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Monday, 06 January 2014

Amazing I Say

By Johna Ferguson

At times I feel the world has passed me by. Maybe it happened because I was asleep or maybe I just wasn’t that interested at the time about something new being introduced.

I no longer drive so when GPS came in, I wasn’t interested in learning all about it. Now when I ride with others who drive newer cars, I see that they can find any address by just punching a few buttons and you can see on a screen actually where you are and when you should turn one way or another. Amazing I say.

I got my first computer in 1987 but since then there have been so many changes. Some I have had to keep up with but others not. Like Skype.

My husband is very computer literate so he speaks with his friends all over the world via it. He says it is free whereas telephone calls cost money. I don’t see how anything can be for free but I take his word for it.

I enjoy occasionally talking with my son, the pilot, when he is in other parts of the world, or speaking with a friend in France and Norway but I still do not really understand how it works. Amazing I say.

I do use the internet and am continually seeking new ways to find and learn all kinds of information. But how it works and where it can find all that information is still beyond me.

Even email is wonderful and I use it daily to write to and receive mail from friends around the states. But again, how it works, I have no idea. Amazing I say.

I also have a cell phone but not one of those fancy models - just a standard one. I know it has many features but I never use them as I have no idea how to begin. All I can do is answer it when it rings or make a call when I want but that’s enough for me.

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In an emergency it would come in handy, I think, but daily I only use it to find out where my husband is and when he is coming home. I see everyone on the buses and walking on the street using their phones to text or tweet, whatever those both mean I have no idea.

Seems they can’t put them down for a minute even when walking across the busy street. Amazing I say.

Even TV has changed. Now the screens are flat and huge, some even wall-sized. I understand you can even tape things on the screen to watch later or even see two things at once on a screen. We have one of those big flat screens with all those options plus so many channels I can’t even figure out which is which.

Of course you must pay a lot to get so many channels from movies to sports but seems that is what most Americans want. Amazing I say.

vvvAnd even books have changed. Now you can read them on little machines like Kindle, Nooks or iPads or on your laptop straight from the library. Personally I still like the feel of an honest to goodness book in my hands but that may also change in time. Amazing I say.

All these changes in my small world are truly amazing but I know that in the future there will be more new inventions to tempt us all, but yet none can make us live longer. Only good genes, exercise, both mental and physical and good food can do that.

But watch out for the next amazing thing. I am sure it is just around the corner and many of us will submit to the advertising blitz that will accompany it. So ready or not, be ready to again be amazed.

But just remember, when anything new comes in, where does the old one go? To land fills to pollute the earth; hopefully something really amazing will be developed to help us out of the quagmire we are in.

Otherwise when we are finally laid to rest our bodies may take on a new life; we’ll all be talking to each other through the many discarded iPhones or other new devices - a grand undiscovered underground grapevine.

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