Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Eighty Years Ago

Today is my mom's 80th birthday. It's amazing how much different the world is today compared to the day she was born.

She was born in "the front room" of the house not in a hospital. The house did not have electricity, running water, or indoor plumbing. They cooked on a woodburning stove. Their source of heat in the winter was a fireplace. Water came from a well.

My grandfather was a tenant farmer. He had a mule that he used for plowing the cotton fields. They grew or raised almost all of their food.

They didn't have a car, so they walked almost everywhere they wanted to go. If the distance was too far to walk, then they rode the bus between towns.

No telephone. No television. No internet. No microwave oven. No air conditioning. No washer and dryer. No vacuum cleaner. No computers. No video games. Nothing that requires electricity to run.

For entertainment they read books, so it wasn't all bad.

Technology is changing the world so rapidly. I wonder what it will be like when I reach my 80th birthday. Personally, I'm hoping they get the Star Trek transporter thing figured out. Wouldn't it be cool to beam over to Paris for dinner or down to the Caribbean to go snorkeling? :)

Friday, May 6, 2011

Princess Goes Grocery Shopping

Yesterday, the Huffington Post reported the earth-shattering, world changing news that Prince William's new wife went grocery shopping on Thursday. They picked up the report from The Daily Mail. I'm rather disappointed that the irrelevant news coming out of Pakistan took up so much space that they couldn't print an inventory of her shopping cart... Sigh... And so it begins...

I think most women would jump at the chance to marry a real prince or at least into a royal family, but I think the reality of Kate's experience would be that some aspects of it sucks rotten, royal bananas.

Think about it.

All you want to do is run out to the grocery store and pick up a few things. If you're a regular person like me, you just grab your car keys and go. If you're Princess Kate, you got to put on stylish clothes, fix your hair, do your makeup, and round up the bodyguards just to go to the grocery store and pickup some Diet Coke. A quick trip becomes a major expedition. Sheesh

And what if you need to make a trip down the feminine products aisle... with bodyguard in tow... EEK!

I'm not sure the perks would be worth the aggravation.

But aren't you glad that The Daily Mail and The Huffington Post are working night and day to bring us important news events such as this?