Post #16

Thought for the day

The way it works is this: the more time saving devices a race accumulates, the less leisure.

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The thought for today really hits home with me. While I’m certain that one of the greatest time saving devices ever conceived is the computer, I have found that I have very little leisure time because I’m too busy trying to make my computer do what I want it to do. That’s not a complaint; it’s just an observation. As much as I like my retirement, it doesn’t give me nearly as much leisure time (read; loafing around time) as I had imagined. I suspect that if it had, I would have driven Grandma crazy long before now. As it is, we spend a lot of time together but occasionally during the day we back off a bit and give each other a little breathing room. At that point Grandma usually reads the latest Danielle Steele novel or maybe picks up on some long-running knitting project she has going. While she goes into her Madame Lafarge mode, I usually head for the computer to put into practice some of the tips that other members of the family have graciously given to me.
Though working with the computer may not be a leisurely pastime, it is something that I enjoy more than I can express. It makes me remember—and appreciate—how much pleasure my dad got out the little old 64K Atari 1200XL computer we got him when he was in his mid-to-late 8os. I am beginning to realize now, not only how much joy he got from it, but also how difficult it was for him to understand how to make good use of this time-saver.
No, my computer hasn’t given me more leisure time, but like it did for my dad, it has opened the doors to a lot of things we might not have been able to do—at least not very well—especially in our “senior” years: things like creative writing, graphic design, and, yes, even games.
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In case you missed it, yesterday was May 1st.
I missed it!

Actually, I didn’t miss it; I just was too busy to acknowledge it. Because of that (and chronic laziness) I didn’t do a May 1 blog. As May enters the picture the school year for most school districts is quickly coming to a screeching halt. Well, maybe not that fast but it is winding down and that means “work” for me: preparing diplomas for the graduates of Wilson High School here in Santa Clara. I put the word work in quotes just to indicate that even though it is activity, for me it’s fun activity. Every year about this time I get a call from various people involved with the graduation process for that school, asking if I would prepare the graduation certificates for them again this year. Since I have been doing that for at least fifteen years—maybe more—I could hardly say no, now could I? As a volunteer, it’s something I get to do for the Santa Clara Unified School District to help show my appreciation for the good education they gave our kids—and for the Adult Education classes that have been such a blessing to Grandma and me. Besides that, doing these diplomas (as well as many of their promotional and internal publications) is a great outlet for whatever creative juices I still have left. Because as someone once said (no doubt it was Ben Franklin), “An idle mind is the devil’s workshop.” And that makes me wonder, if the devil has a workshop, what do you suppose he does in there? Maybe he forges out pitchforks for all of the little devils running around (Heaven knows he’s got a great built-in forge); or maybe he has a garment sweatshop where they make asbestos clothing. Then too, maybe there are more important things for me to wonder about, like why are blackberries red when they’re green? Or, how many peanuts does a cow have to eat in order to give a quart of peanut butter?
Well, I seem to have digressed so I think I’ll call it a day—just for old times sake, let’s call it May Day!

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