Musings While Procrastinating

This is my relatively simplistic cell phone. It has a camera I do not know how to use and very few other features, which is just fine with me.


I have two stories overdue at the newspaper, so you know I am going to blog because I am a terrible, terrible procrastinator!

We had picture perfect weather for a few days last week, but now it is cold and blustery outside. Everything is wet.

I've officially decided that flowering pears are my second favorite trees when all lined up along the edge of a road. All of the roads leading to our house are lined with them. In the spring they're covered wth blossoms and in the fall they're multi-colored oranges and reds blended with green. One medium-sized leaf can be blotched with all three. Gorgeous! Of course maples are stunning and much taller and they bend over the road, while pears grow straight up, so maples would have to be my favorite. (Reminds me of my son, Tom, and how he always used to list for me his favorite foods, especially when food items moved positions. The foods he's always disliked: celery and onions.)

Why does every human being on the planet (myself included) carry a cell phone? I can count on one hand the number of people I know who do not use cell phones, and I admire them. Cell phones are everywhere and not just in pockets or at the bottom of purses (where mine usually is). Who needs to be in constant contact? It reminds me of the "nuclear football" the Secret Service carries around with the president in case the United States should come under attack.

It's like we can't be alone anymore and we won't be inconvenienced. If I want to call you, you must be availabel to talk to me N*O*W!!! My phone was dead this morning and I was momentarily panicked. I plugged it into the electric socket in my van as I ran errands, comforted by the knowledge that it was recharging. When you need a cell phone, you really, really, really need one, but most of the time you simply don't. (My son,Tom, for example, just interrupted this blog post to call me from his cell phone to ask me a minor cooking question.)

And who needs a cell phone / mini-computer / GPS unit all-in-one? My husband does. When he hands me his phone to place I call, I look at it dumbfounded. When he hands it to me to see something on the screen, the image always disappears before I've seen it because I touch some button on the the edge somewhere, or tilt the screen to its side. It drives me crazy! All I can say at such times is "I hate your phone!"

If it were up to me, we would have dials again and cords, just to keep it extra slow and anchored in one place. And when you stepped outside you couldn't hear the phone ring and when you went for a ride in the car you really couldn't hear the phone ring and you were free.

Nothing else to kvetch about...Don't make we focus on my articles! Alas, I must go.