Yes!

Not Lonely, Not Bored

/ Ally Bean / 24 Comments
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The Forest Primeval says Good Morning to You.

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Another rainy morning here.  Unlike earlier this Spring when the rain made me cranky, this rain is soothing.  Now that bushes and flowers are in bloom the different colors outside combined with the rain make the scene look serene.  Funny what a few weeks will do to a person’s perspective.

Seeing as the forecast says that this rain will continue most of the day, I’ve gathered my favorite electronic gadgets* and am thinking that I’ll make a nest for myself on the TV room sofa.  We’ve got lots of pillows in there and with the window blinds up, I’ll be able to watch the subtle changes in the trees in the Forest Primeval [aka our back yard] without getting damp.

Only five years ago a Summer day like this one would have made me irritable.  But today, thanks to wi-fi, I can sit anywhere in the house and not feel lonely or put out by the weather.  Thinking about it I realize that this development might be one of the biggest changes in my lifetime.  Used to be that a rainy day meant only reading a book sitting in a corner all by myself.

However, now in addition to reading a book I can: connect – research – catch-up – enjoy without going outside in the muddy, wet world.  This is progress, my gentle readers.  Oh yes it is.  Don’t try to tell me otherwise.

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* On deck sofa for today are:

  • my [new] Kindle – reading a book 
  • my [relatively new] iPad – watching a TV show or a movie, tweeting on Twitter
  • my [ancient] Motorola clamshell wireless phone – chatting, texting with whomever about whatever, as usual
  • my [almost new] Nikon Coolpix camera – observing the world in case there’s a photo opportunity
  • my [old] MacBook – reading + commenting on blogs, writing a post should the muse strike 

Call Me!

/ Ally Bean / 19 Comments

This June my desk calendar’s picture is an old advertisement for a 1959 Princess Telephone.  The phone is that unique shade of turquoise that was so popular in the 1950s.  Tres chic!

I have no personal recollection of Princess Telephones [Model 702].  We didn’t have one in our home.  Instead, we had a basic white rotary dial Desk Telephone [Model 500] in the kitchen + a yellow Trimline Telephone [Model 220] in my upstairs bedroom.

Yes, we were early adopters with two phones in our small house.  Try not to be jealous.

Even though the following short TV commercial is from the 1950s, I can’t help feeling that I, too, was just as much of a princess as this girl.  I mean, I had a “personal extension phone” in my upstairs bedroom.

On the other hand, I didn’t have a dressing table adorned with bottles of nail polish and a French poodle figurine… nor was I ever inclined to wear bobby socks with a skirt… nor, after years of painful orthodontia, were my teeth as crooked as the girl’s teeth in this commercial…

But other than that, I was just like her.  Yakking on the phone.  Up in my bedroom.  In my own little teenage world.  😉

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So how about you?  

Did you have a Princess Telephone?  Or a Trimline Telephone?  

Or some other sort of phone entirely?

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[For photos and descriptions of models mentioned above please go here: Western Electric ~ A look at the evolution of the Dial Telephone.]

[FYI – Phone numbers used to be recited with words at the beginning.  Here’s a chart to help you remember, or understand, what those words meant: Ma Bell’s Officially Recommended Exchange Names.]

First Photos With My New Camera: Outside From Small To Large

/ Ally Bean / 34 Comments

Over the weekend I bought a new point & shoot camera.  It is a Nikon COOLPIX P520 18.1 MP Digital Camera with 42x Zoom.  It will replace my Nikon COOLPIX P90 12.1 MP Digital Camera with 24x Zoom that I’ve enjoyed using for many years.

This new camera is similar to the old one, but has more bells & whistles on it.  *yeah*  I’m looking forward to learning about each cool thing that my P520 can do, but for these photos I just winged it.  This camera is, after all, a point & shoot model, so why not go with the obvious?

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[Hello FTC!  It’s been a long time, hasn’t it?  I haven’t bought much lately.  Huh.  Well, just as a reminder, please note that I’m not being paid for my opinion here.  I’m just explaining my experiences without any compensation whatsoever.  That’s the way I roll, but then you knew that.]  

Two Nice Guys With The Same Name

/ Ally Bean / 21 Comments

My Zen-Den rented a car.  While either in the rental office or while driving the car, my Zen-Den’s black leather business card organizer wallet fell out of his computer bag.  He did not know that this had happened.

This wallet holds about 40 plastic cards that my Zen-Den uses at hotels & airlines & car rental kiosks when he travels for work.  Also, once upon a time my Zen-Den stuck a receipt for a car service visit in the back of this wallet.

[It would be at this point in the story that I could go off on a snarky tangent about paying attention to what’s going on around you… don’t adopt an absent-minded professor persona… zip the sides of you computer bag.  But I won’t.]

• • • 

Last Tuesday morning we received at the house an overnight package.  On it was the oddest address label.  The label said that Zen-Den in MI had sent Zen-Den in OH this package.  I figured that it was work related, so I didn’t open it.

[I could have opened the package immediately but:

  1. It wasn’t addressed to me, which technically means that I shouldn’t open it– like that’s ever stopped me before;  &
  2. I live in fear of anthrax dust because I’ve watched a gazillion times that NCIS episode where Tony gets the bubonic plague.  Hey, don’t judge.  It could happen.]

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When my Zen-Den came home from work I handed him the package.  He had no idea what was in it, so we both watched as he opened it.  And there was his black leather business card organizer wallet.

There wasn’t a note in the package with the wallet, so we had no idea how the other Zen-Den came to have my Zen-Den’s black leather business card organizer wallet.  There was only the address label with the other Zen-Den’s business address/phone number on it.

[Again, I could make a big issue of the fact that a stranger had information about my Z-D’s vehicle and license plate number and credit card, but that would make me sound churlish, so I won’t mention it here.]

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So the next day my Zen-Den phoned the other Zen-Den and they talked.  Come to find out someone at the car rental company had found the wallet.  When the car rental company went through their records, they found the other Zen-Den’s name/address & sent him my Zen-Den’s black leather business card organizer wallet.

The other Zen-Den knew that it wasn’t his, but he took the time to look through it where he discovered the car service receipt with our home address on it.  Then, because he was a nice older gentleman, he just mailed it to my Zen-Den.  No big deal.  Just did something nice.

My Zen-Den offered to reimburse the other Zen-Den for the cost of mailing, but the other Zen-Den said not to worry about it.  He had it covered.

And that, gentle readers, is how it came to be that my Zen-Den got his black leather business card organizer wallet back.  Amazing, huh?  Who’d have thought that there’d be two nice guys with the same name?  Just glad that there are.