The Paws Button

THE PAWS BUTTON

 

Getting my day started and finally it dawns on me, we don’t just get up, because the sun comes up, although scientists will say, “Light Sensitive and Sun is the key to life.”  And maybe they are right, but before I get off topic, I must make this point.  It is a new day, and I do not have to repeat myself over and over again.  But I do.  Routine and Habit and somehow I just follow the script.  Like this morning.  Up and ready to go at 7 am.  But of course,  I have no place to go, unless I do.   “Retired.”   Says it all.  “No place to go.”   

Saved by my routine, and one of the first things I do is want to read the newspaper.  But home delivery is now done by screen assembled items and have become accustomed to going to Google on my computer, and hitting the NEWS Button.  Been doing that for so long now, it is my only source of news.  So I scan through the banners seeking those things that interest me.  And guess what?

 

Told myself today, “….this is not news.”  Left with the notion that what I have been doing is no longer satisfactory.  Need more.  Or need different.  Need my paper newspaper back, but as you know, we move forward and the past is dead.  Unless of course, we ignore the self-help jargon and advice about living only in the moment.  So that changes things for me. 

 

And is early in the week and is a start.  Change one thing, and perhaps, that will be enough.  Haven’t found it to be that way, but again I am new at this.  Typed in  today’s date.  Happens to be October 6, 2015.  Then I entered, “…..news.”   Hit the search button and now I have a full page of results that suggest that if I click on this,  I will find what I am looking for.  All I wanted to do was read the morning newspaper and have a cup of coffee or tea to get my day started.  Now 3 hours later, and I have the sound turned down, am preoccupied with looking at one screen that will continue all day, with video coverage of dreadful things going on, and suddenly I am aware.  This is no longer satisfying me.  Now what to do?

 

Find myself going to another screen and am composing a blog segment, so that I can replace the blog that I wrote yesterday or last week, or wait, will have to check the date and look at what I am doing more closely.  Not sure, but am aware that the last blog I wrote no longer satisfies me.  New.  Different. More.   Multi-tasking and purpose-driven, but when I take a closer look I realize I have been programmed to do all this, and at some point I say, “….not satisfied.  Not what I wanted.”

 

And might just be our modern day.  Devices and we hit the button and repeat what we always do while driving or riding the bus.  Pull out the smart phone or new device, and find out what we have missed, or just because this is what we do, we check for emails, or a new posting on facebook from our favorites, or in the case of  multi-tasking we do so many things at one time, it hardly registers all the things we do, because of our devices.  So life at full speed, and no time to be in the moment.  Am starting to realize that it is no longer up to me, what happens next.  I am programmed and not really thinking.  Just hitting the buttons and clicking on this and that.  I am.  A by-product of the environment I find myself in, I am becoming something I never thought possible. 

 

Automated and annotated, all you have to do is check my history of what I do, when I am not with you.  Mostly online and its there.  Click and Search and Improvise.  Most amazing.  And it dawns on me,  I am being overwhelmed by what I do.  Leaves me with a choice.  The Paws Button.

 

Blogging about my everyday life, and realize things are moving at the speed of light, and soon the silicon chip will be replaced by NanoTube technology, and Silicon Valley will be remote and ignored.  Well maybe not, it is all speculation that we are yesterday’s news, and obsolete.  Blogging and it dawns on me, looking for a reliable news space that comfortably replaces my cup of coffee and newspaper, sitting at the table before I rush off to school or work or somewhere. 

 

And now I say, “….where is my i-pod or my phone or my device.”  So many things now contained on the screen, that I can not complete my day without it.  And that is when I realized, I need to hit The Pause Button.   Have a timeout and reconsider what I am doing.  So I instructed my device, using oral/audio commands, “…..Pause Button.”   Instead it reacted to my odd voice inflection, because I was eating toast and speaking with food in my mouth.  Next thing I know the screen is filling up and I am distracted.  PAWS BUTTON.

 

Never realized before that all of this could be amusing or fun.  Now I am in the moment.  Hit The Pause Button becomes   Paws Button and full screen.  Haven’t taken the time yet to explore the fruits of my labor.  All being done without me.  Had my mouth full of food, packing it down before I had to leave for work or school.  Seeking energy and all I wanted was a newspaper and a cup of coffee.   Now I have The Paws Button and screens full of things that call for my attention.  Programmed to respond, all I have to do is Click On This.  And there goes my timeout.  No rest. 

 

And later when I turn my smart phone on, there will be no time for me.  Instead there will be this field of emails and tweets and facebook responses.  “….What the Heck.”  Paws Button media takes over, and until I hit the erase button or key, I am a by-product of my environment, and that includes all my devices and smart phone and screen.

 

Is when I realize.  This is endless.  There is no timeout.  The Pause Button is replaced by the PAWS Button.  And that is where this all begins.  Type in a Title.  Automated programs read your keystrokes and before you know it, the news is not all that important to you.  You are being fed and led and consumed by all of this.  So this is how my blog ends.  But like I said and it might be true.  “…..All of this is endless.”

 

Certiorari Denied

CERTIORARI DENIED

It starts with me having time on my hand, and lately the phone hardly rings, and the people standing on the corner street with their Bibles, won’t speak to me, and I am looking for a second opinion.  On top of this, I googled the word ‘…..  certioriari.”  First I found that there are at least 6 different ways to pronounce the word, and even with the Supreme Court Justices, an oral argument is fast to follow any inquiry made.  So this has me writing and not really ready for a face to face confrontation.  Hoping to avoid a fight and controversy has me retreating before I even get this blog in first gear and moving forward.  Made a mistake when I googled a word that is not really in my circle and part of my personal or professional understanding.

So why did I do it, why reach out for understanding at a higher level?  Maybe that is what I should have googled, but then where does one start when confronting one’s greatest fears.  The idea that time has left you stranded on a remote island  or place where people can located you with the gps on the cell phone, but unless you buy something with your credit card, dealing with you is almost impossible.  So where do we go from here?  Not sure.

 

The general idea facing me is more local than worldly or other-worldly, so am not expecting a Supreme Court ruling or review of my grievance and how things have been handled and progressed.  Certiorari Denied ends my process for seeking and gaining legal or social justice for the things I think have been a problem today.  Seems there will always be winners and losers, and grumbling about it won’t change much for me.  Seems I was taking a nap, and without going into much detail, the furniture was rearranged.  Doesn’t matter why as it seems I awoke and stumbled around, and hit my big toe on something.  It hurt and I was both bothered and bewildered.  Not sure there is any more to any of this, than being hurt and injured because they moved the furniture without consulting me.  Spring Cleaning in October.  I doubt it was like that.  But it happens I am no spring chicken now, and change is harsh on my mellow.

 

Had no defense and filling out an injury report and sending it to medicare insurance provider, would get me not satisfactory recourse.  Things happen.  And the older we get, the more we want it to be different.  Resisting change, and yet I consider myself semi-modern and keeping up with it all.  So I googled and now am dealing with all the screens appearing that are intended to answer just about any issue or question.  Not sure this is working for me.  So have decided to go for a walk, and if tired when I return, take a nap.  Still doing things the old fashion way.  Slow it down, reconsider and even come to some peaceful accommodation with the way things are.  Can’t hold a grudge.  Rearranging the furniture is what some do, when not busy with everything else.  Have to take the responsibility for walking in my sleep, or stumbling around not fully awake.  And so it is,  I find a work around for the great depression I find myself in.

 

Have to come to terms with all this.  Stop reading the banner news if it is getting to me.  Stop being over concerned with the election process that has front page coverage and time spent on the what-ifs of government and how it effects me.  Instead I will find a work around for the complexities that come and go around me.  More coffee or more chocolate or just more of everything, and at the end of the day, will stop being blindsided by what others do, and open my eyes and be fully awake.  The buck stops here, and seems this is a justice system that might work for me.  Take more responsibility for the things that happen around me.  Be more careful.

 

And most of all stop googling every little thing that puzzles or confounds.  Yes, now I am in a happy place.  Solution found.  Unplug and shrug off the inevitable.  Where I live, rearranging the furniture is like a hobby or an obsession.  Its painful when you bump into things, but really I will live.  And blog.  And share with you.  And what we share today is this.  Certiorari Denied.  And I must find another way.  And of course I will.  Depend on it.  Freedom in my world suggests I could move out.  But of course I won’t.  Blogging about it is easier and its free. 

 

Oh my goodness.  Time for a cookie and milk.  And a time out.  Need to have a timeout.  My toe is throbbing and reminds me.  Be careful where you go.  Nothing is as it seems, nor are things safe, even in your own home.  October and Halloween.  Expect a Scream.  Warning enough.  But not necessarily a hurt toe or feelings.

Freedom to be in your own home.

She moves the furniture.  Deal with it.

Certiorari Denied. 

 

Renaming A Mountain

RENAMING MOUNTAINS

 

This is starting to make me feel like I have missed my calling, came into and out of life at the wrong time.  Yes, for the moment I am still alive, but is my viability gone?  Have one thing going for me, and am not sure it is something I should advertise, or flaunt.  You see it isn’t all that difficult to deflate footballs, or even take the wind out of my sails and leave me adrift on the big water, at the foot of the mountains that stand and tower over me.

 

As if I am but an insignificant man or woman;  once admired for big hands and feet and other tools of the man-trade, or as my opposite with good looks and a top or bottom side to die for; soon to be renamed and immortalized as grandma or grandpa. Old people or Old Mountain.  What is the importance of a name, or   that we are that lucky to have a mountain named after us.

 

And now like a giant landslide or just major or minor quake in the hemisphere of name giving and taking, and nobody will really know, why we say and do these things.  Language ability and being a man in power, one was assassinated in 1901 and out there on the west coast and not even a state yet, and we were still busy taking the land away from the indigenous and native people, and naming their mountains after dead presidents.

 

Back then and over the years we have done things that were not given that much thought or publicity.  We just did it.  Made a law that said it was okay. And then just went on with things.  For better or worse.

 

Have to say,  there was less than 75 millions people in these United States of America at the time all of this was going on. 40 years or so after the Civil War.  Lots going on, and a lot of it was cloaked in darkness and made silent by the distance.  Too far away to really know what was going on, and why.   So before television and mass communications, and we could get away with such things.   Naming and Renaming and what is it I am forgetting or just have never been told?  How does this affect me?  Or does it?

 

And maybe at my age I need to hold my breath and save what energy I have, just in case I live long enough to gain perspective and realize that things are changing and they need my vote.  At least for one more cycle of the election process.  And that gives me hope.  But even so, I have the ability and time to write a blog.  Post it where you can see it.  Post what?  And that is where the caution flag comes out, and things slow down to the point of safety.  What is safe to write about in a blog?   When is it okay to go out on the race track, and not end up dead?

 

Now that’s it, isn’t it.  That is what I should be considering.  Silence or Tell-All.  Introduce new words and a new telling of how things got to be the way they are.  But wait, if we rename and divert attention, and nobody really has the time to explore what is really being said or done, perhaps that is what needs to be blogged about.

 

But not by me.  Afraid and have you ever been lead down that path in the dark and you have no idea how to get back to the warm fire and comfort of a safe place?  So lacking experience in so many things.  Have no idea what to blog about now.  Denali.  The High One.

 

And before now,  I was content by taking on the Fake Name, Stoney.  Was good that you could think what you might, based on a name.  Now, clarification puts me at risk.  Why are we going back and renaming things.  What does this really have to do with you and I and Alaska’s indigenous Athabascan people?  Mount McKinley.  Drop the political correctness.  Let the lower tier of viable candidates for the up coming election have their time in the media and press.  Rename everything.  Say whatever you think might draw attention towards you, or away from things that just happen.  Like Iran and Nukes and a new arrangement.  Funny how I know so little about what I am blogging about today.  Which is my clue to stop and concentrate on Fake Football, or the New York Yankees and the soon to be Pennant Chase.

 

Sports news and weather.  Take nothing for granted, and minimize the seriousness of things going on around you.  Best to dumb down.  Enjoy the media and the first rounds of the election and political process now unfolding.  Nothing to officially recognize.  Doesn’t matter what happened before.  Won’t change things to rename and point at somebody new.  The High One.  Stoney on a blog journey, going into the mountains to get mushrooms and smoke some.  Forest fires and the smoke can choke the life out of you, or at best, the worst comes when your lungs turn black from the official and authorized version of having a personal forest fire within, smoking Camels or Marlboros.

 

McKinley dead in 1901 and they rename a mountain after him.  Obama and soon to be out of office by the official process, democratic elections. I pray for that.   And so voters and leaders in crucial times do this dance and hope that things turnout.  Global Warming and poisoning the food chain.  Not sure why we advocate for a name change or for superficial acts of kindness concerning the original state of things.  Environmental log and forests going up in smoke.  Can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.

 

And so it goes.  Words and blogs and media.  Not sure how blogging about this changes anything.  So have decided.  I will wait and let The Donald or Doctor Brain , or somebody I never heard about 6 months ago, inform me.  And am okay with revisionist and tall tales from the wilderness.  Been to Alaska and back.  No harm came to be. Been there.  Done That.   And yes, does my heart good to think, if I say nothing or just listen.  Others will tell me what I need to know.

 

And with that I will wander off.  No reason to blog about things that I know so little about.  NO reason to go on about the hot topic of the day.  Distractions and have very little to do with those things most important to me.  Like Fake Football.  And Yankees and American League Baseball.  And there is more.  But have reached the limit.  Running out of oxygen and energy to pursue all of this.  Mountains.  Getting high or being above shoulder level, and moving into the smoke or into the clouds.  Not good for my health. 

All this renaming.

 

The impact could trigger an earthquake. Denali (also known as Mount McKinley) is a mountain in Alaska that sits just to the south of a major fault line.