______________________________________________________________________________
Commentary
Thursday, May 23, 2019
Times change and we adapt and enjoy, or piss and moan and add a layer of suffering to an already difficult human condition.
In several hours I’ll be waking.
At 2.30am to dress and get to the airport by 3.30am.
In time to check in for a 5.30am flight, 5.15am boarding.
Interspersing through those minutes, breakfast, boarding, and nap.
It’s exciting for me.
Never before been pre-screened by the TSA.
Never before confirmed a flight through my cell phone.
Or showed a boarding pass by showing my cell phone screen.
I’ve had help.
Some scant years ago these simple steps filled me with terror.
Covered me with a cold sweat.
With a little patience from several friends I learned and have grown comfortable.
Now, on the plane, I’ll use headphones.
Listen to Don Giovanni.
Watch a Netflix.
Work on my blog.
Do some architectural work on my computer files.
Text family that I’m here.
Twelve real hours after leaving my apartment I’ll walk into a gorgeous hotel in Seattle.
How did the pioneers of ten years ago even function without cell phones?
Times change and we adapt and enjoy, or piss and moan and add a layer of suffering to an already difficult human condition.
Florentine steak in Florence, Italy
Sphilbrick - Own work
__________________________________________
Tip
Thursday, May 23, 2019
As Amazon keeps lowering the prices at Whole Foods Markets our new favorite meal is a $13.95 per pound two-pound porterhouse steak from that store. Oven Slow-Roasted for 40 minutes at 200* and then seared and broiled as close to the broiler as possible on a sizzling heavy-duty broiler for 8 minutes for that desirable char-flavor, served with a wine or martini, Wow! Wow!
We’re in a warm stretch.
What fun!
Except that for those of us living on the coast we’ve endured strong winds that have kept the days chilly, not at all t-shirt weather.
Still. let’s enjoy this weather, each day of it.
The hours are ticking away and if we don’t make the most of our time another day will soon click past.
Unnoticed.
Unappreciated.
Tick Tock.
In clock language:
Enjoy today.
Enjoy the week.
____________________________________________
Postings Count, Weather Brief, and Dinner
Thursday, May 23, 2019
Our 412th consecutive posting, committed to 5,000.
After 412 posts we’re at the 8.24 percentile of our commitment, the commitment a different way of marking the passage of time.
Time is 4.01am.
On Thursday, Boston’s temperature will reach a high of 66* with a feels-like of 88* and partly cloudy skies.
Dinner tonight is in Seattle, Washington, as it will be through May 27, Memorial Day
__________________________________________
Question of the Day:
Thursday, May 23, 2019
What is a cell phone?
__________________________________________
Love your notes.
Contact me at domcapossela@hotmail.com
Thursday, May 23, 2019
This from Tommie T, the youngster from Columbia, So Carolina
I, too, am 77 and share your same thoughts. I am so grateful I have my wits about me, I can still walk, but not run; can still lift weights but not as much, can practice yoga, but in gentle poses.
I can't drink as much wine or coffee as in years past; I don't have the energy to hold great dinner parties as in the past.
But. . . I can still work in the yard - just not for a long period especially in SC when it is 98 degrees in the morning, I can manage to cook a decent meal each night, and paint.
And I can still manipulate airports. . . and find my way around the world.
That is much for which to be grateful.
I love my life.
I am so fortunate that I have a good retirement and social security (presently! ) and that I had a wonderful career, a great husband, and two intelligent, caring children who happened to marry the best and the brightest.
What more can a person ask?
I love you, Dom, and have enjoyed your blog and loved your visit to SC last year.
It is my greatest hope that you have a lovely time with your wonderful sons and family.
I hope you will find the time to come back to South Carolina and just "hang out" before we get too old to remember our names.
Tommie
Web Meister responds: So happy that you continue to weave your magic year after year.
Be careful and life will continue fine for you.
As for So Car, I’ll just have to make it happen.
__________________________________________________________________
One Picture Briefly
Wednesday, May 22, 2019
Sun porch in the morning, late May, suburban Philadelphia.
Until it gets too hot in mid-summer, I like the sun porch to work. Closest thing I get to France. It’s on the cool side of the house (northeast corner) and it’s quiet and restful, and obviously sunny. And there’s a ceiling fan.
© Howard Dinin, 2019.
___________________________________________
Chuckle of the Day:
Thursday, May 23, 2019
I never knew happiness till I got married.
By then it was too late.
_______________________________________________________________
Answer to the Question of the Day:
Thursday, May 23, 2019
A mobile phone, cell phone, cellphone, or hand phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while the user is moving within a telephone service area.
The radio frequency link establishes a connection to the switching systems of a mobile phone operator, which provides access to the public switched telephone network (PSTN).
A rotary dial telephone, c. 1940sKornelia und Hartmut Häfele - http://www.pixeleye.com/
rotary dial telephone made out of bakelite
Modern mobile telephone services use a cellular network architecture, and, therefore, mobile telephones are called cellular telephones or cell phones, in North America.
In addition to telephony, 2000s-era mobile phones support a variety of other services, such as text messaging, MMS, email, Internet access, short-range wireless communications (infrared, Bluetooth), business applications, video games, and digital photography.
Mobile phones offering only those capabilities are known as feature phones; mobile phones which offer greatly advanced computing capabilities are referred to as smartphones.
The first handheld mobile phone was demonstrated by John F. Mitchell and Martin Cooper of Motorola in 1973, using a handset weighing c. 2 kilograms (4.4 lbs).[3]
In 1979, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) launched the world's first cellular network in Japan.
In 1983, the DynaTAC 8000x was the first commercially available handheld mobile phone.
From 1983 to 2014, worldwide mobile phone subscriptions grew to over seven billion—enough to provide one for every person on Earth.
In first quarter of 2016, the top smartphone developers worldwide were Samsung, Apple, and Huawei, and smartphone sales represented 78 percent of total mobile phone sales.
For feature phones (or "dumbphones") as of 2016, the largest were Samsung, Nokia, and Alcatel.
Of course my cell is in here.
But try to find it when it rings.
__________________________________________
Good Morning on this Thursday, the twenty-third day of May, 2019
Our commentary points out that we need to adjust to cerll phones in our lives.
We posted the weather report and calendar, and tracked the number of postings.
A letter from Tommie T.
We posted a tip: the porterhouse steak in Whole Foods.
Howard posted in the One Picture, Briefly section.
We posted a chuckle.
The q and a called attention to the cell phone.
And now? Gotta go.
Che vuoi? Le pocketbook?
See you soon.
Your love.