Thursday, August 15, 2013

"Oh, no man knows through what wild centuries rove back the rose". (De LaMare)

.....I'm afraid that the 21st Century is running away from me.  I'm a child of the 20th Century. The other day Rh+ laptop computer froze and we couldn't figure out how to shut it down, so failing everything else, we pulled the plug and after a few minutes plugged it back in again--but same result.  So I told her either to call Comcast or call in a Geek to fix it, but she did nothing about it for a couple of days.  But she was so anxious to read her email that she began frothing at the mouth like a Pit Bull.  So, in desperation she plugged it back in again & a little message superimposed on the frozen web page said that an error had been discovered and that it would be fixed. And so, the laptop went about fixing it all by itself and in about 20 minutes there was her desktop all ready for her use!  Was there a little Geek hiding in that machine, or a robot? Or a Smurf? Or Captain of the Enterprise.


.....21st Century stuff, that episode.  But then there is Facebook and Twitter and Linkup  or something of that nature; and Apps, and iPhones, and iPads and Flash Drives, and HD.  Life is complicated enough with medication and doctors' bills and .09 interest on Savings accounts that do nothing to help you cope with high food costs & mortgages (although I have no mortgage) and $3.99 a gallon for gas.  I was used to paying 5 cents for a hot dog with mustard and a Mission Orange.  When someone young asks what plane I flew in WWII and I say, a B24 Liberator, they get glassy-eyed; when they ask if I won any medals and I mention the DFC, it means as much to them as Sequester means too me. In 1940s we had no such thing as a "sequester".  Kids today never heard of a "record album" or black and white TV.  A skate key is like a dinosaur to them.  And when Orson Welles says "Rosebud" kids today think they smell a flower.

.....It's all too nerve-wracking to me. I'm cancelling my Facebook and Twitter accounts because when I go there, I have no idea what I'm doing and now I don't want anything to do with them.  Anyway, right now I am writing a script for a musical I am showing next March.  I never wrote a musical, though most everything else including a Sestina.  You can try it, but you won't succeed. The Sunday Times crossword puzzle is easier; so is running a marathon or learning to eat broccoli.  Unfortunately, while writing this musical, I must neglect my  blog, although I'll turn to it now and then as a change of pace.  I'm 89 though I can still think, but the 21st Century baffles me as well as it baffles Congress.

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