Programing Gadgets and Walk-Abouts

I’m sitting here waiting for the irrigation guy to come fix my springer head that got broken by a friend of my new neighbor. I can’t use the system until it’s fixed because water gushes up like a decorative fountain in a park. I don't mess with the control box enough to know how to isolate and close down just one of the ten zones so I turn the whole system off. It’s been raining off and on so the lawn didn’t suffer with my stubbornness to get tech savvy with Toro. People in my generation are going to have a hard time keeping up with things like this as we age. It used to be so much simpler for my parent’s generation when all they had to do is drag garden hoses around and then remember to turn the water off before their lawns look like marshlands.

On the same topic of keeping up with programmable things, this week I managed to change the batteries on my electric tooth brush and reprogram the darn thing in less five minutes and it even gives me orders in English. One time it took me a half hour and a Google search to do it. And I also figured out one of the big mysteries of life...at least my life. I’ve figured out why one of cable TV’s seemed to have mind of its own. When the cable boxes were installed last July I was told that the 57 button remotes are not interchangeable which turned out to be a lie. I just figured out that when I’m in the bedroom, the remote marked ‘bedroom’ controls not only the bedroom TV but also the one in the kitchen. If it's aimed just right, yes, the signal goes through an open door and across two rooms. I’m not forgetting to turn off the darn thing when I leave the kitchen! I’m not going bonkers. It’s not possessed by a spirit. Now if I could figure out how to get my CD player not to come on, then turn off five minutes later every day at 10 PM I’d been a happy camper. Actually, I do know why it does that and what I’d have to do to reprogram it but the icons I need to see on a screen to fix the issue are so tiny and low to the floor I physically can’t do it. People with grand-kids don’t know how good they’ve got it. Kids are fearless about programing gadgets and I'd rent a kid to do it if I could.  

New Topic: I’m not a woman who enjoys shopping, never have been unless I was in an antique mall. Even that has lost its charm since Don died and I went into downsizing mode. But this week I needed stuff. Printer ink for one and a Culver’s North American cod filet sandwich for another and I knew I’d die soon if I didn’t get them. (Those darn late night Culver’s TV commercials work!) If Amazon.com could drone drop a hot sandwich at my house, I could happily order most of my ‘wants’ online. But that’s a few years in the future so off I went to shopping roe---a five lane street full of malls and nationally branded restaurants and stores.

Wednesday I went on a Red Hat Society walk-about but I wish I had stayed home for a sit-about. We went out to the boondocks to a farmer’s barn-turned-sandwich-shop and produce stand. Lunch there was slow and so-so, the conversation was so-so and I didn’t need any asparagus or Michigan made jam which is all they had besides tomatoes from Canada. After leaving that place we went to another place that was an apple orchard/ice cream shop/gift shop/wine shop and bakery combo---oh, and a cross-country skiing location in the winter. The gift shop had quality made things but after fifteen minutes I’d had enough of looking at scarfs, jewelry, purses, pop-up greeting cards and other stuff no one knows they want until they see it. Between the shopping, wine tasting, eating ice cream cones and donuts it took FOREVER to get all twelve us on the same page to go back to the car pool lot so we could head on home. We were like red and purple ants going every which way. Oh, well, you can’t win them all. What I’ve got lined up for the end of the week will more than make up for the uninspiring walk-about. My Move and Lunch Club on Friday is going to see a film billed as, “A widow and former songstress discovers that life can begin anew at any age.” And I got invited to a Father’s Day cottage party where my nieces and nephew and their families, my brother, and assorted others will be. So, out to the boondocks I’ll go again but this time I know I’ll come back high on stimulating conversation and yummy food. ©