Did you know that if you swallow small amounts of saliva over a long period of time it will eventually lead to your DEATH?!? Shocking, I know.
Actually, it's from an old George Carlin routine.
I was a huge George Carlin fan as a kid, and I bought several of his comedy albums. [Kids, a long time ago, we didn't have videos or the internet and we actually had to buy big old plastic record albums and play them on turntables, did you know that?! If there was any bouncing the record skipped and if you scratched it, too bad. You also had to listen to all the songs you didn't like unless you were willing to sit there and lift the needle and count the lines to try and find the song you liked -]
Sorry, I digressed there for a minute.
My kids, coming from Russia and Kazakhstan where things are not so technologically advanced, at least not in orphanages, actually know what a rotary phone is, and a typewriter, unlike many of their peers.
Out in the garage, we have an old Underwood typewriter that my mom took to college. It weighs 50 lbs and you could kill someone with it.
Until just about 15 years ago, I still had my old electric typewriter I took to college. I learned to type quickly on that thing. Sometimes I was lazy and didn't type papers, I wrote them out by hand. I once had a professor write on one of those "Your writing is pro-Op Art."
I wanted to scream "YOU TALK FUNNY!" [He was from Minnesota] but I controlled myself and made an A in the class. Every time I hear the word "roof" pronounced as "rough" I think of Charlie Eidsvik. He did eventually write me a nice recommendation to graduate school, although I bet he put in there somewhere "Make her type her papers or you'll go blind trying to read her writing."
Every once in a while I see one of those emails about how teens today cannot imagine life without their iPods, computers, and microwave ovens, etc. My son wants an iPad.
I can barely work my cell phone.
Technology is great, but have you ever noticed that really busy people, when they go on vacation, usually want to disconnect from everything?! They aren't trying to go more high tech. Most folks' idea of vacation rest involves a body of water and an easy chair, and maybe listening to some music or reading.
I picked up Michael from school yesterday, and I was sitting in the car, reading, when he banged on the door and made me jump in the air and nearly wet my pants. I was at the most exciting part of the book, where all the werewolves are fighting to the death, so needless to say I was ticked off.
Then again, he's 15. Adding a few more grey hairs to my head is his favorite activity.
He was hungry, as always, so we went over to an area of town to do some shopping, and there's a Steak & Shake there. I bought him a patty melt and some french fries, and since I hadn't had much lunch, I had a small cheeseburger. Then we sat in front of the health food store eating our cow sandwiches and drinking Diet Coke.
When we went in, the clerk looked at us with undisguised horror.
Simple pleasures are the best.
