Freestyle Friday: Smart Phones

Neil over at Yorkshire Pudding ranted recently about businesses expecting everyone has a smartphone. I agree with him that relying on apps only is wrong, and I have had a smartphone almost since smartphones first came on the market.  I was already carrying Blackberrys when Apple came out with the first glass faced "smartphone." I bought an android phone within a couple of years of the first smartphone. 

I bought the blackberrys for a couple of reasons, they had great international phone and data service and we were starting to travel a bit, the thing that tipped the scales for me, was maps on the phone.  The novelty of maps on my phone, rapidly wore off, one car has in-dash GPS, I have a portable Garmin unit to use in the other car and when we rent cars. I find maps on my phone to be annoying most of the time, and I think using a phone to navigate while driving is very dangerous, it should be outlawed. 

What kept me using smart phones is email. I check email on my phone several times a day. I solve Wordle on my phone everyday. I exchange morning text messages with three people on my phone. I seldom use it as a phone.  Honestly, smartphones make lousy phones, they are hard to hold, hard to hear. The flip phones of 25 years ago were better phones. I take photos with my phone. It takes good photos, and when I am away from home it is always in my pocket. The best camera is the one you have within reach. I check the news, looking for a particular obituary every day on my phone. 

I dislike the app world. I find it cumbersome to unlock my phone, find the app, then half of the time the app wants me to log in, enter a password, while the world is waiting behind me. I can, but I never have used my phone to tap and pay. I prefer paper boarding passes to electronic ones, I hate struggling to get the boarding pass to display. The battery never runs down on paper, it can on my phone. 

Five years ago, when I bought a new phone, my old phone was so short on memory that the phone store couldn't download the app to transfer my data to a new phone without deleting something. The guy asked if he could delete Facebook and Instagram from my phone. I agreed, and then I never put them back on. I freed myself from Meta on my phone. Try it, you will like it. 

So why do I carry a smartphone? I like having a phone with me for my use when I want to use it. I like having email and a camera in my pocket. I like being able to do a quick web search. When needed the maps come in handy (I used maps to find a restaurant in San Antonio, including walking directions.) I check the temperature outside on my phone. But I try to avoid being bullied into using it as my only means of doing anything.  

Thursday Ramble: What has changed in retirment

I am a little over two years into retirement, long enough to have passed the extended vacation phase, and I am starting to understand the joys of retirement. 

I recently realized that when I was working I often wanted to escape, to get away, from work. I wanted to go someplace and be quiet, to do nothing, to talk to no one. And this was very-very hard to do. At best I might get a random day or two here and there, but for the most part vacation days were just replacing one filled calendar for another filled calendar. Since retirement I don't have this feeling. I am often able to have quality alone time. There is nothing in my life that I wish to escape. It is not that I don't want to get out and see the wonders, I do this often, or travel - I love to travel and will keep traveling as long as I am able to - but it is no longer to escape. I don't need to escape from this life. 

The longer I am retired, the less my identity is tied to my work. When introducing myself, my work is no longer in the first sentence. Slowly it is moving into the third or fourth sentence, sometimes not even being there at all. I am retired. Not a retired lawyer.  I am no longer afraid of the term retirement.  It is nothing to be ashamed of, or afraid of. We worked and saved for many years to be able to do this. 

I no longer dread Mondays. Monday morning, is just another morning. Sunday evening is no longer filled with fear and loathing. There are differences from day to day. Sunday is CBS Sunday Morning Show and 60 Minutes, Thursday and Saturday are water aerobics. Saturday if the weather is nice is farmers market morning. Everyday I walk, and most afternoons I spend time in the pool. The day to day, stress level is very even. 

It took me a couple of years, to replace the social network of the office, with social connections in the community. This is something many people fail to do. I was surprised how fast, and how completely the work related network ended.  There is one person from my old office that I stay in monthly contact with. A couple of people that I connect with a few times a year. But most of them are busy with their work lives. I have new connections, here in the community. 

The last few years that I worked the income far exceeded my needs. It is easy to say I miss the income. But we have enough, our savings have grown over the last two years. I remind myself that we can't take it with us, and we should start spending what we want (within reason - once a stingy bastard, always a stingy bastard.) 

I think I have moved forward into an engaged, but relaxed phase of life. Then I am shocked to think, HOW CAN I BE OLD ENOUGH TO BE RETIRED? 

My World of Wonders: March 4, 2026

 

What have I been up to in the kitchen this week? I poached a chicken, boned it out, and made chicken stock, then made chicken pies with steamed veggies and homemade pastry. I have two half-liter containers of chicken stock to cook with later.  Risotto, chicken and coleslaw. Duck eggs benedict. 

Who have I talked with? My middle brother, he is sending me the paperwork to do his income taxes with. Giuseppe, Mary. My sweet bear. 

What blog posts from this week, needed a longer comment? 

    John at Going Gently, posted this about an encounter at the grocery store. It got me to thinking, my Grandmother and her family left England over 100 years ago, leaving behind everything they knew, family, friends, culture. They were economic refugees, seeking a better life. My Great Grandfather made a living digging tunnels, not as an engineer in an office, as a man with a shovel underground. How bad must things have been at home, for them to leave behind the life they knew for the unknown. The immigrants washing up on your shores are fleeing something pretty horrible, or they wouldn't be fleeing. 

    Doc Spo posted about life expectancy and the shift from saving to enjoying. A couple of years into retirement, I am still struggling with spending anything from a lifetime of saving. There were a couple of trips I wanted to take last year, to see family and friends, that I didn't take, in large part because I didn't want to spend the money. One of the friends has been back in the hospital, if I keep putting off going Kim will not be there. I have a grand-nephew I have not met, how will he ever know his funky uncle if I don't meet him. Make the plans, spend the money, you can't take it with you. You have saved for your old age, you are only going to get so much older. And likely the last few years of your life, you will be limited in what you can do. Harsh to say, but it is what I have watched happen thousands of times. Go meet the Viking, Go see the family and friends, come see where George Washington had dinner. 

Where have I been this week? Mt Vernon for a nice walk. The library, and a fluenear along the waterfront near King Street, and a wander through the Torpedo Factory Arts Center.  The Farmer's Market in old town Alexandria, the first time since the weather turned cold. Across the River to National Harbor for a nice walk - I had the top down on the car for the first time this year on the way there and back. 

What was on the easel this week? I finished this. I remarked that it was my cubist phase, and Sweet Bear suggested "Cubist Phace". Should I show this one? 

What did I have a flashback memory of this week? My Sister and her youngest are staying at Universal Orlando for a week in the sun, she texted me that they had dinner at Universal Citywalk the first evening. My brain flashed back to the mid 1990's. Emeril Lagasse had a restaurant there, we took my parents there for lunch one day. The service was formal and fussy, over the top as my mother described it, and the food was very-very good. They both enjoyed it. It was a special treat for all. It was fun to see them both smile.  

Travel Tuesday: San Antonio Riverwalk

Hilton Palacio Del Rio on the Riverwalk

The electric boats are a wonderful way to explore the Riverwalk, covering about 2.5 miles of meandering water. 

Top left, is the Hilton we stayed in, with a room on the River side.

The color in the water caught my eye. 

The View from the balcony of our room, down onto one of the boats. 

There had been a hard freeze a couple of weeks before, and the trees and many plants were brown, adding an unusual dimension of color to the landscape. 

 

Monday Moods: Spread the Adventure not the Ugliness

I am not 95, yet, though at times my knees feel like I should be, but I so identify with this quote from the painter Grandma Moses. 

There is a lot of sadness and ugliness in the world, but I don't think the world is improved by spreading or repeating it. I get angry, I get political, things around us can be very depressing, even terrifying. I feel all of those things. I do what I can. (VOTE!) 

But, I try hard to keep Travel Penguin a retreat from it all. A place of peace, and reinforcement.  Most of the time, I keep my comments on other's blogs positive and upbeat, if I can't do that I try to skip commenting on that post. Not because I haven't read, or don't care, but I don't want to amplify the angst. With very rare exceptions, (is there room at the Tower for a former Prince?) I don't comment on politics in other countries. I can't truly understand the full picture in another country, it is challenging enough to understand the politics in this country.  

I try my best to not paint or write sadness or ugliness. 

Pause today and breathe. Look around you at the awe and wonder. Find the good in others. Notice the beauty around you. 

When you think of the things that need to be changed, think of what you can do to make them better, focus on the solution not the problem.  Spread the beauty, not the ugliness. 

I am reading blogs this Monday morning, this post was written last week, not as a reaction to anything anyone has posted today or yesterday, it was written in reaction to the Quote in the top image. Love you all! 

The Sunday Five: Photography

1: When was the last time you took a photograph? 

2: Do you own a camera that is not a part of some other device? 

3: Have you ever been told you can't take photographs here? 

4: Do you leave the flash on or the flash off?

5: How often do you share your photographs? 

My Answers: 

1: When was the last time you took a photograph? Yesterday, I take at least one everyday. 

2: Do you own a camera that is not a part of some other device? Four of them. 

3: Have you ever been told you can't take photographs here? Yes, several times, at one time I thought about doing a collection of forbidden photographs. 

4: Do you leave the flash on or the flash off? Flash off 99.999% of the time, one of the first things I do with a new camera is find how to turn the flash off. 

5: How often do you share your photographs? Everyday, on this and another blog. 

Please share your answers in the comments.

The Saturday Morning Post: Is It Art?

Most art is obvious, it is in your face, it shows and glows, and is clear what the message is. But not all art is that way. I like to think of this as "Unseen" art.  Messages that you might pass by 100 times and not see anything of interest, then it hits you. It suddenly makes you smile, you wonder how could I have missed that? Is it really intended to make me feel this way? Do others feel what I feel when they look at this? 

Maybe this is the difference between looking and seeing. Looking is a physical process, seeing is interpreting what we are looking at. When I look at the image above there is a rather nondescript painted surface and what is probably an electrical outlet. When I see it, the eyes, the nose, and the circle creates a smile for me.  If the artist was just plastering around the outlet the opening would probably be rectangular, making it round, adds a layer of meaning for me. 

Take time this week to look around for art in unexpected, maybe even accidental art. You will smile at what you see. 

It it me, or is this art.