Last day of the experiment

The week is over. Now I have to assess whether I will continue to use this for my morning writing or return to my freehand journaling. I aware of the showoffy nature of this, a certain narcissism. Look what's on my mind. I'm writing to other people rather than writing for the writing itself. We may know tomorrow morning what I have decided.

I joined my daughter, Cammie, and some of her friends for dinner last night at Carraba's, a slighly uppish-scale pizza and pasta place, uppish meaning cloth napkins et al. A nice place. I've always liked it. And I like her friends, smart, funny, reasonably sober (no one had more than one drink unless the pitcher of Sangria provided more than one apiece for the two who shared it.) Much of the conversation related to contemporary pop culture, TV and movies, and hand-held electronic devices. Not having one of the latter and my TV watching limited to the three channels I can get with my rabbit ears (four, sometimes, if I jump around just right), I was an aural voyeur for much of the conversation.

Earlier in the day, a friend was showing off his hand held device and explaining the business of "apps." (I at least knew that meant applications!) Several "pages" or screens full of apps. He opened, for instance, the GPS. Ok, that's cool. But when in my life have I ever needed a GPS. Oh, maybe that time I got turned around in Charlotte looking for a house due to the sketchy directions I had and the tendency of Charlotte streets to change names willy-nilly. If I was into the markets like he is (he has been working on regaining his networth) I guess it would be nice to be able to look at them 24/7. But I can't imagine how one has time to use all those things, much less the inclination.

Soooo. When I read in the Times this a.m. about how much electricity is being used by the profusion of electronics gear, I got to be smug in my abstinence from them. (I do have a cell phone; it makes and receives phone calls; it can receive text messages [I probably can send them, too] but the only ones I get are the no-charge ones telling me my phone bill is available on line- now there's a whole story in the paper about that, too). Living on a modest income, I don't choose to spend the money for techy stuff, it is partly an economic issue with me, not just a pricipled environmental stand. (All this consumer electronic stuff is going to require hundreds of new coal or nuclear fueled power plants at a time when the "movement" is working to reduce demand to avoid having to build new plants. ALternatives apparently will not generate sufficient "new" energy to come anywhere near offsetting the increase in demand.) I can justify my choices in moral-superiority terms. While, yes, typing away at an energy using computer-- perhaps this is justification enough for going back to pen and paper.

We're having a nice little storm right now, although it feels like it's winding down. Wind still whipping the sycamore branches around, but in gusts. The rain has let up. I may stay hunkered down or may go see a movie. And get filters for the fish tank before it gets out of control. Again.

Whitman catalogues wonders of the world and the universe in a section of Leaves of Grass and ends the passage, "Come I should like to hear you tell me what there is in yourself/that is not just as wonderful,/ And I should like to hear the name of anything between Sunday/morning and Saturday night that is not just as wonderful." Great way to start the week.