Do you remember:
 Life before the microwave oven?
Without remote controls?
Before cellphones?
Pagers?
Internet?
Satellite or cable TV?
Color TV?
Cars with carburetors?
800 incoming call centers?
Muzak?
An endless list.
Seriously.  You could sit around and think about this stuff and keep coming up with more and more - if you are old enough, of course, lol.

When microwave ovens came out, I wanted nothing to do with them.  I was terrified of the idea of eating something that had been "nuked" - a term that didn't even exist at the time they came out  but clearly defines my fear at the time that they may, somehow, be irradiating or otherwise poisoning my food somehow.  I refused to use them for years, but eventually caved in.

I also had the same fear when cell phones came out.  What are THOSE things putting out?  Right up to your ear, right next to your brain.  It seems, however, that that fear is not completely unfounded.  I don't talk on phones much anymore and I don't miss it.  I used to talk up to 6,000 minutes per month, no more.  Most of my phone activity is at work while on-duty and they are usually short conversations to clarify from me to someone else or someone else to me what's going on.

I remember the first time I used a remote control.  Functions were extremely limited but my gosh, everyone absolutely fell in love with those thing, as did I, right from the start.

When push button phones came out, I also resisted.  I liked watching the rotary dial going around for each number.  I don't recall everyone being in such a hurry back in those days.  I had rotary phones for years and years after push button phones came out.  I don't think my Magic Jack would be able to deal with a rotary phone.

I'm still in awe of a credit card sized mobile broadband router that I can carry in my pocket and puts out a signal that will definitely get you around the internet.  Coming through the air.  All this stuff coming through the air still intrigues me.  Or carrying around a computer that can do most anything my desktop computer can do.

Where is this all headed?  I don't really care, to be honest.  I don't have a smartphone and have no intention on getting one any time soon.  I don't care about all the latest stuff.  Some things I would like to have, but can live without, such as a flat screen TV.  Don't have a single one in my house, though I did buy one on Black Friday for my travel trailer.  I only bought one of those because of limited space in a travel trailer and a flat screen seemed the best option.  It's 19 inches and that's enough.

I like fuel injection versus carburetors simply for the fact you get better fuel mileage out of it.  They run better and there aren't any jets and other minutia in fuel injection to go haywire.  Fuel injection hardy ever has the same types of problems of carburetors.

I like a lot of the stuff that has come out in the last 20, 30 years, some of it I could care less.  Some of it can go by the wayside.

I think some of the reason we look at the old days as better is simply because we were able to fix most of it. We could understand it without having to hook a computer up to it to find out what's wrong with it. We called it simpler times, but, in reality, whatever time period you are living in, it all has it's set of problems to deal you.  Yet, you can find peace in any setting.  I'm starting to come full circle, mostly because I have been seeking it for quite a while now.  No, not that I wish we would go back to the "old days", that will never happen.  But, that I can find peace in my inner man regardless of what is going on around me.  I find no peace, to be completely honest, in the constant roll-outs of the Obama administration.  I find peace that God is in control, always has been, always will be.


Whatever happens in this world, God is not shocked.  He is not taken by surprise.  Some thing didn't happen that took Him unawares.  No, He sees all of it.  He knows all of it, in advance.  My peace is found in Him, nothing else.  But, sometimes? It's nice to take a trip down memory lane.

ben

Monday 3/19/2012

Apparently, people in some parts of the U.S. are already paying 6 dollars per gallon for fuel.  Diesel fuel is inching up towards the$5 mark around these parts.  Another 4 years of Obama?  Yeah, no thanks.

If one were to believe the radar map over Arizona, then one would logically conclude that a good portion of the northern part of the state is being snowed on right now.  And that the Phoenix area still has some rain coming down.  Having a travel trailer up north, in the mountains, might have some potential for a nice snow getaway - but in the winter, you have to put antifreeze in the pipes to keep them from bursting, meaning that little getaway would not have running water.  Hmmm, but it would have heat, either propane sourced or electrical source.  I have 2 propane heaters in the thing - a furnace and a radiator type of thing and then the AC unit also has heat.  Wherever they had this thing before, it must have gotten cold there!

It will be interesting to see if anyone is working today. Contractors, that is.  When the sites get too muddy or wet, they shut them down.  It appears to still be raining in the East Valley, which is where 2 of the sites are that I have deliveries to take to this morning.   The dogs should also be happy when I kick them out for the day - a daily event that is only usurped if someone brings them in - with the condition that they are watched while they are in here.  

Well, time to be off to work.

G'day.

ben