Saturday, June 11, 2011

Getting Old and Loving It

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Today’s Blog Post


Getting Old and Loving It

Good Lord I don’t know what is going on. I cannot take the changes anymore. It is harder than I expected. This getting Old is weirder than I ever imagined! Oh boy!

Now you may think that is a little over the top. You are not having any problem with the way that you are dealing with it. To which I say… “Good for you.”

So many things are changing around me (and you) that I can’t take it all in.

Here is just some of it.

In the local newspaper in one of our funny/odd sections that a local writer lays out for us… a short bit of important information was shared with us…

It was stated that… quote…
“Ms Relay contestant “Madonna” showed “her” prowess in solving a Rubik’s cube within three minutes during the cross-dressing contest relay For Life early Saturday morning. Not only did she impress emcee Bill Porter from CHUM Kawarthas, she also won the beauty contest staged at 2 a.m. to keep participants awake and entertained.” End quote

I really can’t think of anything or combination of things that I would less like to do.

Sitting in late night happening, watching a Cross-dresser do a Rubik’s cube in less than three minutes – and it is actually 2 a.m. – not late at night - that is early morning… just about 1.5 to 2 hours before my bathroom break and 3.5 hours before I get up.

It was with my calculation of time and comparison to my regular nightly routine… that I realized that I am really old… REALLY, REALLY Old.

Now don’t get me wrong… I love a good party. I have done some fun things as well. I can do Rubik’s cube fast… and in one or two settings I did slip into some articles of women’s clothing – but just for fun… nothing serious… But in 2011 the idea of doing that all night and doing the complete party scene is a little nutso – if you ask me! Sheesh. Relay For Life is a great cause… but there has to be another way…!!!

Then I flipped to the News for today… and there was something else… “Texting”! A report that shared that “Texting” might be down from last year.

Good Lord what am I to do? I just learned how to Text a Message on my new cell phone. I was able to send out a number of Text Messages over the last month… I think three in the first week… two the next and then four the following week. I am no where near the total number that the Plan I paid for delivers.

But here was the new evidence that is being offered for us to consider… and it made me feel real old.

It states that Text Messaging may be way down the last study shows.

Don Reisinger states that… quote…
“Citing a recent study from the CTIA, the Journal pointed out that 1 trillion text messages were sent in the U.S. during the second half of 2010. That number, while impressive, was up just 8.7 percent compared to the first half of 2010, representing the smallest gain ever in SMS use.


For the top two carriers in the U.S., Verizon and AT&T, things are even more disconcerting. According to Journal, the average Verizon customer sent out 2,068 text messages in the fourth quarter of 2010. During the third quarter of last year, that figure was at 2,110. Citing a report from analysts at UBS, the Journal pointed out that text messaging was down 21 percent in the first quarter for AT&T, compared to the same period a year prior.” End quote.

Did you get any of that?

During the second half of 2010 – 1 Trillion Text messages were sent – up 8.7 Percent from the first half of 2010… but in the last quarter of the year it dropped off by 21 percent!

So what! The article also stated that average Verizon customer sent out a mere 2068 messages compared to 2111 in the one quarter… that is three month’s time!!!!!

That is a lot of Texting! And now they tell me that it is down. I thought my 12 Texted Messages in one month were a great accomplishment!

But the thing is none of my friends from 50 something to 70 something know how to Text. The Learning Curve is fairly steep for them. But I have talked about them and this topic before.. I shouldn’t point out their “oldness” too much – some read this Blog… the ones that have computers that is… but most haven’t got past playing solitaire yet.

Oldness has come upon me… I can’t stay up late and don’t really want to… I don’t understand something like Cross-dressing and using Rubik’s cube is fun… and Texting is slipping away from me.

And this week… for fun… I am speaking at a Camp/Retreat for people they have entitled Prime Timers…. People my age and older… that will not likely have their cell phones on and be Texting during the time I am with them… and will not likely know what Texting is all about… nor will they be worried in the shifts in society. Some of my old Girl and Boy Friends may be at the Camp… that will be fun.

We can talk about riding around southern Manitoba in our old cars… sitting up late at the Drive-In Theaters… getting a cold one (a Glass bottle of Orange Crush) down at the service station’s large cooler type machine… where the bottles hung by the neck… and you moved them along kind of a race way… and the only telephone that you used was a borrowed one at the farmer’s house down the road from where you got stuck in the mud on that dirt road…

I will be telling many Old Stories and mixing them with the new ones…

As I write about all this today… a gentle glow has come upon me… and my grandfatherlyness has come upon me. I am old and loving it actually… but I can Text Message, have a few Facebook Pages, have a few Blogs and a Web Page with lots of people reading and writing to me – and I am Linkdin as well!

Getting old is not so bad after all…
~ Murray Lincoln ~
http://www.murraylincoln.com/ 


Resource:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-20070496-17/has-text-messaging-peaked/

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