Made for TV

It was only an old TV show. 

It showed me a plain 

that I longed for. 

desperately hot, 

hot winds that sculpt the sand, 

sparse cacti, 

tough plants 

    cling to scant shade. 

amazing broad blue sky 

where a burning hot sun reigns. 

black star studded velvet sky at night.

sands magically covered in vegetation

when clouds and rains roll in. 

Of course it was only a TV show, 

polished and stunning for the camera. 

My dreams are something very different.

“When you’re in the desert, you look into infinity….It makes you feel 

terribly small, and also in a strange way, quite big.”

~ David Lean, Film Director

(1908 ~ 1991)

A Technology Challenge

A bit long but I just had to vent:

We have all faced many challenges in this life some serious, even devastating  others that require some thought to get around or through but the one I encountered today was just plain frustrating; annoying but worth my time to get it figured out. It involved one piece of mail to the country south of us. There was a time when there wouldn't have been a problem. But today? New rules for anything mailed south of the border ~ no matter how small or insignificant ~ required to challenge my techie abilities.  

 “You need to 

access a certain website via a qr code on the little pamphlet, 

set up an account

create a password and get a verification code on your email

(that took several tries to get it right)

be careful that you don’t get on a business site  

(which I did more than once)

- you need a personal site; 

Deep breath:

then the postal clerk will verify your account via the new qr code because of this new account. 

They will then know it’s ok 

to print out address labels for the package 

• in this case a large envelope containing a smaller envelope.

All of this was done on my cell phone with my battery running low. The clerk was amazing and very patient with me as my fat fingers tapped in all the information!

**Go to Canada Post website before encountering this frustrating challenge!!

“It has become appallingly obvious that 

our technology has exceeded our humanity”

 ~ Albert Einstein, scientist

Applied Conversation

I know I’m not the 

only one to tell the 

timer “I’m coming!” 

while hurrying to push 

the off button. There 

must be others who 

speak sharply or kindly 

to the tea kettle’s insistent 

whistle. “I’m coming!” 

Of course there is the 

little musical chime 

from the fridge that gently 

reminds me that the door is ajar.

And I’m confident that there are 

conversations with the characters 

on the TV…can’t do that in a 

theatre where even the munching 

of popcorn disturbs some people. 

Conversations with my appliances 

amuse me. But they only reply with the

‘bells and whistles’ of our technology. 

I have yet to get Siri or Alexis 

involved in this domestic chatter 

but I’m sure that will be soon enough. 

“There is no such thing as conversations. It is an illusion. 

There are intersecting monologues, that is all.”

~ Rebecca West, author

(1892 - 1983)

It's All Wireless

I like to think I’m 

turning on the radio. 

like the old brown one 

we had at the farm, 

with the gold trim on 

the front and the grey 

knob that we twisted past

the static until we found 

either CJME or CKRM. 

It was usually to hear the 

news, the grain report or 

football or baseball game. 

On the weekend it was 

Howdy Doody. In the fall,  

before moving to town, 

the hockey season would 

start. Howie Meeker called 

the play. Were any of the 

curling matches broadcast? 

I don’t recall - maybe they 

weren’t as interesting to me.

Now it’s all wireless.

“I’m going to get myself one of those, um, 

movable computers ~ what do you call them….? 

Laptops! I am bad. I still call my radio a wireless,”

~ Katherine Parkinson, actress

Progress, Not Perfection

Listening to the news, 

or a talk show, or seeing ads 

for the latest technology, 

I am stunned. 

How did all this come about 

    and why? 

The answers are 

   in the ‘cloud’. 

Up in the air or 

    deep in the ocean, 

so no more questions. 

What I do know is that 

miles to distant family are shortened. 

Coming from pencil and paper, 

a telephone on the wall with 

a long coiling cord on a party line, 

to a hand held phone and 

a vast array of technological devices 

is a joy, a tool, and an electronic 

encyclopedia of knowledge;

not to mention the threat 

of being tossed away!

Can we use our joy and 

the work of our lives to 

keep technology in its place?

As a tool, not an external mind?

“It was one thing to use computers as a tool, 

quite another to let them do your thinking for you.”

~ Tom Clancy,  The Hunt for Red October

There Was a Day

New printer

There was a day when any 

new technology had only one cord. One cord and plug in, and one button for on and off. But galloping technology that includes wifi 

~ you know, that thing that carries all our emails and searches and connections to a myriad of devises ~ races past me while I plod along using my laptop, tablet, cellphone 

for the mundane until one of them quits ~ 

goes to that great ‘cloud’ in 

the wifi universe leaving behind 

the big piece of plastic, ports, gears and ink.

The new piece of wifi life 

needs a technician 

~ not my skill set ~ 

to get them all working 

in concert ~ just so 

I can use my new printer. 

“We are stuck with technology when what 

we really want is just stuff that works.”

~ Douglas Adams, 

The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One

p.s. You still have to plug it in and push the on and off button.