Too Much Technology?

Good evening, ya'll. Come on in the house for it is way too hot to sit on the 'Net Porch tonight plus these South Georgia Mosquitoes will pick you up and tote you off. Those suckers grow big down here and are aggressive. You sit still and they gang up, bite and suck your blood and then carry you off. Maybe that's why those of us who live in the South try to get a good sun tan. It is so we won't look so pale when the blood-sucking mosquitoes snack on us.

As you can tell I am in a strange mood tonight. Not sure why except I just feel a little weird tonight. Is the moon full? I can't tell for it is cloudy and has been raining. It's beginning to look like we live in the Amazon Jungle down here and are in the Monsoon season. Anyone know how to build an ark? We may soon need one.

Do you remember when the best way to communicate with someone was to tell the town gossips. You know the ones who promised not to tell a soul what you swore them not to tell? We had several of those in Camden where I was raised up. They would promise not to tell a soul for swearing was a sin for a good Christian, Southern Lady but as soon as you got out of sight the telling began.

These good ladies would run to the phone, ring up Ernestine at the telephone exchange and ask her to ring up their best friends in order of importance. She would go down the list and ring up the ladies one by one and the tales began to spread all over Wilcox county. Needless to say, Miss Ernestine listened in for you could hear her gasp every now and then. The news soon spread and became larger with each telling. That was our newspaper, radio and TV all rolled into one.

Now it's a whole different ballgame, so to speak. Even though I was raised in the olden days, I have taken to this new technology quite handily. We now have not one, but 2 laptops - his and hers. There are 3 wireless phones and one not wireless, 2 cell phones, digital camera, wireless network, and cords running everywhere. Travel is now done by a GPS system, even though Madam Garmin irritates the stew out of me, and motels are chosen by their Internet access. We have a cord that plugs into the outlet in the truck which I can plug in the power cord to the laptop and use it as we travel. You see, the battery ran down on the last trip and that is unacceptable in the middle of a game of solitaire.

When I was visiting my brother last week, we had 3 laptops, a large-screen TV and a cell phone waiting to be answered all at the same time. Talk about multi-tasking we are getting with it.

Our conversations go something like this. "Did you get the email I just sent you? Why didn't you just tell me. Well it was to long so I just sent you an email." Then Cindy would ask me what my score was on Bejeweled Blitz and I would say I was playing Farkle. We would then try to figure out why her laptop would not let her play Word Drop and mine and Sam's would. Email would be answered and You Tube would be watched and meanwhile we could also tell you what was on TV. Now if that is not amazing, I don't know what it is.

Last week, my brother bought himself a new digital camera. He was so proud of it and was showing everyone what it would do and was taking pictures of the dog, the house, the yard, us, the food and anything else which would stand still or move. It even takes video and the most amazing thing was that these modes could be changed by just tapping it. I declare to goodness the thing is smarter than we are. It takes close ups, far offs, and panorama. It almost talks to you. You should have seen him showing off his new toy to his son and watch them compare the camera with Sean's new I phone (I think that's what it is). It was like 2 little boys trying to out do the other. Of course with them being big fisherman they are used to lying about size.

Now not to be outdone but our friends, we finally got high definition TV! Aren't you impressed? The truth of the matter is we live so far out in the country and had so many trees around our house we couldn't get reception until we cut down some trees. When I told our daughter we had HD, she said, Mama, you need to slow down with the technology before you overdo it.

Now honey chile, I am not nearly through for I want and I Pod, a bigger digital camera, and who knows what else. I like being wired! There are still some toys out there which I think would be a lot of fun.

We've come a long way from the telephone exchange and Miss Ernestine and the party line with Mrs. Strother listening to our conversations. I sometimes miss the person-to-person conversations, however. That's why I enjoy my 'Net Porch so much for at least I can talk to you this way. Fun isn't it?

Enough ramblin for one night and as Gandy Stuart used to say as he turned off his hearing aid at 9:00, I hear my train tooting and it's calling me to bed.

Nuff said,

The Georgia Peach