Thursday, April 22, 2010

Text Messaging

I don’t text…shock…amazement…how does she communicate? I know I am so behind the times, I live such a “simple” life. Yea, yea, I have heard that before. My nieces can sit at the table and be looking right at me while I am talking to them and have their phones under the table carrying on a conversation via text with one of their friends. Amazing. They are going to have a serious case of carpal tunnel.

Cell service where I live is limited and half the time I forget to even take our cell phone with me when I go somewhere. This has not always been the case. When I lived and worked in Memphis and for the international development organization, my cell phone was permanently attached to me. If I did not have it with me, I felt naked.

Life has changed. Technology will suck you in (can you say Facebook crack) and then you will spend all your time relating through something that is powered by a battery rather than something with a heartbeat. I am trying to not let that rule our lives.

Then, there is the constant abbreviation and degradation of the English language. As a journalism graduate, that drives me crazy! K=okay, r u = are you, those are easy, but I would need a text lingo dictionary to keep up. I blame all of this on Prince. He started using U instead of “you” decades ago. His song “I would Die for U” (yes, that will be stuck in your head the rest of the day) is probably the first record of text messaging making it into everyday language. Darn you Prince, you started a Revolution for sure.

Don't get me started on my Southern Belle roots and the lost art of letter writing and thank you notes. Poor Miss Manners flipping in her grave.

Oh, and one other thing, I love when my husband calls me in the middle of the day. I love hearing his phone voice, love the fact that he takes the time out of his busy day to pick up the phone and call me. Texting could never replace that connection.

Now, we “simple” folks have adapted a little bit. My ever-innovative, back to basics, land loving husband who finds peace and joy in a focused activity, has introduced the Buckaroo's to a form of communication that is let's say a little more primitive than text messaging.

Of course, it will require some kind of building project.

Is it a stage for me?????

Little Buckaroo gets in on the building action.

And, then there was the painting. They ruined two sets of clothes before I just told them to take their clothes off.

Pretty cool project, but what is it? Who lives here?

Yes, our text messengers.

The boys now have homing pigeons, look up how they were used in World War II, it is fascinating and a great lesson for your kids. So, if you see a pigeon with a tube around its ankle. Take the message from me and send it back home. That is about as close to text messaging that your going to get from The Park Wife.

Happy Earth Day,
The Park Wife

11 comments:

mimis kitchen52 said...

What a wonderful idea Big Buckaroo had for the boys! Clever man!!! I agree with you on facebook, hate it!! Keep the blogs coming!

Amanda said...

It's so easy to get sucked in with Facebook (and even blogs, which I'll never admit out loud) and technology in genderal. I find it dreadfully hard to walk away from it, but then I find it's not as hard to STAY away from it.

I'll have to look up my one question I have about homing pigeons...How do they know where to take the note? :)

Arkansas Patti said...

Happy Earth Day back at ya.
Good job on the pigeon house. I personally loved the days when I could actually be "out of reach".
Worst I saw was a teen on horseback on a beautiful day texting away. Come on.

Fawn said...

VERY cool. I'll be watching the skies...

Strawberry Cake said...

Pigeons, you are hilarious! I was anti-text too until we allowed our teenager to finally have a phone now I feel like I am able to to communicate with him more than ever...weird, but true...I caved to technology...I admit it.

PW you have to read my no words post if you haven't already. You are not going to believe it...
http://luvstrawberrycake.blogspot.com/2010/04/no-words.html

Osage Bluff Quilter said...

This was the cutest posting. I laughed out loud. Then I sent it to my daughter who is a Mizzou J school graduate. She is a news producer in Oklahoma city. She wrote back to me how cute it was too.
And that little guy in his undies. some day he will hate that picture!

Tracie Nall said...

I love it...what a great idea!!

And so much better than a text message!

Gina said...

Oh, I love your text messengers!!! :) And, as a spelling stickler - I cannot STAND "text-lish" Hate. It. RU, GR8, etc. I do text - quite a bit, now that I've started in the past year. However, almost everyone I text with has a full-keyboard phone and we all spell out the words because we all hate the texting abbreviations.

MrsMama said...

Love your new communication relay system! I'm impressed. I can't even get my dog to come back! :P

Life with the Akin Clan said...

Hey girl! I went private and do not have your email address! Can you send it to me? lil_blesins@yahoo.com

Whitney said...

That is neat! Sounds like the boys will have a fun time 'texting' :)