Saturday, November 27, 2010

Thanksgiving Weekend

We have had a nice holiday weekend. There were ten of us Thanksgiving Day, including FDIL, as well as her parents, two great people who are already beginning to feel like family. Wife’s parents made the trip over from Arkansas and it was great to have them too. We are indeed blessed.

Wife once again pulled off a wonderful Thanksgiving Day meal, the presentation of which was beautiful and the taste of which was scrumptious. It is a great deal of work for one meal and the clean-up – my part – is lengthy.

Worth it? No question about that.

*********************************************************

I have read a couple of items lately that are definitely signs of the times, as well as indicators of how out-of-touch (and old?!) I am becoming.

The first was a story about evolving manners of communication. Seems most younger folks send text messages more than they talk by telephone. Facebook messages are big too.

E-mail? It’s old fashioned, and the piece I read referred to it as “still used by many OLDER adults (emphasis mine).”

No additional comment needed on that.

The piece I read yesterday was about telephone directories, particularly the White Pages. Apparently, telephone service providers in a number of states are getting permission from the regulators to stop publishing them altogether. This is reportedly due to the fact that (a) people are eliminating their home phones (“land lines”) and moving to cell phones (numbers for which are generally not listed) at a rapid clip and (b) people rely on the Internet more and more to look up information previously provided by the telephone book (addresses and home phone numbers).

I am among those who use the Internet for these search functions. Here is the irony, though: with all the advances in communication and technology, I find that it's harder to locate people with whom I might not regularly communicate. Since most cell phones aren't "listed," I can't get a phone number for someone who has a cell number but not a land line. And it seems that many of the people who have both don't answer their home phones anymore.

Just a couple of days ago, Wife was wanting to contact one of her book club members. We were able to find an address but no phone number.

Wife has insisted that we keep our home phone service and even though she has a cell phone (an i-Phone, no less), the land line is still her preference when she's at home. As for me, I keep my cell in my pocket and have joined those who just let the home phone ring -- until Wife asks me to answer it.

**********************************************************
I hope you have all had an enjoyable holiday weekend. We have watched football until our eyes blurred. We reached near hysteria yesterday when Auburn, after being down 24-0 at one point in the first half to its bitter rival Alabama (at which time you could hear a pin drop in our playroom where eight of us were gathered watching), roared back to an incredible 28-27 victory. This capped off a perfect 12-0 season and a berth in the SEC championship game vs. South Carolina next Saturday in Atlanta, where a victory will secure a spot in the BCS championship game.

The Cam Newton pay-for-play drama is as yet unresolved but, for now, we Auburn fans are euphoric.

4 comments:

Kelly said...

I guess we'll always have to keep a land line at our house. Our cell reception is just too poor to depend solely on that.

I can certainly text from home, though, and that is my preferred way to communicate!

Glad your family had such a nice Thanksgiving, Bob.

Pam said...

I'm still a fan of my land line. I only use my cell when I'm away from home or texting.

I text and still do email. I use google street finder to get to plalces I"m not familiar with.

I like the yellow pages for choices and I still use the white pages to find specific business numbers.


Glad you had a good Thanksgiving!

Bob Barbanes: said...

I'm in the same boat as Kelly: cell service in my house is so bad I simply cannot give up the landline...but I'd sure like to!

As for Thanksgiving, I'm glad you had a nice one! Me, I worked. Spent Part A with the boss's parents - who are getting on in years but still managed to put on an incredible spread. Then we flew up to Birmingham to spend Part B with his girlfriend's family - who outdid the sumptuous feast we'd had earlier. OY! Too much food!

On Friday, all day I had nothing but a granola bar and a cup of coffee. Then I flew boss and gf to Tuscaloosa, where the "so quiet you could hear a pin drop" thing happened in the second half, after the initial cheering had died down. Two very good teams facing off, and we knew it was going to be close - we were just hoping for a different outcome. It was a somber flight home.

I love Thanksgiving most of all, but ugh, I'm glad it only happens once a year. After this year's double-header, I need to go up a size in the waistband of my jeans.

Hal Johnson said...

Thanksgiving this year came while I was away, but we were blessed to have a great meal provided by a great caterer in a sparsely populated Louisiana parish. As for football, I feel almost un-American, but I've largely lost interest in team sports. Last year's Super Bowl was the first I've watched in seventeen years.