Happy Thanksgiving!! My “little Daggy” was curled into my chest when she started to snore. Then she went into that “REM part” of sleep when she twitches and jerks. Her back claws dug into my hand waking me up at 2:00 a.m. Try as I might I can’t get back to sleep, so I figured it would be the perfect time to pound out a journal entry.
My head is still spinning from all that happened on a busy Wednesday before Thanksgiving. I have always shied away from new technology. Back in the early 1980’s I was working in building 9 on one of the “Blue lines”. These assembly lines had about 100 people working on them assembling the heating/air-conditioning units. One of my co-workers brought in the first walkman I ever tried. It was unreal to me to have such a small (at that time!) unit that enabled you to have the music you wanted. Those early units sold in the $100.00 plus range back then.
To be honest the factory was not a safe place to wear and listen through headphones: the use of those gadgets was quickly outlawed. When I changed departments to the “outback” of Building 8 I broke down and got myself a Walkman. The price had come down to the $40.00 range for a GE model that came with a charger stand. We were pretty much hidden out of the way and management pretty much left us alone.
That poor Walkman of mine got beat up in no time! Rubber bands held the door shut where the cassette tapes slid in. The headphones were always sliding off the spring steel that held it tight to your head. I used to love to take one of the units off the headphone and pretend it was a microphone. I would walk around doing “Man in the street” interviews with my partner in crime Al. We sure could get people laughing.
The current day I-Pods are such an improvement over those early walkmans. When we erg at the
There are some six TV’s hanging from the ceiling of the “Y” in the area where I erg on the rowing machines. Thank God the sound is off; there is some way to listen through headphones. Usually three of the units are tuned to Faux News with the split screens, talking heads, and streaming disasters of the minute. Normally I can’t be in the same room as that networks news broadcast.
I settled into Erg Wednesday rowing a comfortable stroke rating shifting between 24-30 strokes per minute. Doing a 10,000 meter set, the first and last 2,000 meters are usually the worst for me. The TV directly ahead of me was tuned to C-span reporting on Sara Palin signing her work of fiction. That was the feature from Hell, because it never ended! The camera would pan from “perky Sara” scribbling her name on the frontispiece of her book to the lines of losers who waited hours and hours in horrible weather to have a book signed. That feature was on the entire time I was erging. That could have done something to keep my heart rate up from the agitation! I had Sara to thank to finally break down and get a MP3 player!
Home from the “Y” I started doing my research on line to determine what MP3 player would best suit my needs. I know I don’t want an Apple. They are way too fancy and expensive. It looked like a basic unit from Best Buy would be my best bet.
After doing my research I went to fix me up an iced coffee. The ingredients were poured into the blender jar and the switch was clicked. NOTHING. DAMN!!!! It seems like everything is breaking lately. My Oster blender is nearly as old as I am. Mom got it so she could make milkshakes to fatten me up. The cord was dry and crumbly, that had be the problem.
Going through my junk in the workshop I found an old power cord from a long gone radio I was able to use. While I had the thing apart, I disassembled the motor as much as I could to do a cleaning and lubrication of the bearings. That old blender has never had any attention for as long as I can remember. The works got reassembled and the switch was flipped. WHOA!! Does that motor ever spin now! It really chops up the ice! That should be the last time I have to mess with it in my lifetime!
Debbie called while all this was going on. She needed to do some quick shopping and then meet her mom and Jammer for Mexican. This will work out perfect. I’ll ride out with her to Best Buy and then have supper.
Things were quiet at Best Buy. It used to be music would always be blaring in that store. I was able to get a clerk to help me out. He was a great kid. I explained how this was all I-Pod stuff was so foreign to me and how I just needed a unit to listen to at the gym. Nothing fancy, no bells and whistles. He seemed a bit relived when I explained how I researched different units on-line. What threw me off was the inexpensive players were on the bottom part of the rack, pretty much hidden.
The SanDisc was my choice. As I was checking out, Kim and David from the Rowing Club showed up behind me in line. They were laughing seeing what I was buying, as I had mailed out my dilemma earlier in day to my rowing peeps.
We met Sherri and Jammer for Mexican. I love these people so, but their world view is formed by Faux news. It is so narrow. I gave up years ago trying to have an educated discussion with them on current events. Sherri was on a tear about how people were being arrested by the FBI because some virus downloaded kiddie porn to their computers without the knowing it. Any attempt to explain how a firewall or virus protection works was fruitless. The computer is the work of the devil according to her.
As I was typing this out it all came together. Sherri is representative of the “teabagger” movement. These people are seeing the world changed beyond their comprehension. They refuse to grow with the changes: they are frightened and scared.
Enough of this: I need to make up some coffee. Happy thanksgiving!
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