Dope Slap / North Carolina Trip *&*
Where to start.. I can go in so many different directions.
First off, Sunday afternoon I broke the 100,000 meter mark for the Concept 2 Challenge. I did up the math and to get those meters in which earned $2.20 for my chosen charity took over eight hours. I think I can safely say I’m not in this for the money!
I sent my best friend Joe a copy and paste of my “Judy Entry”. Here is an excerpt from his reply.
Orlando Darlena,
LOLOL…Your email just made my day!!! My phone rang last night, and the number appeared on the TV screen with Judy’s name appearing as well. Mike just said when his name appeared, the screen went dark LOLOL. Mike had his hand on the phone and I said, “If you answer that, I will make you go to bed with no dinner.”
First of all, before I call Judy, I need to prepare myself for three hours of emotional draining and a night of sleep to recover. I can not answer the phone and absorb all that negativity without first being prepared.
I will never understand his distain for present day technology. In all fairness, some of it is annoying, people walking around like zombies with their faces planted in their cell phones drives me crazy!!! But to avoid it as Judy does is beyond me. He will not answer my messages on FB or answer emails. He says that we are out of touch as a society because we don’t converse anymore, we email and text etc. There might be some truth to that but I, personally, spend the day conversing with the public, so when I get home, the last thing I want to do is talk on the phone. What’s wrong with dropping an email or keeping in touch on FB. I love that we’re able to do that because I can multitask now instead of being held prisoner by Judy on the phone absorbing negativity. So, because he won’t communicate with me in any other way except by phone, it is somehow my fault that we fall out of touch because I wont answer it. You figure that logic, I do NOT have the time or the energy.
I’ve said it so many times that the biggest loss I incurred moving south was leaving my long time friends behind. Joe is my sister friend for over 30 years now. How I relish our exchanged e-mails and Face book interactions, not to mention our “catch up” phone calls every couple months.
I’m not sure I could ever get into texting. When I’m on line I’m invisible so I don’t get IM’s. But, you never say never.
Now we have to morph into this morning. It was 7:00 a.m. and I had to get the garbage cart out. Wheel it to the street and I see a crushed soda bottle in front of Michelle’s driveway. I say a curse on the litter-bugs and go to pick it up. Just as I bend over I spy something in the gutter sticking out of the wet leaves next to the curb. It was an I-phone.
Once
back into the house I wipe it down and just kind of stare at it. My phone is a $14.99 Tracfone from Wal-mart I buy minutes for every 90 days. It only gets used on road trips. Once I figured out how to send text messages on it, I gave up. What a pain in the rear trying to use that “telephone keypad”. I have no earthly idea how to work an I-phone.
Fortunately this phone was in a case so it survived being in the damp leaves. On the top right was a button or something I flipped which turned the phone on. The screen lit up. Then it buzzed and these text conversations flashed on the screen. I knew the names of the people, so I assumed it was either Michelle’s phone or one of her friends. At that point I should have added to the conversation so to announce discovering this lost phone. I couldn’t because I had no earthly idea how.
I returned the phone to Michelle. It belonged to a friend. They had been hunting frantically for it last night. I know all too well that feeling when you can get resolution to a crisis. I was so glad to help out.
I have been thinking this could be my “dope slap” moment to break down and get a real android phone. I’m such a Luddite…I actually Googled “android phone” to make sure I used the right term!
I will have to do some research and check those things out after the first of the New Year.
Billy called me late Sunday afternoon. There is a North Carolina trip in my immediate future. How does this happen in my life? Just when I think life is so mundane and boring…..
Billy has been a close friend for nearly 40 years now. It was in the early 1980’s I started helping him at the phonograph and music shows. The “shit” we have shleped around. I’m privy to a lot of the deals that have gone down over the years which I keep private. A deal came through on an instrument in North Carolina.
Within a few months I’ll be helping to move an Imhof Mukle Badena II. This instrument is huge and bulky and is buried in a hoarders house of antiques. This is the only picture I could find of this machine. It is hard to get any kind of scale, but I would estimate this is at least 9ft high not including the top “wonder light”. What makes this special is the glass in the front lights up. Action effects make it look like real water is in the waterfalls, the lights simulate day and night. Elaborate belt and pulley systems have trains and automobiles crossing the stone bridge while balloons and zeppelins float through the sky. The “wonder light” on top sheds prisms of rainbows. All these gimmicks were top of the line in 1912!
I promised Billy if this deal ever went down I would be there for the fun. The deal went down, let the fun begin!