Monday, March 26, 2012

Love/Hate


I am really having a love/hate relationship with a number of things right now.  The most predominate is beautiful spring versus vicious allergies.  Truthfully, the weather we are having now is really our summer because, come June, weather here in Texas can turn from summer to Hades in a flash which means we are housebound for weeks.  Last year we had 100+ temps almost all summer which made me sad that we didn't take advantage of the beautiful early spring we had -- who knew?  This year, remembering last year, we are trying to make the most of spring but wouldn't you know, this is the worst pollen season on record -- EVER! So, what is a person to do -- options -- take meds all the time and go outside or take meds some of the time and never go out.  We are being attacked just walking to the car or into a store -- it is pretty miserable and I am not sure that any of the options are great.

Then, there is the love/hate relationship with computers in general.  I have a little netbook as well as a desk top with enough power/memory to man another country.  However, I like the little netbook which allows me to sit and surf in front of the tv which is probably the least healthy thing in the world.  Anyway, the little netbook needed a new battery which we ordered and installed -- not rocket science -- and now it doesn't want to talk to the wireless router.  I am not such which has gone silent but it doesn't matter -- it is causing me much sadness and a little stress to not be able to do my unhealthy thing.

Then there is Facebook.  I joined FB when it was brand new, didn't know what to do with it and nobody else was on it.  Same with Twitter which I still don't understand.  I had a myspace account as well and was reasonably comfortable with that for social networking but I relied on email (and actually, the telephone) more.  The great exodus to FB commenced and myspace became a dinosaur as did my email, apparently.  Nobody emails me anymore.  I have over 3000 emails in my inbox and 99% of them are ads relating to online searches.  I rarely get emails from people anymore.  I also started blogging a long time ago, switched from blogspot to wordpress a couple of times before finally settling on blogspot, started reading other's blogs which is one of my favorite pastimes on the netbook but even that gets pushed aside for FB.  I have decided that FB is good but getting less so as time goes on  -- the most recent revelation is that of FB declaring that it owns the word "book".  Whatever.  I would get off the FB treadmill but the truth is, that is the only way I keep up with anybody anymore.  It is really sad.  I remember people saying how bad it is that with the advent of modern technology from the telephone on down, interpersonal communication has dwindled to nothing.  People don't write anymore, in cursive or otherwise, they don't even talk on the phone anymore, they text -- a phenomenon that is keeping teenagers from having face to face conversations.  People wonder what is happening to our society with everything from obesity to drug/alcohol abuse, physical abuse, depression, etc.  Could it be people are lonely?  I live in a house in a garden home community where the houses are very close together yet we could all be on islands because the houses are built for extreme privacy and honestly, we never see our neighbors.  Could it be that we really need that face to face, over the back fence, chat?  Could it be we really need the phone call or the handwritten note?  Personally, I think we do.  I just don't think we can sustain ourselves as human beings with other human beings being replaced by technology.  If you ask the younger generation I am sure you would get a completely different answer but for those of us who grew up in a different place and time, all this technology has the potential for a love/hate situation. When I first dipped my little toe into the computer/internet world, I was fascinated.  I would spend hours on the internet but over the course of time I have found that, while the instant gratification of instant information is very compelling, it is also very overwhelming.  I am finding myself going back to reading the newspaper and listening to the radio.  I have three e-readers yet I still carry a paperback in my purse and love the feel of a nice, hardback with the dust jacket in place to mark my place.  I went into the library a few days back to renew my card and was taken back to my days at the San Pedro Public Library where I had a favorite corner and my goal was to read every book in that corner -- all my favorite authors.  I have also discovered that my favorite sound is silence -- and I don't mean Simon and Garfunkel.

I guess I you could say that I am in generational limbo -- but haven't all previous generations been in the same predicament?  New technology all the time for eons, yet now, this new wave of technology, seems to be more menacing to our well-being than, let's say, the electric light bulb.  I am sure, back then, people complained about that too but I just feel like what we have now, while wonderful on so many levels, is maybe just a little too advanced.

With that said, hee hee, I just downloaded a gadget to my homepage that allows me to send texts to phones from my computer! Now all I have to worry about is how invasive that is, how dangerous to my privacy that is and how addictive that could be.  Oh dear -- I guess I am still "finding" myself.


Have a great Monday!

Update

 Ok, so we visited our cardiologist yesterday to get the lay of the land for the Hubs.  Seems there is an issue with one of the grafts from ...