Today's topic, Technology.   I am very grateful to live in such a technologically advanced era.  I can't imagine how I would do living before indoor plumbing, washing machines, and phones.  How truly blessed I feel to have the opportunity to use so many advances in my day to day life. 

  Some of the things we may think of as pretty new were actually around a long time before being common place.  There is an old movie, called Made for Each Other with Jimmy Stewart and Carol Lombard and in this film they show a fancy new technology, a fax being sent and received is shown.  The movie was made in 1939.  Some form of fax technology has been around since the mid to late 1900th century.  Ma and Pa Kettle had a series of movies and in one of them they win the house of the future complete with a microwave, this movie was released in 1950.  The microwave ovens have been around since the late 1940s.  I bring this up because at least to me, neither of these were really heard of until much later.  I think I first heard of microwaves in the late 1970s and even baby sat for a family who had one I tried to use it, epic fail.  Fax's, I don't think I was aware of until the mid to late 1980s.

 I remember when HBO was launched the first paid for movie channel.  We didn't have cable, let alone HBO.  The joke was some kid would ask if you had HBO if you said yes then they would say "Ha, you have Hideous Body Odor!"  Thank goodness I was able to answer no so often!  Now there are tons of movie channels to choose from.  I am still to cheap to pay for any that don't come with regular cable. With Netflix, Hulu and Youtube, honestly, who needs movie channels?

One of my favorite things is watching movies that use technology. Sometimes the technology if far advanced from anything we know, so powerful and stunning we are in awe.  But, my favorite is a disaster movie when all the advanced technology is out, destroyed, unusable etc. The only way to save the day is some archaic form of technology like a land line, type writer, or regular TV.   There is always someone who just happens to know how to use the strange device that just happens to be where all the good guys have congregated.  Amazing!   And by using this they are able to out wit the bad guys or overcome what ever obstacle was preventing them from saving the day.

So, Yay!, for such great advances.  Now, to the down side.  When I was young we went on many car trips sometimes with several cars all following along.  If one of the cars needed to stop for any reason they just flashed their brights or if in the lead, pulled off.  Simple, right?  Now we all have cell phones and call back and forth to decide where to pull over, where to eat or use the restroom.  The conversations can be so lengthy, trying to decide.  Just make a decision already!  Don't fight over where we will eat for an hour while everyone gets hungrier and angrier.  That is a recipe for disaster.  Been there and done that as it were.

I still get a little weirded out when I am in public and hear someone seemingly talking to themselves. For a few moments I can't tell if they have blue tooth or are crazy.  I eaves drop slightly on the conversation just until I know.  That way if they are crazy I have time to get out of their I might kill you if the voices tell me to way.

It also cracks me up how dependant we are on the cell phone, I include myself in this category.  I managed to stumble through 30 odd years of life with out a cell phone and now for the last 10-15 years it is a necessity.  I have done a lot of driving by myself all over the country.  My mom will say something like "Keep your cell phone out on the seat just in case."  Like it can stop a bomb, or bullet or prevent a wreck.  Or any one of us children is leaving the house for any reason she finds concerning "Oh, you have your cell phone with you" again like it can deflect bullets or the mugger will run from the phone in your hand.
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 I am making fun of some of the marvels we have available but I so grateful for things like air conditioning, washers and dryers, in door plumbing, LCD TV, DVR, CDs cars, planes, electricity etc the list is almost endless.  Because of the incredible things we can do, I just expect some things to work, in my opinion, better.  I get frustrated when things don't work like they should and when I talk to people who work with the particular piece of technology I am irritated with I tend to say things like "If we can do surgery in utero, put men on the moon, use lasers to improve our vision surely we can do X"  They rarely see it my way.  Just wait until we actually have time machines I will make sure my quirks are accounted for!


ast but for sure not least let me not forget modern dentistry.  I would be almost toothless without all the fillings and caps I have acquired over the years.  My two front teeth would be gone, long gone.  But thanks to modern science I can flash a quasi winning smile at will.