Back to Wearing An Old Fashion Watch

I stopped wearing a watch in 2010. I reasoned I didn't need one. If I was driving, my car dashboard had the time. The television cable box told the time. If I was at my computer, a glance at the bottom corner gave me the time. If I was away from the desk, car or home, my cell told the time in several different ways, from a read out on the top of the screen to an app that gave me the time in multiple time cities and time zones. It was the same for my iPad. And with most being tied to the atomic clock, they were always accurate than my Timex which needed the occasional adjustment. Hence I reasoned, why wear a time telling instrument when clocks in various forms were all around me.

 

I started to change my mind this past spring. By May I decided to look for new watch, one that would be far more fashionable than the old Timex. Yet the price had to be right for my budget.

 

By early summer I concluded that when I’m away from my car, desk and not using the iPad that there are times when having a watch is wise. While my cell phone was normally with me, there are times when using a cell phone to check the time is problematic because each us being prone to make snap judgments upon what we perceive others doing.

 

For example, if you are in a conversation with an acquaintance, and that person asks you to meet them in 15 minutes to help them set something up, and you’re not wearing a watch, what do you do? You would may well look at your phone to note the current time so as to meet the person at the appointed time. While the person with whom you are speaking may notice you checking the time, an onlooker over 40 years of age will likely judge the action differently.

Their perception is their reality, and without a fuller understanding create a conclusion in their mind that doesn't match with how the two participants are viewing matters. Being of the older generation where watch wearing was almost universal in my younger years, I’ve fallen into the trap of misjudging someone in this way once until I realized that the young lady in question rarely wore a watch and wasn't doing so at that moment. She was not being rude to the person at all. In fact it was the opposite. By ensuring she would be at the appointed time as requested she was being respectful and responsible. Have I been judged the same? I'm certain that I've been judged by others in the similar manner for whenever the question of time comes in a conversation would at my time piece, the phone. Yet to an observing person, they likely would not interpret a look at the phone in the same way as they would for a person checking of a watch.

 

Last spring while attending a business meeting in Fairfax. The members were seated in a square discussing the association’s budget. The only clock in the room was on the wall opposite me. During the discussion I noticed a member directly across from me looking at his cell several times. At first my impression was that he was checking his email and that there was a lack of interest and focus upon the business at hand. Minutes later a subsequent statement to the issue at hand indicated he had been following the discussion. Shortly after making his comment, he again checked his phone and left the meeting while apologizing for having to leave early. It was then that I noticed that like me he was not wearing a watch. My earlier interpretation was not only erroneous and did a disservice to him for he was not checking his email or disengaged from the business at hand, he was checking his watch to ensure that he left on time.

 

In the subsequent weeks I decided to look for a new watch. While I thought of buying one of the fancy electronic watches from which one can surf the net, I decided not to go in that direction. They are bulky, not overly stylish and their technology would soon be dated. So I focused upon an old fashion style watch that would be stylish and easily last 25+ years. It also had to fit the budget…a $300 to $800 watch was well out of my price range, and not justifiable. Nor was a $25 Timex the watch for me. I've finally found a lovely and stylish watch that was being sold a fantastic price point.

 

So that is why I’ve returned to wearing a watch a few weeks ago.      

 

Changing Times

We recently upgraded Josh’s and Evie’s cell phone to include unlimited text messaging and phones that would facilitate such a form of communication. Over the summer we also paid for Josh to have access to the internet from his phone so he could check emails, DCI scores and do the Facebook thing…now that he is back to campus the internet access is gone.

In April my Blackberry was upgraded, and as of a few weeks ago, the divisional plan includes unlimited text messaging….not that I use it much other than to communicate to Josh a few times.

The following little humorous item is so true in many ways and at so many levels. Enjoy.


"Things are spiraling out of control. I think I have become lost in a world of electronic madness.

One of my sons informed me this week that my cell phone has become obsolete and I must head down to the Cell Phone store and get a phone that is contemporary with the time.

I pointed out that the fancy Razor/Slim line phone with camera built in that he made me trade my perfectly good flip-top Motorola cell phone for two years ago still works perfectly fine.. Well, except for the camera thing. Never could figure that out.. Even the few times I actually did take pictures I couldn’t figure what to do with them and gave up.

That is except when I would push the wrong button and take a video of the ceiling or my feet.

Seems the issue is that I am unable to text with the tiny little 3 character buttons. "Hi, son," would come out looking like, "Gh Qmo." My grandkids have even spoken to my wife about Poppa’s crazy text messages. Give me a break. Whatever happened to actually talking on a phone? Isn’t that what they were invented for?

They want me to get one of those phones that you can turn upside down and sideways and has a typewriter keyboard with keys about one-eighth the size of my pinky finger.

One of my four sons is a realtor whose real occupation is fly fishing. "Way to go, son."Or in my text language, "Xbz um Io, rmo."

We were floating the Yakima River in his guide quality drift boat south of Ellensburg, Washington. We were miles from anything remotely resembling civilization. Rock canyon walls were on either side of us. Bear with me as I try to explain this strange thing.

His "Blackberry" rang. It was blue and I asked him why it wasn’t called a Blueberry. He shook his head with that “dealing with an elder” despair look I get a lot these days. It was another realtor who called to say that the sellers he represented had agreed to my son’s client’s changes and he had the signed documents in hand.

My son told him to FAX the papers to his office and he would get them signed and Faxed back, to close the deal that morning. A minute later the phone rang and he hit a few buttons and looked over the FAX, now on the Yakima River with us.

He then called his clients and told them he was Faxing the papers to them to sign and asked them to FAX them back to his office. While he was waiting, he hooked into a fat rainbow and was just releasing this 22 inch beauty as his phone rang again with the signed FAX from his clients.

He called the other realtor and told him he was sending the signed papers back by FAX. The deal was closed. He smiled and just said, "You are a little behind the times, Dad." I guess I am.I thought about the sixty million dollar a year business I ran with 1800 employees, all without a Blackberry that played music, took videos, pictures and communicated with Facebook and Twitter.

I signed up under duress for Twitter and Facebook, so my seven kids, their spouse, 13 grandkids and 2 great grand kids could communicate with me in the modern way. I figured I could handle something as simple as Twitter with only 140 characters of space. That was before one of my grandkids hooked me up for Tweeter, Tweetree, Twhirl, Twitterfon, Tweetie and Twittererific Tweetdeck, Twitpix and something that sends every message to my cell phone and every other program within the texting world.

My phone was beeping every three minutes with the details of everything except the bowel movements of the entire next generation. I am not ready to live like this. I keep my cell phone in the garage in my golf bag.

The kids bought me a GPS for my last birthday because they say I get lost every now and then going over to the grocery store or library. I keep that in a box under my tool bench with the Blue tooth [it’s red] phone I am supposed to use when I drive. I wore it once and was standing in line at Barnes and Nobles talking to my wife as everyone in the nearest 50 yards was glaring at me. Seems I have to take my hearing aid out to use it and got a little loud.

I mean the GPS looked pretty smart on my dash board, but the lady inside was the most annoying, rudest person I had run into in a long time. Every 10 minutes, she would sarcastically say, "Re-calc-ul-ating Route" You would think that she could be nicer. It was like she could barely tolerate me. She would let go with a deep sigh and then tell me to "make a legal U-turn at the next light". Then when I would make a right turn instead, she was not happy.

Then I really got lost so I call my wife and told her the name of the cross streets and now she is starting to develop the same tone as Gypsy, the GPS lady, at least she loves me.To be perfectly frank, I am still trying to learn how to use the cordless phones in our house. We have had them for 4 years, but I still haven’t figured out how I could lose three phones all at once! I have to run around digging under chair cushions, checking bathrooms and the dirty laundry baskets when the phone rings.

Oh, and have you noticed that we obviously came from another era, 'cause we say words like "point", "decimal", and "period"? It would appear that those words have been replaced with the universal term of "dot" - I always thought those had to do with polkas.

The world is just getting too complex for me. They even mess me up every time I go to the grocery store. You would think they could settle on something themselves but this sudden "Paper or Plastic?" every time I check out just knocks me for a loop.

So I bought some of those cloth re-usable bags to avoid looking confused but never remember to take them in with me.

Now I toss it back to them. When they ask me, "Paper or Plastic?" I just say, "Doesn’t matter to me. I am bi-sacksual" Then it‘s their turn to stare at me with a blank look."

Palm Treo to Blackberry Curve

After having an unpleasant and frustrating time with a Palm Treo, I am delighted to go back to having a BlackBerry. I love my new Curve 8350i. Shortly after starting to use the Treo I discovered that when talking to someone on the phone other screens would pop-up. These pop-up would happen after I dialed and to the screens would have to be closed in order to go to the speaker, or turn off the speaker.

Frequently listeners kept getting annoying feedback. To cut the feedback I would have to go to speaker and then turn the speaker off. This was an annoyance to say the least to all parties.

At first I liked the Treo’s email system and all was well for four months, except for the occasional few hours where they system would go down. About the four month point the Treo’s email system started to going down more frequently, up to two to three days at a time. The growing frequency became frustrating.

About the seventh month the software on my Treo started freeze. At first taking out the battery and resetting the Treo was all that was necessary to get the system going again. Weeks later, the only way to the email system going again was to delete the software and reinstall it. Sometimes the installation would take fifteen minutes but at other times it would not take multiple efforts. The frequency in the Treo crashing increased to the point where it was happening two to four times a week. The frustrating part was that until the software was installed again, my calendar and phone book were blank.

Others started to experience the same problems. It was nice not to be alone. Three weeks ago DHQ moved all eleven of us on the Treo to the BlackBerry Curve.

I really like the ease and feel of the Curve. It is sleek and I like the feel of the keypad and the roller ball. I like the idea of being able to download a Powerpoint or slideshow to the Curve and then hook it up to a projector for group showing. It also has a voice dialing feature that I have yet to activate but may get around to doing so in the coming weeks.

The curve also has a GPS feature that while I would not see it replacing my GPS, it is a nice feature for if I was walking along the street and needed some help. I like the ease of going on the net using the Curve and its bedside wake-up alarm feature. One issue I do have with it is that it does not seem to have the capability to assign specific ringtones for specific people.

Another feature I will not like use is that one can download the mp3 files. I may eventually install a dozen or so files but I have my ipod with an extensive list. One feature that I will be using is the recorder that allows me to record notes to myself while out of the office…a nice feature considering that we often think about something at one point in the day and forget it later.

Overall, I am very pleased with the Curve.