Happy Easter-

Have a HAPPY EASTER every one

Life in Geezerville: Naming Edition

Hey geezers, I'm going to rant on names. Names are important. They give meaning. When you see the sign "Geezerville" you know old folks live nearby (or you are in New Zealand where geysers are called geezers). This geezer from Geezerville loves names and wonders why or how things get the names they get. 

A new "village" in our Geezerville is getting started. On the village blueprints its name is Dancing Pants. Dancing Pants? You have to be joking? What were the developers thinking when they decided on Dancing Pants? I mean there are thousands of other names for a village in a geezerville in the desert, but Dancing Pants? Do you want to live in Dancing Pants, Nevada? Maybe the "P" will fall off the sign and the village will be called Dancing Ants...that does not conjure a good picture either. I have visions of folks moving to Dancing Ants and finding them. That's downright scary. Other villages in our Geezerville are named Prominence, Dusty Rose, Tortoise Ridge and Horseshoe Pass...but Dancing Pants? I'm completely confused.

When you decide on a name, it has to be "good." I posit that Dancing Pants could be better. The same goes if you are naming a little person, the name and the initials have to be good too. I had a boyfriend a hundred years ago who had the initials BM--and he had no middle name. Were his parents truly thinking? My long-ago boyfriend had many nicknames based on his initials. It was kind of funny, but gees, parents...get with it. 

When I was teaching I had students with unusual names too. One year I had a little girl named "god--with a small g" as she used to say. Another year I had Sunbear. I always pictured these kids grown up, with their names written on an office door at an important institution. It made me smile. Small "g" god and Sunbear are probably retired now. I wonder how their lives have been. Did their names shape their lives? Did they change their names?

We have a friend who welcomed her first grandchild, a boy, named Clay. That's a good name. It means moldable. A baby is like a piece of clay that needs to be shaped and nurtured and turned into a productive member of society. 

I have another friend named Sunny. That's a great name, yet it carries a small burden. Sunny has to be sunny all the time. It's hard to be sunny if you're not feeling sunny. What does a person named Patience feel like when she's not patient? Or Charity? Or Hope? 

Names are not just for people and towns. This geezer names cars and devices too. We have a robot vacuum called Dobby, after the house elf in the Harry Potter series. We named our diesel pickup trucks Vin, after the actor. My first GPS was named Stewie...which was short for Stupid because it led it to some really stupid places. One time Stewie tried to lead us up a narrow dirt road--of course we were driving Vin and the pulling the Fiver, which were never meant to travel on narrow dirt roads. (BTW, the Fiver was the name of our fifth wheel trailer, named after Fiver in Watership Down, who was a magical rabbit--and our fifth wheel was "magical" too.)

Names have to be chosen wisely. They need to have meaning. They need to "grow"  with the person or the area. Remember that not very popular movie called "Paint Your Wagon"...it took place in No Name City. Even a city without a name has a name. Then I remember a very old episode of the Mary Tyler Moore Show. Mary and her husband were explaining to their child why his middle name was Rosebud. Turns out he was named after all the important and meaningful people his mom and dad knew, and together their initials spelled Rosebud. Without the backstory, the name is embarrassing for a little boy, but once you know the backstory, the name is outstanding. Maybe Dancing Pants has a backstory, and even if I knew it, it would not be adequate.

We had neighbors who were named Chris and Chris--aka Christopher and Christine. They had 2 children and they were named Chris and Chris--aka Christian and Christal. They thought it would be cute to be the 4 Chrises but it turned out to be very confusing.  My husband went to school with Sue Veneer...say that name out loud and you will "get it." I went to school with Lepra Kahn. 

My mother wanted to name me Margaret and call me Peggy. My dad said no daughter of his was going to be called Peggy because it would get shortened to Peg and then to Peg Leg and that's wrong. I was not named Margaret, yet I've known several Margarets over the years and not one of them was nicknamed Peg Leg. 

Names have cycles. One year I had a class of 32 children. If I said Mark, Denise and Debbie, I had the full attention of half the class. When I hear someone with those names, I know they are about 65 years old. Nowadays there are fewer Marks, Denises and Debbies and more Addisons, Nevaehs (that's heaven spelled backwards) and Liams. What will be the "in" names for the next several decades. Time will tell. In the meantime, names tell about our times. I used to look at the names on class roster. I determined that Typhani was probably going to be more interesting than her Tiffany counterpart and more challenging too.  

Names tell a lot. They help determine the future. I'm sure Dancing Pants tells something, but I'm not sure what it is yet...time will tell. So geezers, when you see an unusual name, let me know. I can put it on my list and wait for something exciting, different, or weird to happen. Remember, we're all in this together. 

Life in Geezerville: Social Media Edition

This cartoon got me thinking.  Geezers, do you ever wonder about being on social media too much? Do you wonder why people love it so much? We are a wired society. We do Facebook, or Tik-Tok, or Insta-Gram or texting. I'm a geezer and I grudgingly facebook, but I don't want to use facebook. (Is there a 12 step program to get off of social media?) Tis a problem. Social media can be so helpful. It can help you find answers to questions like "where is the best hair salon in town?" OR "who knows a good electrician?" These are important questions and asking locals is a good way to find the information. But one thing leads to another, and suddenly, you're addicted. Gees, do you want to have your nose in social media all the time and not see the people right in front of you? I vote for real, flesh and blood people...but that's this geezer.

Another  downside is all the ads you get on social media after you ask a question. Once you ask for a handyman or a beautician, the algorithm, always lurking in the background gathering information about you, tries to connect you with a ton of such folks.  I want one recommendation, not 200, and I'd like it from someone I know and not an anonymous algorithm.

That makes we wonder what other algorithms are gathering information on us? What other stuff "knows" more about you than you know about you? I'm sure your cellphone rats you out. Can you imagine all the secrets your cellphone knows? With a thousand contacts, 352 apps, and a million pictures it knows what you've done, who you've called and where you've been for the last several years. 

How about your car? What does it give away? Does the car talk to your cellphone? To your doorbell? Or the big screen TV? How about the thermostat on your HVAC system? All of these are "smart." Can you imagine the riveting conversation between your car and your doorbell? Or, your TV and the HVAC? Are all these "things" just one big interconnected mass of information?

It's a wired world geezers. To make it worse, we were some of the people who helped wire it. We had no idea where it (or is it, IT) would go, but it went far beyond what I thought it would. Today as I was water walking with my friend, I was thinking it's impossible to be connected to social media in a swimming pool. It's a safe non-wired place. It's wet. Holding a cellphone in a pool does not work. YAY. I can be free from IT when I walk in the water. Where else can I be IT free? Help me think about that. This leads to another set of questions: Do I want to be IT free? How long do I want to be IT free? Is it fun to be IT free? I have no idea what the answers are to these questions. Heck, I don't even know all the questions? I know that social media is here and it's going to stay -- at least until something bigger and better comes along. In the meantime, I'll cope with my friends who look like the fellow in the cartoon. I will love them even if I secretly wish they would turn off the cellphone and talk to a real person. Remember, we're all in this together.

PS.. I give credit to Walsh, as I think that is the name on the bottom right corner of the cartoon. That geezer nailed it.

Life in Geezerville: Killer Thumb Edition

Hey Geezers...can you grow stuff? Do plants thrive with your tender loving care? Do you possess a green thumb? I bet you do. Then there's me...the geezer with the killer thumb. I hope killer thumb is a rare condition, as this geezer has it big time.

I love flowers. I talk about flowers all the time, but I hide the fact that I have a propensity to kill plants on a regular basis.  Last year, my friend Karen gave me a plant for my birthday, and I really loved it. I talked to it and watered it and took care of it, until we snowbirded away. It was starting to get wilty and brown so I gave it back to her for care and feeding during the summer, when I snowbirded away. When I returned in the late summer, I saw that the plant was thriving so I gave it to her before I could damage it again. Some geezers, like Karen, have a green thumb, and then there's me...I'm the opposite with a "killer thumb."

There have to be geezers like me. Please? I cannot be the only geezer with a killer thumb? I've been afflicted with the condition long before I became a certified geezer. I'd bring my indoor plants to my mother's home for the summer. She would talk to them, feed them, water them and get them all pretty and healthy. By the end of the summer, they looked great. She returned them to me where I tried to kill them during the rest of the year. I finally gave up and bought silk plants. They are harder to kill.

I discovered that I can plant silk flowers and greenery in my outdoor garden too. Yep...it's shameful to say this, but this geezer cannot get plants to grow. I have planters filled with realistic fake flowers. I love them. The secret is to put fake flowers in the right environment. Roses don't grow in planter boxes and mums don't grow on vines. Hobby Lobby sells some realistic geraniums that are perfect for me. 

A couple of years ago, Christiana sent me a book on how to crochet flowers. I've been crocheting flowers ever since. They are just what this geezer ordered, and they are cute. I've made dozens of them from sunflowers to tulips to cacti. They stay pretty and perky all year long. They don't need water. They are ideal for geezers like me.

So for all you killer thumb geezers, there is hope. Look at all the pretty flowers your neighbors are growing but plant fake ones in your garden. Remember, we're all in this together.

Life in Geezerville: Equinox Edition

Spring is here geezers. It's time we find our shorts and sandals as the weather is warming up. it's time to see if the swim suit still fits. After all, we need to be ready for the Sport's Illustrated GeezerSwimsuit Edition, you know.  It's the perfect time for sitting on the driveway and talking to friends, or using our backyard patios. In the summer it will be too hot to do both. 

Between now and June, the days are going to get longer and soon us geezers will  be going to bed when the sun is still up. But for now, it's perfect. When we were kids we hated going to bed that early, but as certified geezers, we can't stay awake after 830.  But for today there are 12 hours of sunlight and 12 hours of dark. That's what an equinox is.

That would be fun question... ask a youngster what equinox means. Do they have a clue? On the other hand, did you have a clue when you were a kid? It took me several years to figure it out, but I did so by high school. When did you get clued in? Learning a bit of Latin helped. Do they teach Latin any more?

Along with slowly increasing amounts of sunlight, the temperatures are slowly increasing too. What a treat. Spring is a special time of year--I think it's my favorite season.  The weather is just about perfect. Not too hot; not too cold; not too humid...spring is the "nottoo" time of the year. 

I love looking at the tiny "baby green" leaves on trees--that's my favorite color of green. The desert flowers are beginning to bloom too. I have something magenta sprawling in my backyard that is spectacular, I just don't know what it is. But red bottlebrush,  yellow cinquefoils, yellow and pink lantana and snowy white myoporum are all looking healthy and green and flowery after a cold winter when they dried up like we did. Maybe the ocotillo will bloom too--that's always a treat.

Our 'hood is celebrating the season with our first "Drinks on the Drive" party. That's always a fun gathering to attend. We gather on one driveway with our libations, finger food and folding chairs and as the evening progresses, we slowly move from one driveway to another until it's time to decide what to do next. Geezers need to have mini-celebrations to highlight important days in our lives. One more spring is definitely important. 

So let's put on our spring time geezer duds, bring our drinks to the driveway and have a grand old time. Remember, we're all in this together. 

Life in Geezerville: Sunday Drive and Pie Edition

We're geezers..so we remember the first fuel crisis in the early 1970s. That was the time when the price of fuel jumped from 33.9 cents a gallon to over a dollar a gallon. We thought the world as we knew it was coming to an end. (Little did we know then, that we would relish those buck-a-gallon days.) 

Until that fateful fuel crisis, going on a Sunday drive was "tradition," almost mandatory in some circles of society. It was something that my family did every Sunday, rain or shine. I loved it. However, during and after that crisis, going on a Sunday drive was tantamount to being unpatriotic and something you would not think of doing as we were saving fuel for the folks who really needed it for more important reasons, like delivering food. Since then, fuel costs are more than 4x what they were then. Sadly, we've gotten used to the price, and the Sunday drive is making a comeback.  

Given that, we went on a Sunday drive today. We wound our way to the Old Spanish Trail and hooked a 270 degree left turn and headed for Gunlock in nowhere UT. We thought we were off the beaten track until we saw dozens of ATVs plying the dirt paths off the "main road." I drove our hybrid pickup on the main road, a narrow, wiggly, strip of pavement that went up and down hills, over narrow bridges and made hairpin turns. It was fun to drive. We enjoyed the red rocks, the aa lava fields, the tiny creeks, the Joshua trees, the gnarled cottonwoods along the way. We were in the country. The sky was a beautiful blue with puffy clouds. It does not get better. We had no idea where we were going, we just followed the road and loved it. We passed a couple of communities and then we came to a red stop sign. We must have hit civilization. I saw a sign that said "Veyo Pies." Karen had told me that Veyo was famous for pies, but I had no idea that we were going anywhere near Veyo. We stopped at the tiny corner pie bakery and bought a pie. We talked to the man behind the counter and were interested to find out that they had already sold 270 pies today! He said, some days they sell 600 pies a day! He told us about the tiny kitchen/bakery and who worked in it. We were impressed. As we were walking back to the truck, the man came out of the pie store and asked us our name and we told him. He said he was John and he owned the bakery. Then he said "here's a chicken pot pie for dinner!" We thanked him and went on our way with great big smiles on our face. What a treat. We were immediately back in pre-geezer America --you know the place where we grew up--and it was more than wonderful. A Sunday drive back in time.

Geezers it's not possible to go back in time. But, if you are lucky, sometimes you can take a Sunday drive, buy a pie, and find old-fashioned neighborliness and friendliness along the way. We did that today in the village of Veyo. All is good. Remember, we're in this together. 

Life in Geezerville: Blossom Edition

Hey geezers, it looks like we might have survived the worst of the winter. Have you looked outside? There are blossoms on the trees. Sweet, wonderful, blossoms. That has to mean that spring is just around the corner. What are you going to do with spring? The door to adventure is about to open. 

I hope you are not going to waste spring on cleaning! We've participated in enough spring cleanings. We need to do something far more exciting than that. We're geezers after all...we have our honor to protect and that means we can do something silly, or adventurous--anything at all.

With spring just around the corner, maybe it's time to think about a summer vacation? You know a vacation  from retirement? That sounds like more fun than cleaning. As I've said before, we're old so we need to travel now and not wait too much longer. What is on your bucket list for travel?  How about cruise? Or a road trip? Is it a good time to visit children and grand children, especially if they live in cooler summer climes than you do? I've always wanted to go on an African Safari. Is now the time?

How about a road trip that visits a couple of National Parks, someplace with mountains and streams. Or, how about taking the kids on the vacation of a lifetime. One year we took the kids on a river cruise that ended in Paris. What a cruise. How about taking all the kids (big and little) to the beach. Watching the kids play in the sand and waves is some of the best stuff around. 

One summer we took everyone on a cruise to Alaska. Seeing whales play and do back flips in the water is an experience that will last a lifetime. We actually did some glass blowing too. But the funniest thing was bowling on the ship.  Ship board bowling is different. First off, the alley moves. Second, the gutters move too. The "bowl-master" decides when to put the gutters up or down. It's part of the game. My partner was  a gentleman who boasted a 275 average (which is primo in bowling) and the bowl-master made him pay for his bravado. With the moving alley and gutter balls, my partner was getting nowhere fast. My kids on the opposing team were cleaning our clocks. I thought it was funny. It's only a game. 

How about a trip down under. If it's summer here, it's winter there. That's a good idea if you want to avoid the heat. You can see kangaroos and koalas, drive on the wrong side of the road and take a legendary train ride on the Indian-Pacific, or the Ghan. You might have a chance to snorkel on the Great Barrier Reef. That's a lot of fun.

Again, look at the blossoms and figure out what they are telling you. The blossoms, like spring, are opening the door to adventure. Remember, we're all in this together.

Picture courtesy of my friends Pam and Sam

Pi Day

Yesterday was March 14 or 3.14,  also known as Pi Day. I hope you had some pie yesterday. It's the law you know. We bought a pie...but forgot to eat it. Go figure. I hope we won't be punished for breaking the law. 

A New and Improved Shape Book

Remember last week I posted a shape book? I've been looking at it, and it just was not right. 

The stitches were too far apart; the shapes were not going to withstand a baby's antics; I did not like the printing on the cover...it was not right. 

SO, I remade the book from head to toe. I used the same shapes but I think this time it's better. 

First and foremost, the crochet stitch is tighter. The "pages" of the book are sewn in by a sewing machine, as were the shape appliqués to make them stronger. 

I omitted to print a title on the cover. I stuffed the shapes to give them some definition to reinforce both shape and touch. 

This little book I will mail to the baby--the first one I will use a prototype when I make it again.

The book now has a blue cover with a bright white snowflake on it. 

Page 1 is a red circle. Each appliqué has a soft filling to give it more texture

Page 2 is a pink square

Page 3 is a green triangle

Page four is a yellow diamond

And page 5 is a green angel...because all babies are (supposed to be) angels.

That's my little shape and touch book. Tell me what you think?

 

Life in Geezerville: Old Movie Edition

This past month, the Turner Classic Movie Channel has been playing "31 days of Oscar." The geezers in the 'hood were excited. So many of the movies were older than them.  That's pretty old! They could remember when they first saw a movie and of course they could remember what it was about. We talked about the movies with smiles on our faces. Those were the "good old days." Needless to say, the geezers could not remember what they had for breakfast the day before, but that's another issue.

In my house, we are not looking at the movies live, but on that magical invention called a DVR. That means the movies are "on demand" and it's better that way. Since most geezers have a hard time staying up past 9:30 at night,  by recording movies on DVR  we can watch them during our waking hours. 

I did not tape all of the old Oscar winning movies, but I did a fair few. Anchors Aweigh, I talked about earlier. There was also Going My Way with Bing Crosby. Cat Ballou with Lee Marvin, Stagecoach with John Wayne, It Happened One Night with Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable, the Treasure of the Sierra Madre with Bogart, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World with a cast of thousands, Naughty Marietta with Jeannette  McDonald and Nelson Eddy, Blithe Spirt with Rex Harrison, Wait Until Dark with Audrey Hepburn, and a host of others.  Tonight we viewed Around the World in 80 Days with David Niven, Shirley MacLaine and Cantinflas.

I remember going to the theater downtown to see this movie when my age was still in the single digits. I remember getting dressed up in my best Sunday dress, patent leather shoes, white socks with lace on the cuffs, a matching sweater but no hat...we were going to the theater after all and a hat would spoil the view for folks in back of us. I vaguely remember getting a program for the movie--but I don't remember anything about the program. My parents thought the movie was wonderful and marveled at all the faraway and foreign locations. Geezers, do you have memories of a time long ago? Sometimes it's fun to take a walk down memory lane. ATW80D was a fun walk. Both geezers in my home were laughing at the fantasy--something I do not remember doing when I was little. It was serious business back then. 

As we were looking at the movie, we recognized many locations. Mt. Fuji, Paris, the hills of Southern California and the Silverton RR in Colorado. Some of the movie was filmed on the backlot of the studio too. We looked at this big Technicolor marvel on our super-large flat screen TV and we could get an idea how "big" the picture was in 1956. I don't remember thinking about the "big screen" when I saw the movie as a kid. I just remember they were traveling and I would like to do that one day.

The geezers in our house have traveled. One year we went around the world in 32 days by plane and ship, starting and ending in San Francisco with stops in Singapore, Sri Lanka, India, Oman, Alexandria, Rome, Munich, and the list goes on.  All the time we were humming the song "Around the World in 80 Days."  To date, we've stepped foot on over 140 countries including all 50 US States, and all Canadian Provinces and one Territory (we are missing the Northwest Territories and Nunavut). We sailed past Pitcairn Island (between Tahiti and Easter Island) but could not step foot on it...there's no place to dock a ship...instead the locals from Pitcairn boarded our ship. (There's a website called "Traveler's Century Club" and to count a country, you have to put feet on the ground...so Pitcairn Island is NOT one of the places we have visited). We did stop in Tahiti and Easter Island.

Geezers, it's funny what can jar a memory loose from the brain...one thing leads to another, and "Bob's your uncle" you have another story to tell. We've lived a long time, and we have a wealth of stories that are triggered by the strangest things. That's part of being a geezer...remembering the good times. We've had many of them, and hope to have many more. Seeing Around the World jogged some fun memories for me. What will jog those fun memories for you? In the meantime, remember, we're in this together. 

Life in Geezerville: A Sidebar Rant

The university from where I retired has regular guided forest therapy walks and forest moon bathing sessions. The purpose of which is not stated, but I'm guessing the sessions are for the participant to get in touch with nature and/or inner self/forest? In times of budget cuts, inflation, state deficits, and the like, the university is offering forest therapy. Gees…is there something wrong with this geezers? It seems to go with underwater basket weaving and 72 genders study. Each walk and moon bath is guided by a “certified” forest therapist. 

I have to ask, where does one go to become a certified forest therapist? What does one have to do/be to become a certified forest therapist? As a retired professor, I can clearly state what I taught at the university. What does a certified forest therapist say, when asked what he/she does for a living. Does that CFT say "I talk to trees for a living?" Or, "I guide people in forests so they can talk to trees?" How about, "I let people communicate with trees so they have a deeper understanding of self." Do mommy and daddy want their little darling to go to a faraway college with a huge tuition, so their little darling can become a CFT? I have to wonder who or what qualifies one to be a CFT? Is there a test that one takes? Or is it an oral exam. Are there “national boards” that have to be passed. Again...are mommy and daddy ready to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars so their little darling can be a forest therapist. Where can their little darling practice the profession? I have all sorts of questions about forest therapy.

Given the above…I happen to own a couple of acres of aspen forest. It is truly a wonderful place to “be.” The aspens sing a gentle song as their leaves rustle on the breeze. The quakies, as the locals call them, short for quaking aspen, talk to me and the talk is calming. The animals in the forest hide in plain sight. There are deer and fawns—sometimes many, sometimes few. They are always there. Once in a while something happens and all the deer stand up at once and it’s surprising to see a dozen deer, that just minutes before, were skillfully hidden amongst the trees. They are quiet, graceful animals who “know” the silence of the forest. They however, do not have a CFT telling them how to behave in the forest. For that matter, I don't have a CFT telling me how to commune with my little patch of trees either. I just "know" how to do it. Maybe a CFT is a “forest whisperer”…akin to a horse whisperer or dog whisperer. Taming the wild spirit via the trees. 

After an hour of forest therapy, the CFT serves up an herbal brew made from stuff from the forest floor. The tea is concocted of leaves and moss and other healthy things to let your communion with the forest come to completion. Somehow, I know I don't want to drink this...can you imagine what is on a forest floor? 

Geezers…is this something you did when you were college? I did a lot of crazy stuff in college but I never walked or moon-bathed in a forest or drank the herbal brew. I did have a class that met in a winery (we did drink the "brew" and ate some yummy french bread)...that was a lot of fun. I had another class that met at the golf course (BTW, it was a golf class). The curriculum was taught. So I have to ask, is guided forest therapy and moon bathing a  class or a one time activity? I posit it could be necessary if it’s “for fun” and not a class and part of the curriculum. I posit if it’s an experience that is purely elective and NOT part of the curriculum..it’s ok. But, I have to wonder, if one is a CFT, how regular is the paycheck? IF, on the other hand, it’s part of the curriculum you have to wonder what has become of the modern academy (but the CFT has a steady job now)? The current grads are holding our future in their hands. With forest walking and moon bathing, we have to wonder about the direction of logic…the direction of the academy…the direction of the country. That's my sidebar rant, thank you. Remember, we’re in this together. 

Life in Geezerville: Ignorant Bliss Edition

Last night in Geezerville, the SOTU was on every major TV station with right, left and center commentary. I should have been doing my civic duty and been one of the geezers watching the State of the Union address...but I did something fun instead. As a geezer, I have done my civic duty all of my life...I needed some fun first. After I had a "shot" of fun, I buckled down and saw the SOTU. I needed to get some bliss in my system. BTW, I'm a non-partisan viewer regarding SOTUs. I tend to not agree with the lofty promises, rants and raves any prez says during that event.

For Ignorant Bliss this geezer watched the 1945 film -- Anchors Aweigh.  The movie starred a very young and callow Frank Sinatra,  a bit wiser but still young Gene Kelly and the beautiful soprano Kathryn Grayson. Both Frank and Kathryn sang their hearts out. Kathryn sang both classical and modern songs of the time. Gene waltzed, tangoed and tapped in courtyards and streets and a dormitory. He danced with an animated mouse, a cute little girl and Kathryn. He flew to a rooftop swinging on a long drape. No one can dance like Gene Kelly. The story was forgettable. You know the story -- boy meets girl and falls in love, boy does something stupid, girl falls in love with boy even after he does something stupid, and it ends implying they will get married and live happily ever after. None of this is real life. It's just ignorant bliss. It's fun. It's escapism. 

In between, Jose Iturbi and a cast of "thousands" played grand pianos in the Hollywood Bowl. The Navy band, conducted by Iturbi, played Anchors Away and other marching music on a ship and in the Hollywood Bowl. You have stereotypes that are no longer "vogue"...  it's still old- fashioned ignorant bliss. Don't get caught up in the lack of wokeness or unvogue stereotypes, enjoy the exuberance of the music and escape with the dance.  That was then, and this is now. Don't confuse the issues. We cannot go back and change things, even if folks tear up the pages of the script. Anchors Aweigh is not woke and will never be woke.  It has girls playing girls and boys playing boys. It has Kathryn crying to tug at your heart strings...how trite. This geezer chooses to forget that stuff. It is fun to get in the movie and dance with Gene, sing with Frank, and listen to Kathryn hit high C above C with perfect pitch and clarity. Sure there are better movies, but for pure bliss, this is one of the good ones for me.

After seeing the movie and feeling blissed out...I watched the SOTU. Read the other DrCs blog for his response. But, if you are a geezer like me, prepare for a hard task by doing a blissful one before. See a happy movie, read a fun book,do whatever it takes, and enjoy the high. Then, do your civic duty. The civic duty will "go" better as you are relaxed and at ease. Remember, we're in this together. 

Life in Geezerville: New Car Edition

If you have been reading about Geezers in Geezerville for a while, then you know I touched upon the topic of a new car. I’m going to delve into that a bit deeper now. I just watched an episode of Motor Week (it’s in its 500th year I think). The announcer was talking about the pop-up displays found on a new 2024 car. The display was large, at 14 inches. That’s bigger than my iPad display. It’s a touch activated screen, so all the driver has to is touch an icon and something will happen. This particular car had several different screens…so you touch one icon, and that leads to another screen with yet again more icons and yet another…until you get to where you want to go. Are geezers going to remember all those icons? AND, where do you find out about all those icons. The person showing off the dashboard display said it was “easy.” I’m really leery of easy.

My friend Jeanne wanted to buy a new car. At the time, she was 92 and computer challenged. I told her to keep her old car as she knew how it worked but she insisted she wanted a new car. I took her to the Buick dealership in town (she only drove Buicks) and I put her behind the driver’s seat. Jeanne is a short lady and she could not reach the pedals…so she had to find the lever to adjust the pedals and the lever to adjust the steering wheel, and finally she got the seat adjusted, and she said the car fit her like a glove. We got that hurdle cleared with a lot of laughing (and just a few (*&() words) and I tried to show her the dashboard. She pushed the button to turn on the car and the dashboard came alive. Red, yellow, blue and green icons popped up and she did not know where to look. The sales person tried to explain the icons to her, but she just wanted to know what a “normal” dashboard looked like. The sales person then said, you can design it any way you want. This was making something that should have been easy, very difficult. I did some more talking about the wonders of her older car and she slowly agreed with me. She was not ready to make a dozen decisions before leaving the garage. She still has her old car which she drives about 12 miles a week. Good choice. If you are not ready to learn a whole new way of thinking, stick with your old vehicle as you KNOW it.

It’s not just new cars…it’s new everything. Yes, we are old. Yes, we are geezers, but some of the new stuff is not quite as intuitive as the “folks” tell you it is going to be. Have you seen an Insta-pot? It replaced the old fashioned pressure cooker, crock pot, and dutch oven into one device. It works great. It’s HUGE and HEAVY but it cooks well. I have to ask, if you have a pressure cooker, crock pot and dutch oven, and you know how to use them, do you really need a modern heavy pot that does it all? From sad experience, I’ve discovered that devices that are too clever never work as well as a dedicated device. To that end, I gave my insta-pot away to a friend who loves it a lot. I’m keeping my tried and true old devices.

I’m not anti-new. I have a sous-vide machine. I love it. I seal up a Tri-tip roast, immerse it in my sous-vide machine and several hours later, the Tri-tip is finished to perfection and I did not have to clean a dirty oven or pot. Who would not like that. The sous-vide is simple and effective and efficient. In addition, if I’m entertaining, I can put the sous-vide on before my guests arrive and I still have a cooktop and oven to use for the rest of the meal. 

But I digress. New cars need to be simple, effective and efficient too. They have to be intuitive. They have to work with geezer fingers and geezer brains. In addition, there has to be a paper copy of all the screens, so we can study them so we know what to do when something happens and we don’t have a clue. Have you seen the list of warning icons on a modern car? 

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This image is copied from https://facts.net/car-dashboard-symbols/. It explains the 50 most common icons found on modern cars. That’s a lot of information in a tiny space. Now add the touch screen display and you have a few more icons to remember. Each brand of vehicle will have a different touch screen display. The problem becomes monumental when you are a geezer. Some of us are able to deal with all the bells and whistles. Some of us are not. We are not bewildered because they are high tech, but by the shear number of bells and whistles. Is there a way we can pare them down to something manageable? Is there a way to get a book to explain all of them. I bought a 2012 vehicle and read in the mini-manual that a full sized manual was available for free…all I had to do was go online and order it. I ordered it and a few weeks later the manual arrived. It is 1-inch thick, filled with micro-printed instructions on onion-skin paper, and it is useful. My 2023 truck did not offer such a book. I would like it. 

So geezers, be aware. A new car is thing of beauty. It’s going to be fun to drive. It’s going to be filled with hi-tech stuff. It is smarter than the average under-grad. If you can deal with that, buy the vehicle and have a grand time. Remember, we’re in this together.