careful of what you let in through your eyes and ears. Like the children's song says.

Saturday, October 1, 2022

What good can I do today ~

My church has a phrase the our pastor has been repeating over and over and over this year. And it's a good one: what good can I do today?

He uses that to spur action and the people that go to church with me to reach out more into our community with the love of Jesus. To do more things day-to-day rather than having some overarching goal that nobody ever reaches.

It's funny because this question fits with so much of the other teaching and encouraging that's happening around us. A lot of the gurus and articles that I seek and stumble across on the Internet and even the memes that I see as I scroll through social media encourage us to do something. If you can't clean the whole kitchen then just sweep the floor. If you can't do the whole project just do one thing that moves you toward it. If you can't read the whole book read a page or two. Forward motion no matter how fast will get you there eventually.

So the question "what good can I do today" helps me watch throughout the day for opportunities to help somebody. I pick up a piece of trash that somebody dropped or threw. Because if I do that and others do that then we won't have to walk around in trash the way we often do in our neighborhood and society.

I smile at people. Scary, I know, but depending on the person I almost always get a smile in return and science has shown us the if you smile your brain thinks you're happy and you start to feel happier. Happier people make for a better society in general. And forget about society, community is what I'm talking about. A happier community makes for a safer community. And a better environment for children and families to learn and grow rather than be uptight and angry and nervous.

A few years ago at my grandmother's funeral my father asked me to read some of the memories and stories that family members had pulled together to share at her memorial service. I'm really not the kind of person that likes to get up in front of everybody and talk, but I can do it and I can communicate okay. And because I'm a good son I told my father yes I would do it.

One of the stories that a family member shared seemed hokey but it fits with the "what good can I do today" question. It was the story about a little boy standing on the beach picking up starfish and throwing them into the ocean one at a time. A man walking on the beach was watching the boy do this and got curious. So he went to the little boy inside or asked him what are you doing? The little boy explained that the starfish got stuck up here after the tide went out and he said "I'm throwing them back into the ocean so they can live." The man looked up and down the beach and saw that there were thousands of starfish on the beach. And that they were getting baked in the sun. The man looked at the little boy and said "But there are so many. There is no way that you can save all of these starfish. How is what you're doing actually going to help them?" And the little boy responded "I don't know, but I sure helped this one!" And he threw it into the ocean.

All that may not be exactly how the story went, but it's meant a lot to me over the years. I reflected on it quite a bit and with this question that our pastor has us asking ourselves think about that story a lot there so much in our world that could be better how is there anything that we can do to change it? I don't know, but the good that I can do today helps that one situation or person!