There comes a time when you realise your most brilliant blog posts will never be finished. I expect this is for very good reasons, so here are a few to clear from my draft folder. Don't expect a post from me tomorrow. I've shot myself in the foot now and have nothing prepared in advance.
Older Person Tech Stuff
I rather like being an older person, in my sixth decade. I am not so
keen on my physical deterioration that comes with old age but I think I
have lived in wonderful changing times.
There are some really significant changes that happened in my early years. Here is a bit of list.
Flush
toilets. Ok, they had been around for a long time already but we did
not have them. At school our toilets were known as drop toilets. Yes,
what went into the toilet went into a big hole below. At the rear was an
access cover and ours had been pulled aside. What a delight that was
for boys. We could give the mixture a good stir with a long stick and
chase each other around trying to hit one another with the stick.
Party
line telephones where you could listen to your neighbours'
conversations by picking up the phone, and none of this dialling or
pushing buttons. A quick spin of the handle and the operator would then
do all the hard work. In a nearby larger town, all they had to do was
pick up the phone for an operator to answer and connect them (the phone
was never properly dusted on cleaning day. Work it out). Now, I can
text. Who wants to talk on the phone. I can save the text unsent and
edit it later. If I replying to a text, I have time to think, unlike on
the phone.
All the answers to questions that arose were
in books, specifically encyclopaedias. Britannia was the best and the
most comprehensive. Can you believe that when we bought our first
computer, we also paid for an encyclopaedia on cd. Comptons comes to
mind. Unfortunately is was a one use cd. You put its contents on your
hard drive and cd was then unusable. Such ignorance on our part. I also
think we paid for, or was included, a movie database cd, but I can't
remember the name now. It certainly wasn't IMDB.
The
list is very long. I don't usually give up on something new and high
tech if I think it is a function that will be useful to me, be it a
computer, a phone, a car or anything else. Among friends similar to my
age, I am the tech guru, but I know I am not. I just know more than they
do, which is not a great deal.
I don't mind it when
people say, 'oh, I can't be bothered with computers', unless it is a
cover for not using them because they don't know how to. Believe me,
after getting on for two decades of computer use, they are so easy to
use now. They just work. This was not always the case. Installing a new
program was fraught. Who ever sees the blue screen of death nowadays?
---
I was going to write about the Australian magpie, but when searching for
who had taken good photos, I found Elephant's Child has already posted
about them. Never mind. You can look at her post here
for photos and text too, but I reckon I can find a better clip to hear
and see them warbling. It is truly a delightful sound to wake to.
---
Ice?
I could not possibly confess to having ever taken any mood altering
substances apart from alcohol. I believe many of the recreational drugs
are quite good, and that is why people use them. People who have never
taken recreational drugs will probably be hitting the close button now.
What they need to understand is the magic of drugs. Recreational drugs
can be really bad for you if they are misused or abused or if the drug
is addictive. But the good feelings and happiness and understanding of
the world that can come from drug taking cannot be denied. The problem
is that these drug feelings are not real life. They are fine for a bit
of fun, but they cannot be a day to day part of your life.
Apparently there are many in Australia who are addicted the drug ice. What is ice?
---
As a younger gay male, my doctor was always bothering me about tests
for sexually transmitted diseases. Now he bothers me about blood
pressure and cholesterol tests. He asked me how much alcohol I drank. I
replied, one glass of wine before dinner. I know doctors usually double
the answer. Little does he know.
Sister's partner Bone Doctor is no longer a
specialist but a general practitioner, specialising in sports medicine
outside her GP work.
Tell me, Bone Doctor, what do you think when a patient replies to your question about how much they drink?
Eat,
drink or smoke, I triple it and depending on their health, I may
multiply it by many times. You can put on your best face, but we know.
Most interesting BD. Thanks.
Meanwhile
I attended R's doctor because he is accomplished at skin problems and
inside my nose I had a sore that was not healing. I go for the worst
option first. My nose was rotting away from cancer. No, doctor said. It
is ok. He prescribed an anti bacterial cream, designed for the nose with
a high melting point and some stickiness.
I almost
went back to see him because my top lip split open, kind of inside and
it was not healing. I applied the nose cream to it for a few days and
after a total of time two weeks, it has healed, so it not my imagined
lip cancer.
On my upper arm I have a small but severe
bruise. Oh, maybe it is a melanoma. I put my glasses on and took a good
look. It is yellowing around the outside, a clear indication that it is
just a bruise. But I have no memory of how it happened.
Last
night I whacked my knee on a cupboard. Ouch, I said. This morning I
realised it is bruised and grazed and I guess it will take a couple of
weeks to heal.
This longer healing process
that seems to come with older age is not good. My cells are not
repairing themselves like they used to. I am not liking this at all.
---
Father's father's name was Walter. For some reason Father called him
Charlie. I asked Mother why once. She said that was the name Father used
for his father on building sites. So we called him Grandpop Charlie. I
am his only grandchild who remembers him. He was ok, and quite kindly to
his grandchild who he rarely saw, the son of 'that stuck up bitch from
the teetotal family' who his son married. They were his wife's words, Father's
step mother. His first wife was, as long term readers may remember, was
The Bolter, who bolted to Sydney's Balmain with a lad somewhat her
junior to whom she was teaching music.
---
There are many versions of Melbourne but my Melbourne is vast, from the
inner area where I live, to what was the middle area where I work, but
might not be considered as middle now, to the vast outer areas where
most people live.
---
I am not too bad at trivia, until the quiz drifts to classical music
or sports. I know a little about a lot but I don't have any expertise in
any area. I consider that to be a character failing but I don't care.
It is how I am and I amuse myself.
Sister and myself
were sitting on our balcony while chewing the cud and she asked me about
a building in view. I knew something about it. She asked me about
another building. I knew something about it. Etc etc. What I knew were
anecdotes. I really wish I had a focus in life, something I could hone
in on and become an expert about, but that is not me. I love learning
about stuffs, but most of it goes in one ear and out the other.
Sometimes
something will get blocked and retained along the way between my ears.
These are anecdotes and I know rather a lot of them. I just never have
the detail that others seem to retain.
---
The Learnin'
I listened to something somewhere. I can't remember the when or
where. A chap was talking about teaching using modern methods involving
technology.
The reporter was asked about her
geographical knowledge of South America. I didn't think my knowledge was
too bad, but then some quite obscure countries were mentioned. I
couldn't quite place Surinam. Oh, that is in South America, but while I
have a rough idea, I don't know exactly where. In fact, I don't know at
all, and neither did the reporter.
The reporter played
away on the computer at a specific game like puzzle and was shown a map
of South America and she had to locate each country. The 'game's'
inventor promised her that after 15 minutes of playing the computer
game, she would know the exact location of every South American country
on a map and would not forget them, and I believe him. I can see it will
work.
Little Jo does something on our computer called
Reading Eggs. From what I
observed, it is a repetitive thing that goes on until she chooses the
correct
selections. It is under the auspices of our ABC, so I trust it. It is a
similar thing. The knowledge for what Little Jo is doing and the
knowledge of South America will be firmly implanted. It is simple
repetition until you get it right.
In the late 20th century it was named repetitive or rote learning
---
I have a serious driving fault. I am impatient. Not all the time, but
certainly when I am travelling to and from work and when I am using the
payway/freeway to Mother's.
I curse you who travel along Dandenong Road in fine weather at 40 km/h when the limit is 70 km/h.
I
curse you who pulls up behind a right turning car and then I behind you
pull up behind you, thinking you would not be stupid enough to pull up
behind a right turning car and you would go to the left of the car
turning right.
I curse you who pulls in front of me on a
freeway when I have the cruise control set and then slow down, forcing
me to turn the cruise off and slow down.
I curse you
who plays with your phone while at red lights and I need to give you a
toot of the horn to alert you to the green light. Half the horn sounding
heard below the Highrise is from people alerting others that a traffic
light has turned green.
I curse you when your are slow
to move when there is a green arrow and cause me to miss the turning
green arrow. In fact in that situation, I could shoot you. It is not
hard. Green arrow, foot off brake and accelerate.
I curse you when you sit on the outside freeway lane travelling at 90 km/h.
I
curse you when you stop in the middle of nowhere and bring a heap of
cars to a stop to allow a person fit enough on their feet to cross the
road.
I curse you when you stop at a green light in the
city to let pedestrians to continue to illegally cross the street. Give
them a blast of the horn and get them out of the way smartly.
I
curse you when you stop in the middle of an intersection and can't go
further forward because of a bank up of cars, and then of course block
the opposing road traffic when their traffic light turns green.
I curse you cyclists who ride at speed along footpaths.
I
curse you trucks using the Domain tunnel and sit in the right hand
lane, which is fine until the climb out of the tunnel begins and
---
Pie Face Boone (to annoy my brother I used to call the tv show Daniel Boone that name)
school holidays rain child friction.
Hope it felt good getting all that off your chest.
ReplyDeleteMarcellous, and I now have space to write even more similar rubbish.
DeleteA veritable smorgasbord of snippets today. You should have saved one for tomorrow. no, no, I have a better idea! Take tomorrow off.
ReplyDeleteRiver, sorry, there is something for tomorrow.
DeleteTesting to see if I can now leave comments and be rude to you.
ReplyDeleteFireworks and champagne, I"M BACK!
ReplyDeleteOh dear. It was kind of peaceful when you couldn't leave comments. If you have not caught up, Jah Teh has a new computer that runs Windows 8 which looks like Windows 7, thanks to a lad she paid for personal services. I am the last person to criticise or take any sort of moral stand. Each to their own. That's what I always say.
DeleteInteresting subjects. Many of us have seen many a change. Even the Biro was invented I my time..haven't we come a long way!
ReplyDeleteWA, the Bic Biro, if you please. What we have seen and what we do now compared to when we were young is extraordinary.
DeleteAndrew, definitely we live in very interesting times especially technology is getting more and more developed. It is fantastic..
ReplyDeleteGosia, that is a Chinese curse, may you live in interesting times. But we certainly have.
DeleteThat was a long post and digging in the past, had to laugh about your school toilets ! I only knew the normal WC's. As all old schoolbuildings had been destroyed during the war, we had our classes in quickly build new builts ! I see your doctor is the same as ours everybody has to have cholersterol, they must have an agreement with the pharma industry !
ReplyDeleteGattina, many doctors do have informal connections with doctors, which influences what they prescribe.
DeleteYes, I know about those unexplained, suddenly noticed bruises. How did they happen? Where they did they come from?
ReplyDeleteThankfully, they disappear quickly; so far.
Victor, bruises don't disappear like they did when we were twenty.
DeleteYou are very fortunate to have known your grandfather and to have fond memories of him. Photos of relatives we never met are useful, but not the same as remembering his nickname, favourite pipe, favourite lollies, the silly hat he wore etc etc.
ReplyDeleteYes Hels. I should take for granted that I remember him when hardly anyone else who does is still alive.
DeleteShould not, of course.
DeleteI enjoyed my use of party substances, however I am too old and my body takes far too long to recover these days.
ReplyDeleteIce is a street name for crystal methamphetamine hydrochloride, which is a powerful, synthetic stimulant drug. It's the most potent amphetamine. It makes you feel good and alert and confident. It also has a plethora of bad side effects and is highly addictive. I would never take it, I'm not a fan of amphetamines.
I am too old too Fen, but I remember. It has been on the gay scene for a long time and generally gays don't seem to have big issues. Maybe I am too out of touch. Amphetamines are very good when the house needs cleaning.
Delete