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I bought my first computer in 2000 or 2001.  Shortly after we got it all set up, my oldest granddaughter, 7-year-old Christy set up a “MY SPACE” page and began communicating with her friends.  Not too long after that, FACEBOOK became the next “big thing” and I was encouraged by her and others to set up a FACEBOOK page.  I learned a little bit about how it worked, and started adding friends.  Before long, I made up my mind that FACEBOOK wasn’t for me.  It just seemed to be really sappy.  I don’t have the slightest interest in knowing who’s out to dinner with whom, where they’re eating, or for that matter what they might be eating, but you had to sort through so much of that sort of foolishness to find anything worthwhile, that I just stopped using it.

I haven’t intentionally gone into that account for at least ten years, probably closer to twenty, but occasionally something will show up on my smart phone (yes, I now have a smart phone) alerting me that something has posted to my account.  So, apparently, I still have a FACEBOOK page and people have attempted to contact me through it.    I’m not very computer savvy, so I’ve never taken the time to delete it, if in fact it even can be deleted.

I’m kinda old school, and I’m very slow to follow the trend, however, we did recently do away with our telephone land line.  By now, anybody that we know would be more likely to call us on our cellphones. About the only calls we were receiving on the land line were the annoying kind.  It was always somebody selling something or one of those robo-calls.  We actually kept it longer than we should have, simply so we’d be able to send or receive a fax.  Now however, my sweetie has become savvy enough to show me how to send anything that I might want to fax, by email instead.

Oh yes, I do still use email, which apparently fewer and fewer people are doing these days. However, with the exception of texting, which I now do my share of, I don’t do social media things such as twitter or Instagram.

It is said that desperation is the mother of invention, and I’m now the proud owner of an iPhone 13 which my sweetie just recently convinced me to acquire.  My old phone didn’t have much storage and it made taking and sending photos very difficult.  My granddaughter, Christy, is now happily married and recently had her first child.  I now have a great grandson.  She’s been sending me lots of photos of the precious little guy and I wanted to keep them, but that old phone just wasn’t cooperating. 

I guess it’s possible that there may be hope for me yet, as I gradually make my way into the 21st century?

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Gramps use’ta say
©R.L.King2012 #547

About: Life’s Lessons

“I’ve built more bridges than I’ve burned,
but each burned bridge was a lesson learned.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: We are both writers.  Please check us out… Kindle versions of our books are available at only 99 cents.

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Recently, my sweetie showed me an article questioning, “how risky is it not to clean lint from your dryer?”  The article (in the St. Lucie News Tribune) was written by Laurence Reisman and it showed photos of some pretty nasty looking clothes dryer exhaust vents, clogged with lint and warning of the fire dangers incumbent with not keeping your vents cleaned properly.

Sweetie was immediately concerned that our dryer needed to be cleaned and she was considering calling the man whom this article seemed to be championing.  He’s a local Port St. Lucie man who has apparently made a business out of cleaning lint from clothes dryers.  We hesitated, because the article indicated that it would cost $150.00 to have him come out to clean it for us.  (Probably cheap, but still enough to make me think maybe I should look into it myself.)

Then, a week or so later, she came across an item on the internet, warning of the same problem, and accompanied by a short video of a dryer exhaust line completely clogged with lint.  That finally got me off my butt to take a look at our clothes dryer.  Fortunately, ours was in great shape.  The exhaust line was completely lint free and after taking the front of the dryer off, I found it in pristine condition as well.

However, our lint filter was a different matter. Even though I always remove the loose lint from it before using the dryer, the screen was packed with lint.  After some quick work with our dust buster, an old toothbrush and some soapy water, I was able to bring it back to something close to the condition it was in when it was new.   Since this clogged filter most likely was affecting the efficiency of our dryer, I expect I’ll be paying closer attention to it in the future.

As it turned out, we really didn’t have much of anything to be concerned about, there was no fire hazard. I will say, however, that we both feel a lot better about having taken the time to check into the situation. 

I recommend that you do the same.  I think you’ll sleep better afterwards; we certainly have.

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Gramps use’ta say
©R.L.King2012 #545

About: Common Sense

 “Never burn a bridge
you’ve yet to cross.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: We are both writers.  Please check us out… Kindle versions of our books are available at only 99 cents.

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This is a repost in commemoration of the 5^th anniversary of this blog (it was first posted 9/25/18)

COLLECTING
I once had a friend who enjoyed collecting antiques. She dragged me all around, picking through people’s old junk, hoping to find something of value that all the people before us had somehow missed. If you’re not into collecting, these forays can quickly become punishment, and so it was for me. Hours of wandering around picking up pieces, of junk, studying them, replacing them, then moving on to pick up something else.  BORING!!!   

My primary joy from those journeys came from the fact that it’s “hungry” entertainment and invariably we’d stop for a meal at some new place where we had not eaten before. Now that’s my type of entertainment. It almost made the shopping worthwhile….. almost!

Once you start collecting, you never stop. If you complete your collection, you begin collecting something else while you continue to try to improve your collection. Avid collectors collect more than one particular item; many collect dozens of different things. It might be old tobacco tins, baseball caps, jack knives, or even old bottles. Hell, when it comes right down to it, old anything.

I soon realized I was going to have to start collecting or die of boredom. In 1976, Michigan had put out a patriotic license plate to commemorate the 200-year anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.  It was red, white and blue and very attractive. When it was time to replace mine, I saved it and a number of others that I had found over the years.  So, I decided to start collecting license plates.  The problem was there were thousands of them.  So, I decided to try to get one from every state.  Presto!  I was a collector.

Years earlier I had received a bottle of Avon aftershave shaped like an antique car as a birthday gift from my youngest son. I had always treasured it, probably more because it was a gift from my son than because of its shape. At any rate, one day when we were pawing through old junk, looking for license plates, I came across another Avon bottle car. In fact, I found 2 or 3 of them in the same junk pile. Until that time, I hadn’t realized that there were more than the original I had received from my son.

That day, I truly became a collector. Soon enough, I had 10 or 15 cars in my collection and was anxious to find out how many more of them there might be. Suffice it to say, there were enough of them to make it interesting to attempt to collect them all.

After a time, I was no longer seeing that friend, but I didn’t stop collecting. From time to time, I came across another car to add to the collection. Eventually, I also began collecting eagles. All types of eagles, but preferably of a patriotic nature. They aren’t necessarily old or antique, but they are interesting and patriotic.

Unfortunately, it now seems as though the old antique is me.

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Gramps use’ta say
©R.L.King2012 #559

About: Life’s Truths

Quoting Unknown

“Searching for self is a journey for a lifetime,
life is what happens in between.
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Kindle versions of most of our books are available at only 99 cents.